Mostly easy running

Mostly easy

At least 75% of planned running time is in zones 1–2. For a threshold test or a race-pace long run, only the hard part counts as hard time.

Hard runs every other week

If you run on fewer than 4 days each week, your hard run comes every other week. The other week has easy runs with strides. When you do all the runs in a block, your next block has a hard run every week. Coach also does this for one block when your fitness stays the same and your fatigue goes up for 4 weeks. Coach chooses these responses to balance training with your recovery.

Easy or not easy

Each planned run is easy or not easy. A run that is not easy can be moderate, such as race pace, or hard. For spacing, both count as a hard day.

Hard days have space

The plan allows up to 2 hard days per week, with no back-to-back hard days and none in the 24 hours before a long run. If you run an easy run hard, it counts as a hard day. Then Coach moves your next hard run later in the week, or makes it easier if no day has space. A test or race does not change.

The gray zone

Gray zone describes many runs in zone 3, between easy and hard, and few easy ones. It does not mean that any time in zone 3 is a mistake.

Research and limits.

Training-distribution research

Mostly easy, with a little genuinely hard

The plan separates easier volume from harder work. The exact percentage and spacing rules are app defaults.

A 2019 review compared polarized and threshold-focused training in experienced endurance athletes. Three trials in its meta-analysis favored polarized training for time-trial performance. This supports separating easy and hard work, but does not validate each of Coach’s exact limits.

What this does not show

The research involved experienced athletes and a small set of trials. Coach’s easy-time percentage and hard-day spacing remain app defaults.

Rosenblat et al. 2019 meta-analysis

Continue reading.

Fitness

Your hardest runs show what you can do now, and how that is changing.