Hello readers, it’s been a long time between posts again with well over a year gap since I last posted. 2020 has been a strange and interesting year so far. We started the year with bush fires which cut our annual Falls Creek altitude training short, which has almost been forgotten with COVID-19 and stay at home measures making most of us feel pretty isolated and probably a little crazy and that’s why many people decide to make their own gym at home using resources from https://www.commercialgymequipmentdesign.co.uk/.

Thankfully I have good old running to keep me sane. It’s definitely helped to be able to get out of the house most days for a run while working from home. I also picked up some wireless headphones earlier in the year which have been amazing for listening to podcasts or musics while running solo. Highly recommend the Jabra Elite 75t Earbuds if you’re in the market for wireless earbuds, very good sound quality and don’t budge at all while running!

80/20 Running

I recently read the book 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald. I’ve heard 80/20 Running mentioned before and have read “Brain Training for Runners” by Fitzgerald in the past which was a useful read.

The 80/20 Running concept is primarily based on the research of Stephen Seiler who found that at the elite level across not only runners but all endurance sports, world class athletes perform 80% of their training at low intensity and 20% of their training at high intensity. Seiler completed studies comparing different distributions of training intensities and the best performance results were had from an 80/20 distribution.

It’s a common mistake for recreational level athletes especially to run too much of their at too hard of an intensity. It’s also quite easy to think you’re running at an easy effort but be pushing into moderate intensity or what Fitzgerald labels as “Zone X”. Running too many of your easy runs at moderate intensity rather than low intensity can be detrimental to performance and can result in overtraining and injuries.

This concept isn’t new to me, I’ve experimented with slowing down my easy runs in the past and my Analysis of running training and race results found that a lower average training intensity and lower long run intensity correlated with a better 10km race result. Mind you I’ve also had some of my best results with a lot of race pace specific work (definitely not an 80/20 distribution) so I’m curious but I think there are multiple approaches to training that get good results.

Implementing 80/20 Running

Working from home, running solo, no races.. what better time to try something different with training. There are a number of 80/20 programs in the book, I decided to go with the Level 2 Half Marathon program. This program starts at a similarish training volume to what I was currently running per week. And I was interested in targetting half marathon or even 10k distance.

Training Zones

The programs work off of training zones, this is primarily heart rate but pace and effort can also be used. In fact pace and perceived effort have to be used in some cases, especially short intervals, where heart rate lag is a problem. However heart rate is perfect for monitoring easy and long runs or tempo efforts.

The heart rate zones are calculated based off your lactate threshold heart rate. This can either be lab tested, estimated off a race if you ran with a HR monitor, or you can conduct a time trial to field test it. Initially I used Garmin’s Lactate Threshold heart rate figure which I found was a little too low. I then changed to using some recent 5km race/time trials to get a more accurate figure which seems right. I plan on doing a time trial field test soon to re-test it.

Currently my zones are set as follows (based off 171bpm lactate threshold)

• Zone 1 Recovery 72-81% LTHR (123-139bpm)
• Zone 2 Aerobic 81-90% LTHR (139-154bpm)
• Zone X (Usually to be avoided but can be used for marathon pace training) 90-95% LTHR (154-162bpm)
• Zone 3 Threshold 95-100% LTHR (162-171bpm)
• Zone Y (Another gray area to mostly be avoided) 100-102% LTHR (171-174bpm)
• Zone 4 V02 Max 102-105% LTHR (174-180bpm)
• Zone 5 Speed >105% LTHR (180bpm+)

Looking at some of my runs before starting 80/20 running. I’d say I’d typically be running my easy runs in the higher end of Zone 2 and sometimes in Zone X.

Also just worth noting here, the wrist based optical HR monitors can be OK to look at but when you’re relying on HR zones to guide your training they are too unreliable. I’m using a good HR strap for all of my runs while following this program and have all my zones programmed into Training Peaks which syncs to my watch.

Slowing Down

Unless you’re already very disciplined with your easy runs you’re going to be slowing down with these zones. Zone 2 I find not too bad, it’s pretty close to my natural easy running pace, just need to hold back occasionally and I’ve had the occasional day where I must be tired and had to run slower than normal. Zone 1 on the other hand can be quite difficult to hold back. It’s meant to be a very light effort and slower than your natural running pace. I really have to dawdle and have to swallow some pride with the paces to stick at Zone 1. Zone 1 tends to be around 6:40/km to 7:00/km pace for me currently, a very relaxed jog.

Weekly structure

I’ve alternated between doing 3 hard workouts or 2 hard workouts per week during my running history and I think both options are OK. It’s probably obvious that 80/20 is 2 hard workouts per week to get that 80/20 balance at a manageable volume.

The general structure is:

• Monday: Easy run or Cross Train
• Tuesday: Fast Finish or Tempo run
• Wednesday: Easy run or Cross Train
• Thursday: Easy run or Cross Train
• Friday: Fartlek or Intervals or Hill repeats
• Saturday: Easy run or Cross Train
• Sunday: Long run

I’ve been Cross Training on the Monday on the bike and completing the rest as runs. I’m doing two Strength sessions per week on Mondays and Thursdays. The Wednesday and Saturday runs after sessions are starting to change to Recovery runs. Volume has been in the 40-46km per week range and will build further through the peak phase.

Thoughts so far

I’ve just started week 4 of the program and still in the Base phase. I feel like I’m starting to get used to the slower paces. Running slower feels less taxing on the body, I feel like I’m more relaxed and enjoying my running more. I also feel like I can run more, I’m currently running 6 days per week plus 1 day cross training but feel like I could even handle the full 7 days of running. I think one of the benefits of keeping 80% of your runs properly easy is that you can increase your volume more easily.

I like the program structure which has every third week as a lighter week. In the level 2 program it drops from 7 days to 6 days on the third week with all runs reduced slightly. The programs are also periodised with a base phase, peak phase and taper phase which I think is good.

Whether this will result in getting fitter and if it’s any better than other methods of training – I don’t know yet. I think once I’m a few weeks into the peak phase I might start to get a better idea of where my fitness is at. I also have no idea if there will be a half marathon to race at the end of this – most likely not. At this stage I’m planning a Half Marathon Time Trial when the program ends on 16th of August.