Authority · the models explained
Training Philosophies & Zone Models
The people behind the zone models: Coggan, Friel, Seiler, Maffetone, Daniels and Lydiard. How their systems differ, what anchors each, when to use which.
The main training models
Every endurance plan mixes easy, threshold and hard work. These are the named ways to balance that mix.
Polarized Training & the 80/20 Rule
Seiler's 3-zone polarized model and the 80/20 distribution: why endurance athletes train easy most of the time and hard rarely, and how to apply it.
Pyramidal Training: The Intensity Distribution Explained
Pyramidal training: a large base of easy volume, moderate threshold work, and a small dose of high intensity. How it works and how to apply it.
Threshold Training and the Norwegian (Double-Threshold) Method
What threshold training is, how the Norwegian double-threshold method works, and how amateurs can borrow the principle without a lactate meter.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for Endurance
What HIIT is, how much endurance athletes need, and how to apply it: VO2max intervals like 4x4 minutes and 30/15s, with the fatigue caveats.
Aerobic Base Training: Building Your Endurance Engine
What aerobic base training is, why a big easy Zone 2 base (the Lydiard tradition) builds your engine, and how to apply it without going too hard.
Sweet Spot Training: Time-Efficient Power Gains
Sweet spot training means riding at 88 to 94 percent of FTP for time-efficient FTP gains. How it works, the trade-offs, and how to apply it.
Most zone systems trace back to a handful of coaches and scientists. They disagree on the number of zones and the anchor, but agree on the fundamentals: build a large aerobic base, anchor intensity to a measurable threshold, keep easy days easy.
Andrew Coggan, Power zones & FTP
Exercise physiologist, co-author of Training and Racing with a Power Meter.
Anchor cycling training to Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and seven zones expressed as percentages of it.
Coggan made power-based training mainstream. FTP is roughly the power you can hold for an hour. Zones run from active recovery (≤55% FTP) to neuromuscular power (>150%), with Sweet Spot (88–94%) as a high-efficiency band.
Joe Friel, LTHR zones
Endurance coach, author of the Training Bible series.
Set heart-rate zones from lactate-threshold heart rate (LTHR) measured in a 30-minute time-trial field test.
Friel popularized threshold-anchored heart-rate zones for amateurs with a simple field test: the average heart rate of the final 20 minutes of a hard 30-minute solo effort. His zone tables are still a coaching default.
Stephen Seiler, Polarized / 80/20
Sports scientist who quantified how elite endurance athletes train.
Three zones: about 80% easy, 20% hard, little in the middle.
Across rowing, running, cycling and skiing, Seiler found elite athletes converge on a polarized distribution split at the two lactate turnpoints. Time spent low versus high matters more than exact zone borders.
Philip Maffetone, MAF / aerobic base
Endurance coach and clinician, creator of the 180 Formula.
Build a deep aerobic base by training at or below a heart-rate ceiling of 180 minus your age (adjusted).
The MAF method is conservative by design: fat metabolism, health and injury prevention over short-term speed. Progress is tracked with the MAF Test: pace at a fixed aerobic heart rate should improve over weeks.
Jack Daniels, VDOT & pace zones
Running coach and exercise physiologist, author of Daniels' Running Formula.
Derive every training pace from one fitness number (VDOT) calculated from a recent race.
Daniels combined VO₂max and running economy into VDOT, then defined five training paces (Easy, Marathon, Threshold, Interval, Repetition) as fractions of it. One race result yields a complete pace plan.
Arthur Lydiard, Aerobic base & periodization
New Zealand running coach who reshaped distance running.
Build a huge aerobic base first, then layer hill strength and speed in distinct phases.
Months of high-volume aerobic running before sharpening produced Olympic champions and shaped generations of coaches. Lydiard's controlled-effort aerobic development is a direct ancestor of Zone 2 and polarized training.