Base 1 Training, Part 1

It’s the time of year when many northern hemisphere athletes are starting back into training after an end-of-season Transition period break from training. Most don’t have an A-priority race for 6 or more months. Given that it’s probably at least that long until your next important race, how should you train?

What I want to show you is how I train athletes at this time of year when they have such a long time to prepare. There’s a good chance that it’s far less serious than what you are doing. My experience has been that self-coached athletes train at too high an intensity and do workouts that are unnecessarily long for Base 1. And they generally train systems or ‘abilities’ that are out of sync with what I believe is a proper progression.

What follows is a brief description of the training strategy I use in Base 1 with endurance athletes. The process is the same regardless of the sport. Triathletes are faced with the challenging task of trying to establish a fitness base in three sports. So what follows here must also be applied to the swim and run in that case.

This is yet again a multi-installment post so check back in a few days for Part 2. Here I comment on training frequency for Base 1. In the subsequent parts I’ll cover workout duration and intensity, and then wrap it up with suggested workouts in the last part.

Frequency. How often should you workout? Let’s start by examining the least number of times to workout in a week and then progress to the high end.

Novice athletes typically train three or four times a week in Base 1. Moderately experienced, intermediate-ability athletes usually do it four or five times weekly. Advanced and competitive athletes workout six or seven times in a week in Base 1. At the highest level some cyclists, runners and other single-sport athletes will even do occasional two-a-day training at this time of year. That’s quite common for triathletes.

Three sessions in a week is the bare minimum even for the novice and these sessions need to be separated by 48 to 72 hours for best results (for the novice triathlete it would be 2 swims, 2 bikes and 2 runs a week as a minimum). A Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday pattern is far more beneficial than is a Friday-Saturday-Sunday pattern. With the latter, four days of no training at all (Monday through Thursday) results in a loss of fitness which likely erases the gains of the previous weekend’s training.

Four workouts in a week will produce significantly greater fitness than three. Interestingly, research tells us that beyond four workouts a week there is a decreasing return on the investment of your time. In other words, your fitness will undoubtedly improve if you train in a sport five or six times a week instead of four, but the rate of improvement is not nearly as great as when going from three to four. The competitive athlete, however, is generally seeking every bit of fitness possible so even though the return is small at five or more they see the gain as fitness they otherwise would not have. Of course, there are limits to how often you train due to lifestyle conflicts and your capacity for training workload.

In Part 2 I will comment on Base 1 workout durations. Check back soon.

Comments

[Tom]

Hi I'm a total beginner. Only done one half IM and read one of your books but loved it. Now I'm in my off season training and run(mo) +bike(tu) +run(we) +bike(th) +run(fr) +bike(sa). About 30-45 min each time. Would it be better to run&bike on the same day and have a complete rest day after? (The swiming have to whait for next year.)

[Joe Friel]

Tom--I'd suggest staying with what you are doing now since it appears you have one day entirely off (Sun). Good luck!

[Rachel]

Joe--Love your posts!

I've read through the comments for this post, and I'm just a little confused still:

When you say "Moderately experienced, intermediate-ability athletes usually do it four or five times weekly." do you mean the athlete has 4-5 training sessions per week TOTAL, or 4-5 training sessions per week PER SPORT (SBR ea.)?

Thanks!

[Joe Friel]

Rachel--That was referring to single sport athletes like runners and cyclists. Novice tris are typically 2 workouts per week per sport (1/day). Intermediate tris more like 3-4/week/sport. Advanced 4-6/week/sport. Having said that, I know of athletes who would fall in each category who do more or less. So this is not like an ironclad rule. Determine what works best for you.

[Carlos Cuenca]

Dear Joe,
First of all, I have to congratulate you for "Your best Triathlon", which I just bought. It's a fantastic book, the precise orientation one needs to plan the training season. I need to tell you that since I've begun to do triathlons, 2 years ago, you (your books) have been my most permanent and reliable coach. Thanks!
I have a basic question about Aerobic Endurance training sessions (in special, the famous "long ride"). Until some months ago, I have been living in Buenos Aires, training in closed flat circuits that were boring but perfect for really "steady" zone 2 rides. But now I'm living in Pretoria, the surroundings of which are basically made of quite steep rolling hills (not the gentle ones), where pure zone 2 riding is an impossible task. In such a context, should I insist, during the base period, in riding in such terrain (getting to zone 3 or even low zone 4 when uphill) or should I rather do my zone 2 sessions on a trainer, that might be boring but maybe more effective in the base period)? Or should take the middle way and alternate nice yet imperfect zone 2 outdoor rides and perfect yet boring rides in a trainer?
Once again, thanks a lot for you attention.
Best regards,
Carlos

P.S.: In your bike workout descriptions in Your Best Triathlon, I notice you didn't pay that much attention to cadence instructions. May I suppose that the instructions in The Training Bible apply for the the same workouts (for example, muscular endurance tempo sessions in the lowest confortable cadence)?

[Joe Friel]

Carlos Cuenca--Tough choices, Carlos. I'm not going to tell you _how_ to do it but reinforce that I'd strongly recommend that you do _some_ zone 2 training early in the base period. How much and how exactly to do it depends on you. Good luck!

[Best Weight Training for Women]

As far as intensity goes for early in the season, I too believe in what you are writing about. I have also read other training materials from Endurance Nation where they preach get fast first, then go long. Any thoughts on this approach to training? Thanks.

[Joe Friel]

Best... - Training needs to become increasingly like the race one is training for. EC trains people for Ironman. So that's what they are doing. If they were training athletes for sprints it would have to be the other way around.

[Medifast Coupons]

I think there is one important consideration missing from the introduction. That is have a clearly stated goal for the base period training period.