Why cycling at middle intensities matters - the gains neglected by HIIT and polarized training

It's easy to understand the benefits of hard sessions and recovery rides offer, but what good does a tempo session really do?

Male cyclist riding in Zone 3
(Image credit: Future)

You may have heard about polarized training – how training ~80% of the time at low intensities and 20% of the time at very high intensities is the ‘optimal’ training intensity distribution. If this is the case, then it follows that there is little benefit to training in that ‘grey’ zone between easy and very hard. However, in reality, things aren’t as clear-cut as this...

What is Training Intensity Distribution?

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