80/20 rule for dummies please

Hi All,

probably a dumb question here and sorry if it has been asked before. The threads that went around recently were too long to dig through.
Anyway, I would like to follow the 80/20 rule for my training intensity distribution. Question is, how do you count the time at high intensity? Only the time you really spend in zone 4 (if that is the target) or the entire workout in which you did the high intensity stuff??

Thanks, and apologize my absence of knowledge.
Uli

As a general guide, the 80/20 approach is the ratio applied to your workouts, not the time spent in any particular training intensity zone or %ftp whatever.

Basically, if you do 5 bike workouts, make 4 of them easy and one of them hard. Hard can mean focussed on intensity… e.g. interval-based. Same with run.

Swimming… who knows. Swimming is weird.

Hope that makes sense, Rich.

Strict 80/20 would actually result in a lot of intensity if applied to hours- So to keep it easy on yourself- Go hard 2 days a week, then go pretty easy on other days.

Hi All,

probably a dumb question here and sorry if it has been asked before. The threads that went around recently were too long to dig through.
Anyway, I would like to follow the 80/20 rule for my training intensity distribution. Question is, how do you count the time at high intensity? Only the time you really spend in zone 4 (if that is the target) or the entire workout in which you did the high intensity stuff??

Thanks, and apologize my absence of knowledge.
Uli

You mean running?

As zedzded alludes to, this is very sport specific. You can get away with a lot more intensity on the bike than you can do with running and a lot of people say you should be doing nothing but intensity in the pool!

I’d say another important factor is your training breakdown at the moment. How much volume are you doing as it is?

If you’re talking about running workouts and you’re doing fewer than 5 sessions-per-week, I’d be focusing on how to raise the volume rather than worrying too much about the precise composition of interval sessions.