Base training can be a long and tedious training period in most endurance athletes’ workout schedule. Weeks upon weeks of slow running, biking and swimming keeping your heart rate low, enough to make you want out into a sprint. Slow down though, there is a point to base training and worth the time.
Why Base Train
The main reason to put in the miles, hours, weeks of bas training is to build your aerobic engine, which is very important, if you have a big endurance race coming up. With the proper base training you can hope to:
* Increase the size and number of mitochondria
* Increase the capillarization
* Increase ability to utilize fat as your fuel source
* Increase endurance levels
* Ability to resist fatigue
All of the above benefits will let the body work harder and longer while using primarily your aerobic energy system. The body uses oxygen, fat and carbohydrates as its fuel source and at high aerobic intensities, the body is able to clear lactic acid as quickly as it is produced. This is good, because as your train your body, you find that you get less and less sore as time goes on. Most endurance athletes; triathletes, distant runners, cyclists, or any activity over 10 minutes, primarily use the aerobic system. Any endurance athlete will perform better, with a stronger built base.
How Long Does it Take To Build A Base
It can take years of consistent training to build a super strong endurance base, but if you are looking at for your race season then you usually want to spend anywhere between 8 to 16 weeks on it. This all dependent on your current condition; how much did you race last year, did you give you body time to rest before starting this season. The longer your future event is, the bigger the base training period needs to be.
Developing a high performance aerobic system, takes time, like stated above, it could take years of training, to build a strong base. Don’t get discouraged though, because there are many races and training techniques you can do each season to help your base grow. Ever year keep working on base, don’t skip this phase of your training, this is where the miles and endurance levels grow.
Too Much High Intensity Training
High intensity training still has its proper place in every endurance athletes race season, just don’t go over board. Too much high intensity training can actually reduce the performance of the aerobic system. As your exercise levels intensity increases, the body uses less fat and more carbohydrates as fuel, the body where come to point where the oxygen is limited and the body begins to produce lactic acid faster than it can be eliminated. This can be stressful on your body, making it to sore for you to work the next day.
How To Build A Strong Base
To build a strong base you need to figure out first how long the race is you are training for and then from there you can decided how many weeks of base training you need to do. The longer the race, the more weeks that needs to be dedicated to the base level. To build that aerobic engine you need to be working out somewhere between 60-80% of your max heart rate. This is a fairly big range and narrowing down your number depends on each athlete independently.
When To Build Your Base
Most athletes will build their base in the wintertime and build upon it in the spring. After weeks of building your base in the springtime, you can state to add some intensity and easy races into your schedule, bigger races should be in the summer and recovery in the fall. Obviously if your bigger race is in the winter, you will need to reverse the schedule.
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