Polarised VO₂ Max Booster

Workout - Polarised VO₂ Max Booster

• 15min @ 6'00''/km
• 5 lots of:
  • 3min @ 3'45''/km
  • 3min rest
• 12min @ 7'00''/km

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Intro

A breakdown of What is polarised training (and why we should do it) from This Messy Happy. Worth checking out for context. We’ve pulled the core concepts so you can start now.

Key points

• Polarised training splits your work into roughly 80% easy (Zone 2) and 20% hard (high-intensity), with little in the middle. Zone 3, “junk miles”, delivers minimal aerobic or anaerobic benefit.
• Easy zone (Zone 2): around 6/10 effort, roughly 89% of lactate-threshold heart rate. You should be able to chat throughout. Builds your aerobic engine.
• Hard zone: 9-10/10 effort in short bursts where conversation isn’t possible. Boosts VO2 max, raises lactate threshold, improves race fitness.
• Junk miles (Zone 3, high-7 to low-8/10 effort) sit in no-man’s-land. Not easy enough for aerobic gains, not hard enough for VO2 max. They cost energy without much return.

Workout example

• Easy days (80% of weekly mileage): most of your weekly km at conversational Zone 2 pace. A typical week: five 10 km runs at easy intensity plus a 15-20 km long run.
• Hard days (20%): 1-2 interval sessions a week. Try 5 reps of 3 minutes at 90-95% of max HR (9-10/10 effort), with 2-3 minute easy jogs.

Closing note Try the 80/20 polarised split this week and dial paces in the Pacing app.

References

• What is polarised training (and why we should do it) - YouTube (YouTube Video)