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POLARISED TRAINING

A training intensity distribution where approximately 80% of training time is spent at low intensity (Zone 1-2) and 20% at high intensity (Zone 4+), with minimal time in the moderate 'grey zone' (Zone 3).

Coined by Prof. Stephen Seiler around 2004, polarised training is not a prescription but an observation — elite endurance athletes across cycling, running, rowing, and cross-country skiing independently converge on this distribution. The key insight is that easy days must be genuinely easy to allow hard days to be genuinely hard. Most amateur cyclists do the opposite: riding moderately hard most days, which produces minimal adaptation.