Understanding Your Super Simple Run Plan

Your training plan doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective. Powered by the proven 80/20 Endurance training methodology, our Super Simple Run Plans feature a simplified three-zone intensity scale to let your mind relax while your body does the work of building fitness.

Why Three Zones?

There are a lot of different ways to divide the spectrum of exercise intensities into separate zones. Which one is best? Within the past decade, a scientific consensus has emerged around a three-zone system anchored to two key physiological thresholds: 1) the first ventilatory threshold (VT₁), which marks the boundary between low intensity and moderate intensity, and 2) critical velocity (CV), which marks the boundary between moderate intensity and high intensity. The Super Simple zone scale is based on this new science.

Zone 1: Low Intensity

During gentle exercise, the brain utilizes energy-efficient slow-twitch muscle fibers to meet the body’s movement demands. But as intensity increases, a point is reached where the brain must activate energy-hogging fast-twitch muscle fibers, triggering a spike in breathing that is known as the first ventilatory threshold. In the typical athlete, this threshold is reached at 75% of lactate threshold pace (or LTP, defined as the fastest pace an athlete can sustain for one hour), 78 percent of functional threshold power (or FTP, defined as the highest power output an athlete can sustain for one hour), and 91 percent of lactate threshold heart rate (or LTHR, defined as the average heart rate in a one-hour time trial).

Exercising above the VT₁ is significantly more taxing to the nervous system than exercising below it, so the body takes longer to recover from efforts above the VT₁. It is for this reason that scientists now place the boundary between low and moderate intensity at the VT₁. There’s nothing harmful about exceeding the VT₁ in training, but it’s important to stay below it when your intent is to train at low intensity.

Zone 2: Moderate Intensity

As intensity continues to increase above the VT₁, another physiological threshold is eventually reached. Known variously as critical speed, critical velocity, and critical power, this threshold marks the intensity at which the body loses metabolic equilibrium, sending it on a collision course with exhaustion. In the typical athlete, critical velocity falls around 102% of lactate threshold pace (LTP), 105% of functional threshold power (FTP), and 102% of lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR). The shift in physiology that occurs at this threshold, alongside the very limited and predictable amount of work an athlete can do above it before reaching exhaustion, has prompted scientists to identify critical velocity as the boundary between moderate intensity and high intensity.

Zone 3: High Intensity

All efforts exceeding critical velocity count as high intensity. This is not to say your body occupies the same physiological state at all points within the high-intensity range. If you’re doing an all-out sprint, your muscles will rely on creatine phosphate for energy and produce little lactate, whereas if you’re working just above critical velocity, your muscles will rely on glycogen for energy and produce lots of lactate. But the one thing that all points within the high-intensity range have in common is that interval training (i.e., short efforts separated by recovery opportunities) is required to gain the most benefit from exposure to each. So it makes sense to lump them together in a single zone.

The table below summarizes the three zones scientists have identified, and upon which the Super Simple system is based.

Super Simple Run Intensity Scale

The Fine Print

When you go from five or seven zones, as the most popular zone scales have, down to three zones, as the Super Simple system has, the zones get a lot broader. This poses a potential challenge. If you’re a runner whose current lactate threshold pace is 5:00 per kilometer, for example, your Zone 2 pace range goes from 6:34 per kilometer on the slow end to 4:54 per kilometer on the fast end. If a Super Simple workout tells you to run for 10 minutes in Zone 2, do you run closer to 6:34 per kilometer, closer to 4:54 per kilometer, or right in the middle?

This is where specific intensity targets come in—specific numbers within zones that you will be instructed to aim for in certain workouts. An example is maximal aerobic speed (MAS), which is the highest pace, power, or heart rate you can sustain for 6-7 minutes and which falls within Zone 3. If a workout instructs you to run 5 times 2 minutes at MAS, you will try to hit the exact number associated with this intensity for you. Technically you are in Zone 3, but you are at a specific location within the zone. Use the Super Simple Zone Calculator to generate estimates of the pace, power, or heart rate associated with all of the intensities in the Super Simple Run Intensity Targets table below.

When a workout does not ask you to aim for a narrow intensity target within a zone, tune your effort to the structure of the workout. For example, if a workout calls for you to run 10 times 30 seconds in Zone 3, you should go a little faster than if the workout calls for you to run 8 x 1:00 in Zone 3 because the intervals are shorter.

In some cases, a workout will ask you to target a certain race pace: either 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon. Use the Super Simple Zone Calculator to generate estimates of these paces based on your current LTP if you don’t already know them.

Super Simple Run Intensity Targets

In workouts and workout segments aimed at Zone 1 (low intensity), no specific intensity is targeted. Instead we recommend that you go by feel, choosing the specific effort level within Zone 1 that feels most comfortable at the moment. It’s okay if your pace, power, or heart rate varies significantly from run to run or even within runs based on how you’re feeling. You’ll get the most benefit from your low-intensity runs overall if you allow comfort to guide you.

How to Select the Right Super Simple Run Plan

There are 30 Super Simple Run Plans in total: five base training plans and five race-focused plans for distances ranging from 5K to ultramarathon. At each distance there is a beginner-level plan featuring four runs per week, an intermediate-level plan with five runs per week, an advanced intermediate plan with six weekly runs, an advanced plan with seven runs, and an elite plan with nine.

The base plans provide general preparation for all race distances. For example, if you normally run five times per week, you will want to start with the Intermediate Level Base Run Plan regardless of whether your next A race is a 5K or a 100-miler or something in between. In either case, you would complete the eight-week base plan and then transition to an intermediate-level plan that is specific to your chosen distance.

Note that it is not always necessary to complete an entire eight-week base plan before transitioning to a race-focused plan. Suppose you’re targeting a 10K event that is nine weeks away. As noted, our base training plans are eight weeks long, and our 10K plans are six weeks long. Stack them together and you’re looking at 14 weeks. But if you already have a decent fitness base, you can complete only the last three weeks of the appropriate base plan and then the entire six-week 10K plan.

If you need help selecting or combining Super Simple Run Plans, submit a request on our premium support page (Gold and Silver subscribers only).

Super Simple Run Plan Menu