GOALS / ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE / 03 · PERIODISE

How to structure the training.

The analysis says what works. This review says how to arrange it — within a session, a week, a block, a season.

LIVING REVIEWEXAMPLE · IN DEVELOPMENT

WOULD SYNTHESISE≈61 trials · 4 findings

STRUCTURE DEFAULTS FEED04 PLAN →

THE LIVING REVIEW — PERIODISATIONNOT PUBLISHEDwhen it publishes, every claim will link to its trials

Does how you arrange training matter as much as what you do?

How you arrange training matters — but the sessions themselves matter more.

Go hard on the hard days and easy on the easy days; don’t let them blur.

Do the priority session first — strength after an easy run, never right before a hard one.

illustrative — from ≈61 trials · certainty varies · see the findings opposite

KEY FINDINGScertainty · GRADE

P1Periodised beats unstructured — organised progression outperforms constant loading.HIGH

P2Hard days hard, easy days easy — concentrating the quality beats spreading it thin, and two quality days a week is the ceiling.MODERATE

P3Order matters within a day — strength after easy runs, never before hard ones; HIIT before the long run, never after.MODERATE

P4Deload rhythm — planned lighter weeks sustain progression, and a ~2-week taper cutting volume 40–60% sharpens race day.LOW · PROVISIONAL

WHERE YOUR PICKS FITPLACEMENTfrom your basket · placed by the review’s findings

Your basket is empty — run 02 ANALYSE and add what wins for you; each pick lands here with its place in the week. →

THE TIMESCALES — SESSION TO SEASONDEFAULTSeach level sets a default in your plan — 04

SESSION · within a workout

quality when fresh — the session’s content comes from your 02 winners; structure adds a progressive warm-up and an easy tail.

FROM YOUR 02 LEADS

sets: session templates

DAY · hard–easy · doubles

alternate hard and easy — quality lands on fresh legs; back-to-back hard days only when the calendar forces it. Doubling up? Priority session first — strength after the run, not before.

P2 · P3 →

sets: day sequencing

WEEK · microcycle

two quality sessions a week is the ceiling that keeps showing up across trials; everything else stays easy volume.

P2 →

sets: days/week · quality cap

BLOCK · mesocycle

three weeks build, one absorbs — 3:1 load:deload beats flat loading in trained runners; the deload trims volume ~35%, not intensity.

P1 · P4 →

sets: loading pattern · 3:1 default

SEASON · macrocycle

base → build → peak → taper — a ~2-week taper cuts volume 40–60% and keeps intensity. Taper evidence is thin, so the plan stays conservative and says so.

P1 · P4 (provisional) →

sets: block grid · taper length

HOW ATHLETES ACTUALLY TRAINOBSERVATIONALdescriptive, not causal · illustrative training-log figures

ELITE ENDURANCE

sessions / week11–14

hours / week20–30

intensity mix~90% easy · 10% hard

double-threshold days, pyramidal weeks, 4-week blocks

TRAINED AMATEUR

sessions / week5–7

hours / week8–12

intensity mix~80% easy · 20% hard

one long run, 3:1 blocks, quality capped at two

RECREATIONAL

sessions / week3–5

hours / week4–7

intensity mixoften 50/50 — too hard

at this dose, consistency beats structure

Practice can outrun the trials — elites converged on pyramidal weeks long before anyone randomised them.where practice and trials disagree, the plan follows the trials — and says so

TAKE IT INTO YOUR WEEK

These defaults — 3:1 loading, two quality sessions, a 2-week taper — would pre-fill your programme. Your analysis winners fill the sessions.

BUILD THE PLAN — 04 →← adjust your analysis — 02

← 02 analyse next: 04 plan →