The 80 20 running method says that we should run 80% of the time at a low
intensity and 20% of the time at a high intensity.
And while this breakdown of the amount of low versus high intensity training we
should do is correct, this really isn't even what the true 80 20 principle means.
The 80 20 concept was developed developed in the late 1800s by Wilfred Pareto,
and is really the parado principle that states 80% of the outcome you can
achieve in something comes from performing the right 20% of the possible tasks
that you can choose to perform to achieve that outcome.
Some of the most commonly known examples are the worst 20% of drivers cause 80%
of all traffic accidents, the best 20% of companies products
represent 80% of their sales, and the most productive 20% of team
members are responsible for 80% of the results.
Relating this to running and endurance training, this means that with just
the right 20% of training, you can get 80% of the results.
And the wild thing is that there are people actually out there proving it.
What's up, Motivators? My name is Taren, and when ordinary people
want to accomplish something personally extraordinary.
In endurance sports, they use motive training plans.
Let's do it. Professional triathlete.
Katrina Matthews exploded onto the tricy back in 2020 when she won Ironman Florida
and Half Ironman Talent, in both cases having the fastest run of the day.
What's most interesting about Cats
performances is that she said on our podcast that in preparation for those
races, she trained an average of just around 10 hours per week.
That's about 70% less than the 30 to 40
hours training weeks we expect from professional triathletes.
What will probably interest you even more
is that Kat herself was an ordinary person before this.
Sure, she ran in her youth, but she wasn't a prodigy worldclass runner.
She even admits that she gets comments
from people saying that her body really isn't built to be a runner.
Instead of huge training volumes, what Kat talks about for age group
athletes is simply doing the basics really, really well.
She's done posts, literally just listing
off some of the most basic things endurance athletes could do,
and said that if you could do them well, you get 80% of the way to extraordinary.
Sure sounds a lot like the 80 20 Pareto principle.
Unfortunately, what a lot of us amateur
athletes do is instead of focusing on the 20% of things we could do.
That generate 80% of the results, we.
Literally do the opposite and spend 80% of our time on things that generate.
Just 20% of the results.
This is why so many athletes out there might finish their races,
but they'll never reach the levels they're capable of achieving.
This happens, frankly, because it's a lot more fun to think about and talk about.
Artificiality Shoes recovery loophole is one technique.
Clinic shoe lacing method. Ground compact time compression blocks
like sodium isotonic, nutritional hydrogen,
weekly magnets of effort, lab testing, and on and on and on.
While all these things can be beneficial well, maybe not compression socks.
They only create tiny marginal gains.
They're not what will set up a beginner, even experienced runners for success.
One last athlete's story here.
Carl Binner was one of the very.
First athletes to use our motive training app.
Karl had tried template training plans, self coaching, and a dedicated one on one
coach, but his race results were average at best.
Then he joined our app and instantly
started qualifying for World Championships.
He became faster in his 60s than he was in his early 50s.
What Carl and most athletes think when
they join our app is, this is so basic, how can it possibly work?
But that's just it.
The basics done really well is incredibly
powerful, and that's where the 64 principle comes in.
The cool thing that you can do with the 80 20 principle is that you can do 80 20
on the 80 20 and get 64% of the results just doing the right 4% of the work.
That's not to say that you'll do well with a 1 hour training week.
It means that 96% of the things you could choose to spend your time on in training
just don't matter, and you should focus on doing the core things well.
For a lot of beginner runners, their goal is simply to be a better
version of themselves, complete a personal challenge, and maybe,
just maybe, be a little better than the average person out there.
And if you're in the 64th percentile, bam.
You are better than average just
by concentrating on the right things, like Kat Matthews and Carl Binner.
So what are the critical 4% of things a beginner runners should focus on?
First, like 80 20 says train 75%.
To 80% of the time at a.
Low intensity and the rest of the time at a higher intensity.
Here's the thing get your training zone
set correctly and stick to them religiously.
Our app has a target pace or heart rate
for almost every single chunk of every single workout.
Second, make sure you're only doing as much as your body can recover from,
which for most people is far less than we want to believe.
One study of Ironman athletes actually
found that athletes who did roughly half the training of what they expected were
the fastest athletes because they were also the best rested and actually able
to absorb every bit of training that they did.
Third, make sure that your nutrition
in every single workout enhances your training.
Our app has the exact nutrition recommendation for every single workout
because we feel that athletes can get the effect of a 20 hours training week
with just 10 hours of training if their workout nutrition matches their training.
Fourth include strength training, but not just any strength training,
strength training that enhances endurance performance.
Second, to sleep strength is the number
one performance enhancer for endurance racing.
That's why we have guided strength
and mobility sessions designed specifically for the needs of endurance
athletes and scheduled at the right time of the training season.
Do those four things well and you'll be
an athlete that you never dreamed you could be.
The hard parts are frequently holding yourself back at the right times,
thinking you're doing the right 4% while you're actually doing the ineffective 80,
and creating a training plan that ties all of these basics together with each other.
That's why we created a training plan app that pulls it all together for you.
Thank you for watching Motivator.
If you are a beginner or age group runner,
consider subscribing to our weekly videos made specifically for ordinary people
looking to be personally extraordinary in endurance sports.
And if you want to dive more into how
to get started, zone two running, which is one of the hardest things that we
need to do, but it is one of the core things that we need to do.
Click the video on the screen right now to see our a full guide.
On just how to get started. Doing that later.
Motivators.