Why doesn’t every endurance athlete follow the 80/20 method? One reason is that not every athlete knows about it. Another is that not every athlete who knows about it is persuaded it’s worth trying. Something we hear repeatedly from athletes who’ve found success with 80/20 is that they came upon it through a process of active research and were persuaded to give it a try by its scientific backing and real-world results. In this sense, the success that follows is a kind of reward for good judgment.

Carlos Salgado is a case in point. Carlos is a 46-year-old finance manager in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with a five dogs and three children, who went from causal marathoner to competitive long-distance triathlete over a period of several years. However, he explains, “Though I was successful in completing the events, I knew I had the potential in me to perform better than I had so far.”That’s when the research began. Carlos found a TedX talk by 80/20 discoverer Stephen Seiler on YouTube, which led him to pick up a copy of 80/20 Triathlon, which led him to the 80/20 Endurance website and a 19-week Ironman 70.3 plan. Then came the rewards for his good judgment.

“The results were amazing,” Carlos says. “I shed 27 minutes out of my 70.3 personal best and felt so strong and confident during the race that at times I thought either I was going too fast and would bonk in the end or the pace and time my watch was showing me was wrong.”

Not so, Carlos! You earned that big PR, and the many more to come.