Polarized or pyramidal training: how to distribute intensity
The 80/20 rule, the polarized model and the pyramidal model. How to split your time between easy, threshold and high intensity.
Elite endurance athletes spend most of their time training easy. How they distribute the rest gives its name to two widely studied models.
Polarized model
Around 80% of the time below the first threshold and the remaining 20% very hard, above the second threshold. The middle zone is barely touched. It's the famous 80/20 rule.
Pyramidal model
Easy work also dominates, but there's more time in the middle zone, near threshold, than at high intensity. The distribution looks like a pyramid.
What they have in common
Neither fills the week with medium efforts. The most common amateur mistake is always training "a bit hard": too fast to recover and too slow to trigger real adaptations.
Which one suits you?
- In base phases or with little time, pyramidal is usually easier to sustain.
- In blocks before short races, polarization works well.
To know how you really distribute your time you need well-set zones and to look at weekly time in zone, not just at how you felt.