Previously, I posted about how top runners spend the majority of their training time performing easy running. The authors of that study have recently published a follow-up study that looked at the ratio of different training intensities.
Their study compares two different training protocols:
- 80% low-intensity, 12% moderate, and 8% high-intensity running
- 67% low-intensity, 25% moderate, and 8% high-intensity running
It would be natural to think that the group that did more moderate training would perform better. But surprisingly, the first group improved more in terms of running performance.
I do think that moderate training is overrated. Mark Sisson, over at Mark's Daily Apple blog, had a good post earlier about cardio training. His thought was that training should be a mix of lots of low-intensity cardio, with a bit of high-intensity work. Moderate intensity work tends to produce more damage through free radicals as compared to low-intensity work, and yet the intensity isn't high enough to produce the special benefits of high-intensity training.
