Running

fwiw, the 80/20 polarised training that @DBT@lemmy.world was talking about is really designed around professionals. People whose total hours are likely far greater than you or me, and who can make up for it with comparatively low-stress daily lives with much more rest and carefully tailored diets. If you're not doing 7+ hours per week of training it's less useful.

The reason polarised training works is that it lets you get the maximum amount of training in while also allowing sufficient recovery. When your total hours are less, that recovery from an easy run is less valuable because you got recovery by not exercising.

That said, in my training I tend to default to 1 easy run, 1 long run (at easy pace), and 1 hard session per week. When I was last training for a marathon I alternated between the long run being very long one week and it being slightly shorter but also having a run the day before the next week, because that's what the training plan I used recommended. In terms of total time running it probably does end up around 80/20 when I'm at my best (where the long run is no less than 15 km and the easy run is 10 km), but will be a higher ratio—and I'm likely to put more of that zone 3 middle pace—when I'm not seriously training for something (long run might only be 10–12 km, easy run might be 6–8).