Base Training

Base training; What is it and how do I do it? Is it the best method of training? Training slow to run fast.

If you are an aerobic athlete who trains by running, cycling, swimming etc. then you have most likely had the phrase ‘miles, miles and more miles’ thrown at you at some point; something to that effect anyway. Maybe you are unaware of the concept of covering lots of miles each week, but it’s the staple to anyones training who is serious about their performance or fitness. When people refer to ‘base miles’ or ‘base pace’ they are making reference to the distance they cover on a weekly basis, not including any high intensity based session. For instance you might do two nights a week of high intensity intervals, maybe a session of 8 x 400m @ 90% effort (2 minute recovery) and the second session is strength work in the gym. If the rest of the week you run five 10 km runs then you would be doing a base of 30 miles (50km) per week. Your ‘base pace’ is the pace at which you run these miles. Typically it would be around 70% of your personal best over the equivalent distance. The best way to do this is to run at a pace that's in min/mile or min/km, that way when you analyse you session you can see how your pace compares across each kilometre or mile. consitency is key here.

Base miles are typically the basis of all the training you will do over the winter months or at the beginning of a training year in preparation for the season. As you get closer to your races for the season intensity of your sessions should increase, whilst weekly milage will decrease to compensate for the increased training demand. Simply as you try and peak for compettion you want to develop your speed because you have already developed your fitness. I define base training as a session aimed at improving general fitness and basic aerobic endurance. Improving your aerobic endurance boosts your ability to utilise oxygen within the cardiovascular system and working muscles. Fat should be the main energy source in these types of sessions; thereby improving your ability to oxidise fats, and ultimately using less glycogen at higher intestines. Why this matters is unless you have a base fitness you will be unable to add intense session to your weekly training plan. I typically train using the 80/20 rule: based around 80% of your sessions are base training (below tempo pace or <70% of heart rate maximum). 20% of these sessions should be tempo based (at or above race pace or >70% heart rate maximum). The most intense I’ll ever make my weekly training plan is 25% high intensity and 75% base milage. I have personally found this drops the total amount of time I can spend training. I haven't found this to improve race paces I maintain during competitions, hence why I stick to 80:20 and even 90:10 when following an injury or building up my fitness at the beginning of a training season.

I split my base sessions in to two: ‘base fitness’ and ‘base recovery.’ Base fitness is the type of session I have been describing and here is an example of a ride, just under 5 hours at <70% HRR:

As you can see heart rate is variable because of the terrain. The higher heart rate when climbing hills takes a lot out of you. Heart rate is a lot more sporadic than if you were to train keeping to an exact pace, for instance indoors on a turbo trainer. I also use Sunday sessions to push on climbs or flat sections when I feel like it.

Ok so now we’ve established what a base session is and what it looks like, what is a base recovery session? It’s simply a session at a much lower intensity than you would normally train at. I keep my base fitness sessions to 64-74% HRR and base recovery between 50-63% HRR. Below is a graph of an indoor session performed on my bike during a recovery day:

The graph above shows second by second heart rate and cadence data for the 1 hour indoor session. HRavg was 126bpm (50% HRR) and average cadence was 90rpm. This was the first component of my session. You can see how much more constant heart rate is when training indoors. After completing this session I then went for a 30 minute run, averaging 129 bpm and just over 5:00 min/km (see graph below). As mentioned, this was a recovery day, during a typical brick session I would train at a higher intensity and alternate between starting with a run first or bike first. As I prepare for duathlon races I’ll do brick session where I run-bike-run or bike-run-bike.

Below is the second component of the session; a 30 minute run at just above 5:00 min/km pace.

The session was in total 90 minutes in duration, not including a cool down at an intensity ~55% HRR. Note how consistent the pace is, this is key to keeping the session at the intensity required.

So why do athletes do base fitness and base recovery sessions? In studies when groups train at ratios of 80:20 compared to 50:50 for low intensity:moderate/high intensity the 80:20 groups always show the greatest improvement in time trail performance’ typically 10km performance. In most studies the 80:20 group improves by twice as much as the 50:50 group, highlighting the importance of this ratio of low intensity:moderate/high intensity. Regardless of the weekly milage, the findings are genuinely the same. As the season go’s on and you get fitter thats when it’s time to do more high intestate sessions, but that base fitness is key.

Is a higher milage at a low intensity always the answer? Well it depends. There is no magic number for how many base miles you should do in a week, month or year. The fact that professional endurance athletes all run different weekly milages highlights the variability. As an example: Paula Radcliffe, the women’s current marathon world record holder averaged 110 miles per week. In comparison: Dave Bedford, former 10,000m world record holder would run 200 miles per week. Would Paula have been a better runner if she has done more miles? Probably not, it’s about fining that balance for what is right for you. The key is the intensity at which these miles are covered. They should be at 70% of your best pace for a given distance. Having said that research genuinely supports that more miles equates to a greater level of aerobic fitness and shows the greatest performance benefit when combined with high intensity sessions making up approximately 20% of weekly sessions. For most people though it’s very easy to do too many miles, or increasing your base pace too quickly. It takes around 12 weeks to make significant improvements to performance. Your body needs time to adapt.

Regardless of my opinion on weekly milage, if your goal is just to be faster at running and you want to be healthier from it, keep sessions to 45-60 minutes at a higher intensity. If your not able to dedicate endless hours to training, don’t stress. It’s better to do interval and fartlek based sessions to really challenge your cardiovascular system. These will offer you the greatest short term health benefits. When you feel stiff, throw in some 30 minute slow runs and follow it up with time spent stretching.

I have shared three of my training sessions this week to demonstrate how base training and base recovery is performed and how low intensity it can be. Even when I’m doing >20 hour training weeks I still need recovery days where I go through the same motions that I would during harder sessions, but at a lower intensity. I take advantage of feeling fresher after my session so spend longer cooling down and completing a really good stretching routine. For some people 90 minutes might be a very long session, but the principle can still be applied to shorter sessions. People jump into training programs that recommend training at low, moderate and high intensities, but most people following these plans will always try and do too much too soon. That’s testament to their focus and commitment, but it leads to injury and loss of motivation. If after a week you find you’ are feeling really good then increase your weekly milage or time spent training by 10%. Maybe even throw in a second session one day.

Being committed to your training is hard. There appears to be a massive misconception about the intensities at which professional athletes train. If they were to collapse in a heap on the floor after every session they would burn out. They would never reach their peak for races, because they would be so exhausted. It’s actually a delicate balance. You will always feel like you can push that little bit more, but keep that for high intensity sessions. If your going to do base miles you really need to get the pace right. Too low and it’s too easy, easily adjusted. Too hard and you’ll over do it and not be able to train for days. Listen to your body, as you spend more time training you will get better at it. Keep in mind that your tendons and ligaments take longer to adapt to the stresses of training so just because your muscles feel good when out training doesn't necessary mean your body is fully recovering. Train smart and get geat results.

#basetraining #recoverytraining #intensity #recoverysessions #tempo