Getting Started with 80/20 Training

A: Every 80/20 plan includes free coach email support for the full duration of your plan — and every subscription includes it for as long as you're subscribed. If something in your plan is unclear, you're unsure how to adjust for your schedule, or you just want a second opinion on your zones or pacing — contact us and a coach will get back to you. If you're on 80/20 Gold or TrainingPeaks Premium you also have Mind of Matt, our AI coach, for an instant answer at any hour — it reads your TrainingPeaks calendar before it replies. A human coach is still there whenever you want one. You don't need to figure it out alone.

A: Anything related to your training. Common questions include: how to set up your zones correctly, how to adjust your plan around travel or illness, what to do when workouts feel too hard or too easy, how to interpret your TrainingPeaks data, and how to prepare for race day. If it affects how you train, it's fair game. Reach out here.

80/20 Gold and TrainingPeaks Premium members can put the same questions to Mind of Matt and get an answer straight away, based on the training in their own TrainingPeaks calendar.

A: Mind of Matt is our AI endurance coach. It has two parts: a weekly training-analysis email every Monday, and an on-demand chat with "Coach Matt". Both are built on Matt Fitzgerald's published work — more than 30 books and 400 articles — and both read your TrainingPeaks calendar before answering, so you get advice about the training you have actually done rather than a generic answer.

Mind of Matt is included with 80/20 Gold and TrainingPeaks Premium memberships. Because it reads your calendar, it needs the TrainingPeaks Premium account those memberships include — it is not part of the Silver membership. See how Mind of Matt works, or compare memberships.

It does not replace your coach: free coach email support still comes with every plan and every subscription.

A: Although we only list Heart Rate plans on this site, 80/20 plans are available in Pace, Power and Heart Rate. You can view and purchase all intensity types at the TrainingPeaks store. Or after purchase of the Heart Rate plan, simply Contact Us and select the Level Guarantee when prompted, and we will share the Pace or Power plan with you.

A: Testing is performed every rest week using the RT, CT, or STT workouts or using the Talk Test for any workout. See the documents Intensity Guidelines for Running or Intensity Guidelines for Triathlon.

A: Absolutely — that's what the Level Guarantee is for. Contact us and select the Level Guarantee option. We'll swap you to a different level within the same discipline and race distance, free of charge, no questions asked. This is a lifetime guarantee — no expiration, no limit on swaps.

A: We don't recommend this. The threshold estimated by a 3rd party is just that: an estimate. That estimate might be your actual threshold, but nothing will be as accurate as a field test, such as the protocols defined in Intensity Guidelines for Running or Intensity Guidelines for Triathlon.

A: This issue is resolved by following the instructions in the document Understanding Your TrainingPeaks Structured Workout Plan. Until you specify and setup the 80/20 zones, TrainingPeaks uses legacy or previously-defined zones which do not align to the 80/20 system.

A: You will follow Understanding Your 80/20 Run Plan, Intensity Guidelines for Running, and Understanding Your 80/20 OCR Plan Strength Workouts.

A: Please see our document How to Replace Your Swim Training.

A: This issue is usually resolved by ensuring that you use one field test to capture the threshold of multiple intensity types as outlined in the documents Intensity Guidelines for Running or Intensity Guidelines for Triathlon. By measuring Pace, Power, and/or HR in a single test, the three intensity types may align. However, due to the inconsistent nature of heart rate, it is normal for a given output to result in a different heart rate on a subsequent day. This is a normal phenomenon when using heart rate.

A: The most common cause is using default or estimated thresholds from TrainingPeaks or Garmin instead of running the 80/20 field tests. Once you've got accurate thresholds, you'll also need to update your zones in TrainingPeaks to match the 80/20 system.

If you're drifting into Zone 2 when Zone 1 is called for — or struggling to reach Zone 2 at all — that's okay. The line between Zone 1 and Zone 2 is a best estimate, not a hard biological boundary. Both are considered easy in the 80/20 system. For some athletes, Zone 2 pace is a brisk walk at first. That changes quickly with consistent 80/20 training.

If you're still struggling after checking your zones, ask a coach — this is exactly the kind of question we're here for. Gold and TrainingPeaks Premium members can also ask Mind of Matt to look back over the last few weeks and say where their intensity balance actually sits.

A: That's expected. Heart rate is a lagging indicator — it takes time to respond to effort, which makes it unreliable for short high-intensity intervals. For Zone 4 and 5 work, use Pace or Power as your primary measure. If you don't have those, use RPE. This is covered in detail in Understanding Your 80/20 Run Plan and Understanding Your 80/20 Triathlon Plan. The 80/20 Run and Bike Zones Garmin App can also help by showing real-time HR alongside your custom Pace or Power zones on your device.

A: 80/20 Endurance places no restrictions on modifying your plan. However, editing your plan on the TrainingPeaks platform requires a TrainingPeaks Premium account, where you can move workout "cards" from one day to another by simply dragging and dropping them in your calendar. While the workouts in our plans are optimally ordered, you'll certainly have times where you need to change the plan. The art and science of editing a plan is covered in Chapter 8 of our book 80/20 Triathlon, but in general:

• Avoid moving workouts that result in 3 "hard" days in a row. "Hard" means intervals or long workouts.
• Try to maintain reasonable distribution of each sport. For example, it's best to cycle every other day than cycle 3 days in a row and not cycle for 4 days.
• Due to the quick recovery, swim workouts are an exception to the "hard" rule and can be moved at your discretion, while still trying to maintain reasonable swim workout distribution.
• When performing bike and run workouts back-to-back, it's best to perform the workout with the most intensity first.
• Try to keep the workouts all within the same week, as this maintains the precise 80/20 ratios that have been built into your plan.
• Swim workouts are particularly easy to adjust. While still being aware of swim frequency, you can move swim workouts with little consequence. Additionally, to reduce the total number of swims, you can merge two swim sessions into a single set, performing one swim workout immediately following another, a technique not recommended for bike and run workouts.

Not sure which session to move, or what to drop when the week gets away from you? Gold and TrainingPeaks Premium members can ask Mind of Matt — it can see both the week you have completed and the week ahead before it answers.

A: 80/20 plans don't assign a particular day of the week as a rest day or "long" day, but the rest day is always Day 1 of the week and the longest workout is usually Day 7. For example, if you load your plan to start on a Monday, the rest day is always on a Monday and longest workout Sunday. If you load your plan to start on a Sunday, the rest day is on Sunday and longest workout Saturday. Or, you can just move the rest day and adjust other workouts as described in the question above.

A: If you own an 80/20 plan, follow these simple instructions. If you are on an 80/20 monthly subscription, contact us to make that change.

A: This is addressed in our document Intensity Guidelines for Triathlon.

A: This is addressed in our document How to Adjust Your 80/20 Training Plan for a Specific Course or Conditions. Gold and TrainingPeaks Premium members can also put the specifics — the course, the conditions and their current fitness — to Mind of Matt.

A: This is addressed in our document Understanding Your 80/20 Triathlon Plan.

A: This is addressed in the Q&A of the document Understanding Your TrainingPeaks Structured Workout Plan. We also recommend you read our document Understanding and Adjusting Your Performance Management Chart.

A: This is addressed in our Race Pacing guide.

A: This is addressed in our 80/20 Nutrition guide.

A: We are strong proponents of strength training for endurance athletes, and offer both free and premium strength plans that plug directly into your 80/20 training plan.

A: David. David also has the advantage of retaining the password to this website.