In May of 2020 I started training using the plans from Matt Fitzgerald’s book 80/20 Running. This included a 15 week half marathon training block followed by a 9 week 5km training block. Here is a summary and my thoughts on the training programs.

Pre 80/20 Running

Before I get into 80/20 I’ll provide some background of where I was at before starting it. Throughout January to April I was typically running in the 40-50km per week range 4-5 days of running per week and either 2 or 3 sessions. My sessions were fairly traditional consisting of 1km reps, 400 reps, fartlek runs and threshold runs.

I ran a few races during this period with times of 6:02 for 1500m, 8:11 for 2000m, 13:13 for 3000m and 24:02 for 5km. These times are a fair way off my PBs but I haven’t really been close to PBs coming off major injury in 2018. I also had a couple weeks off in July of 2019 with foot soreness and another couple weeks where I didn’t really run in October 2019.

The worst half marathon I’ve ever run

Dramatic heading! I don’t think this was a fault of the program but more an issue with the limitations of racing a half marathon in COVID-19 lockdown.

I started the Half Marathon Level 2 program in May 2020. The plan consists of a 6 week base phase, 7 week peak phase and 2 week taper. My largest volume week was around 63km however the weeks varied with every third week as a lighter recovery and I could choose to cross train some days instead of running. Which I did cross train as I tend to be more cautious these days with my history.

One thing I found particularly challenging to being with was Zone 1 heart rate running. For me this was initially 123-139 bpm (however after retesting later I can go up to 141bpm). Either way this is much lower than I’ve run at in the past with my easy running typically averaging around the 150-155bpm range. I practically had to crawl to stay in Zone 1 range. However throughout the training I’ve gotten more used to it and more efficient at it.

As you might expect training consisted of mostly aerobic running.. i.e. 80% easy running which included general aerobic runs (Zone 2), recovery runs (Zone 1) and long runs. Sessions varied throughout the program with fartleks, hill repeats, intervals and tempo runs.

Overall I would say I enjoyed the training. With a lot of aerobic running controlled by heart rate I feel like it’s more manageable to run a higher volume. I kept feeling like I could do more and run every day. The main change I noticed was my running at lower heart rates improved.

I ran a 5km time trial during week 10 of the training and ran 23:43. I was happy to see a small improvement from the time trial I did before starting this training (24:02) and both were done on the same course.

Due to restrictions in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic I almost had to abandon the half marathon as we had 1 hour outdoor exercise limit. I decided to quickly buy a treadmill which arrived the week of my half marathon. I didn’t know at this stage but I’m not very good at running on treadmills, I find it takes much more effort to run the same paces on a treadmill. It’s strange as some people say they find treadmill running easier but I definitely find it harder.

Half Marathon Time Trial

I decided to complete the first hour of the half marathon on the treadmill. After some thought and advice I received it seemed best to run on the treadmill first rather than last when your form is deteriorating.

My goal was to start at around 5:00/km to 5:10/km which I thought was a sensible target. However this felt much too hard on the treadmill and my HR was climbing too high. After about 10 minutes of sitting at 5:10/km I kept dialling the pace back to keep my HR and effort in check. In the end I only managed 5:40/km for my 11.1km on the treadmill which was disappointing. However I know now that yes I tend to be at least 30 seconds per km slower on the treadmill for some reason.

Once I got outdoors I got back to around 5:10/km pace but I found I ended up being too tired and my pace started to drift. I believe the treadmill running took too much out of me and I hit a wall towards the end. Overall I averaged 5:30/km for the 10km outdoors, which gives me my slowest half marathon time ever of 1:58:01.

Post half marathon thoughts

After finishing the half marathon I really wasn’t sure if the 80/20 running program worked or not. I ran a poor time but I think that was due more to treadmill running than the training itself.

My overall thought was that my aerobic base had probably improved from the training but I need to work more on my speed. I also hadn’t really come to a good conclusion on 80/20 so I decided to continue with it but switch to 5km training. I also felt like I could go up a level from Level 2 so my decision was to have a week off (I just walked and biked) then commence 80/20 5km Level 3 program.

80/20 5km Level 3 program

After completing the Level 2 half marathon program I felt like I could step things up to their Level 3 program. While this included running 7 days per week including some double runs which made me a little nervous I knew that the intensity is low enough that it’s manageable and I could replace runs with cross training if needed.

Compared to the half marathon program the 5km training pretty much dropped long runs and included more interval work. Weekly volume ended up being similar to the half marathon plan with my mileage peaking at around 65km per week. However it was definitely structured different with the volume coming from more aerobic runs during the week rather than a long Sunday run.

Overall I enjoyed this style of training again. I also found I was able to refine things a bit more. A couple tweaks I made was to always use pace zones for intervals rather than heart rate/effort and I re-tested my zones using their lactate threshold zone test. Interestingly this gave me a higher threshold HR then what I was using before by 3bpm.. which makes a fair difference to zones, but also gave me a slightly slower threshold pace.

5km time trial

I decided to time trial in the same location I do most of my training. Which meant this was a different course to my previous time trials. I thought this was the safest choice to time trial where I’m used to doing most of my running.

On the morning conditions were quite windy with some strong gusts. My course was essentially 1km out/1km back to I decided to start my first 1km with the wind behind me. I wanted to target a 4:3x for my first km which I thought should be achievable goal pace.

The first km felt quite cruisey and I was surprised to go through in 4:27/km a little quicker than planned. My second km slowed to 4:43/km which I was ok with as it was mostly into the wind. Then my third km about half into wind slowed further to 4:56/km, followed by another km in 4:56/km where it seems the wind had just burnt me too much. I gave all I had left in the last km which wasn’t much really with a 4:41/km.

In the end I ran 23:43 for the 5km time trial which is no different to what I ran before starting the 5km training. While I could maybe blame the conditions I was still pretty disappointed to not run a better time.

Conclusion

Unfortunately I haven’t seen the results I would have liked from 80/20 running. However having said that I don’t think it was a waste of time either. I know I’ve definitely seen improvements in my lower HR ranges; I can run recovery runs at a low HR which I think is valuable and can be incorporated into any program.

In terms of threshold pace and faster unfortunately I don’t think I’ve really seen improvement but at the same time I don’t think I’ve really gotten slower.

It’s possible the 80/20 programs just don’t work for me. I also think it’s possible I could progress the volume further and see improvement. I have a theory that with a higher percentage of running at an easier effort the performance improvement really comes from higher mileage.

At this stage I’m unsure of what I’ll do next. I have a few different ideas including continuing on to 80/20 10km program (which will progress the volume further), trying pfitzinger 5k or 10k program, creating my own custom program based off different influences, delving into stryd running with power or getting a coach again and let them handle the thinking. I’d love to hear any thoughts in the comments while I think it through. This week I’m just doing easy running until I decide what to do next!