re: I quit doing cardio

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I think some people just misunderstand the reason elite endurance athlete Zone2 train and forget it's part of a polarized training regime where you also have to do maximal efforts in the other 20% of your training.

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The reason elite endurance athletes do high intensity training is because they are training for a race and have to train for speed. They arent training for health. If you’re not racing, then you don’t need to worry about speed and you shouldn’t care what a professional athlete’s training program looks like.

If you’re exercising for health, zone 2 causes virtually zero fatigue, which encourages people to exercise longer and new people to being willing to start and stick with it. It allows you to be fresh and injury free for the much needed strength training portion of the health recipe. So even if per minute zone 3/4/5 is “better”, in the long run the easiness of zone 2 will keep you in it longer and provide more net benefit IMO

If you’re training for a race, add speed work for the 6-8 weeks prior but it’s doesn’t need to be always in your program