Base 1 Training, Part 3

This is the third of a four-part series on how to train in the early part of your season which I call Base 1. You can read my previous posts on workout frequency and duration if you haven't seen them. That will give you a better perspective before starting into this post.

This series of posts assumes that your first race is still in the neighborhood of 6 months in the future. The training is essentially the same regardless of sport or even of the distance or type of race (crit, road race, ITT, 5km, 10km, half marathon, marathon, sprint tri, Olympic tri, half-Ironman, Ironman). Generally, it doesn't matter what sort of event you are training for, the intensity is quite similar at this early stage of training. Aerobic fitness is an underlying ability for endurance athletes of all types. So with that in mind, here are my thoughts on training intensity for Base 1.

Intensity. I’ve said this so many times here that I’m reluctant to say it again. I’m sure you are starting to get the message if you follow this blog. The bottom line of one’s training strategy is that the workouts should gradually become more race-like as the season progresses. So the reverse side is that when you are several months out from your first A race the training may well be quite unlike the race, especially in terms of intensity. I generally interpret this to mean that the workouts are done at a lower intensity than that anticipated in the race. Of course, with very long, steady-state events such as Ironman triathlons race intensity for most is zone 2. So in that regard an Ironman triathlete does not therefore have to spend the entire Base 1 period in zone 1. Instead there will be quite a bit of zone 2 now.

In fact, regardless of the sport, I have those I train spend a considerable amount of their training time in zone 2. Throughout the Base period, but especially in Base 1 and 2 (3-4 weeks each) I have the athletes do weekly workouts in zone 2 and I watch to see how well matched their power and heart rate (cycling) or pace and heart rate (running) are. I call this “decoupling.” I’m looking to see if they can generally do increasingly longer workouts in zone 2 with minimal decoupling. This is described in a previous post here. When it becomes apparent that they can do such workouts with ease then they are ready to advance to somewhat more challenging training in Base 3.

When it comes to measuring intensity I therefore require those I coach to have a heart rate monitor, power meter (cycling), and/or speed-distance device such as a GPS or accelerometer (running). For cycling I rely much more heavily on power than heart rate for nearly all workouts. The exception is recovery workouts. These may be done either by perceived exertion or heart rate. Speed-distance devices are not as reliable and accurate as power meters so many of the running workouts I assign are based on heart rate. Running intervals done near and above the upper threshold are more likely to be based on pace, however.

I don’t believe that anaerobic training (that done at a higher intensity than lactate/anaerobic/functional threshold) is necessarily counterproductive in the early Base period as many coaches seem to believe. I say “believe” here because I’ve never come across any research which addresses this issue. However, I don’t have anyone train at such a high intensity load in Base 1. It only takes a few weeks, perhaps 6 to 12, to achieve a very high level of anaerobic fitness. So to start doing such training with six months to go until one’s first A-priority race means that such fitness would have to be maintained for months on end. A half a year or more of VO2 max intervals is a good way to burnout an athlete, and for no good reason.

Check back in a few days and I’ll get down to real nitty-gritty with early Base period workouts with examples.

Comments

[Mike]

What I am beginning to hear you say is that endurance sport fitness does not tend to increase gradually year after year; rather it just goes up during the season and down in the off-season. If one trains the same way each year, one will obtain the same level of fitness each year, everything else remaining the same. The only thing one can do is train smarter during the season to achieve a slightly higher peak and then lose it all again if the off-season. That's kind of depressing if it is true.

[Brenton]

Hi Joe, on my mostly flat base training route there's a gradual climb at the end back to my house that's not a killer but hard enough to require me to ride in zone 4. It takes me about 10 minutes to climb and has an average gradient of 5.5%. Should I avoid doing this at the end of every ride in Base 1 or is it not long or hard enough to be detrimental during Base 1. Thanks.

[Joe Friel]

Brenton--I have exactly the same situation. It's not a problem. A good sign that your aerobic fitness is progressing well is that you'll be able to climb the hill in a lower zone. Good luck!

[Brenton]

Thanks. I'm fairly new to training with zones so I'm trying to learn everything I can. Your blog and book have been extremely helpful. I was looking at some SRM data from the tour de france, and found it staggering that riders had average heart rates in the 130's and 140's, with max rates below 180 even on days including category 1 climbs. It was particularly interesting that in last years Vuelta, Chris Froome averaged only 147bpm during a time trial where he averaged 50kph. Is this purely due to the immense fitness of professionals?

[Joe Friel]

Brenton--They certainly do have enormous aerobic endurance. I haven't seen the Froome data you report but make sure it doesn't also include his warm up. That sounds quite low for an all out TT regardless of aerobic fitness.

[Alex]

Hi Joe,

Today was my first MS session at the gym for the coming season. I chose the Step-Up workout for MS and used a weight that was 0.9 x BW (as suggested in the book).

The "problem" (not if that is the correct word) is that I was able to perform way more than 3-6 repetitions with that weight (around 12+ reps). If I increase the range to 1.2 x BW I can get around 6-7 reps per set but that seems too high from the recommended weight in your book. The height of the step is about 35cm.

So I wanted to ask you about the best alternative. I thought about 3:
- move to ME
- keep the 0.9 x BW with higher reps
- increase the weight to 1.2 x BW or above

Thanks a lot!