What are your views/experiences on building aerobic base?

Triathlon Forum
1

I am only 4 chapters into Thomas Chapple’s Base Building for Cyclists. I love to read about training philosophy and I want to build my own season plan next year. With so many factors that come into play with success in racing HIM/IM distance only a few of which are:

FrequencyIntensityTotal VolumeConsistencyYears training and racingMental toughness
I have been patient with my training and progress and consistently put in 7-10hrs of SBR a week during the season and leading up to my first HIM. I see the bike studs with crazy fast splits and up until recently have told myself that its gonna take years of cumulative training to be able to hang. I guess some of that may be true but I had a fellow ST’er comment that in one good off-season I could make some MAJOR improvements. This got me thinking of how to plan my off-season.

Reading this book, although I am just getting into the meat of it I can tell holding off on intensity and (re)building your aerobic engine is the big philosophy with Mr Chapple. Basically he states you cant keep improving without pulling back, building base then ramping back up (in theory to a new high).

My questions are:

What is your experience with base building in the off-season? If you believe in it how long do you base build?If you don’t base build what do you do?
Right now I’m training for a stand alone half marathon and a couple local fun 5ks. My goal is 5hrs at Quassy 70.3 next June and then sub 5hr at Rev3 Maine 70.3. My PR is 5:30 at Maine in my second HIM. That was with a HORRID run. I literally did ZERO run training all summer because of ITBS that I finally shook just before the race. I can easily take 20min+ off my run time. It’s really the bike training that is a mystery to me. I have a flexible work schedule and can put in some time.

Thanks for reading! any input?

2
  1. There is no off season.
  2. you build your base virtually your whole ‘career’.
  3. if you don’t, you don’t improve.
3

  1. There is no off season.

  2. you build your base virtually your whole ‘career’.

  3. if you don’t, you don’t improve.

  4. for someone newert to the sport, if you are thinking “next year” I hope that is in the context of the “next three to five years”

  5. nutrition, sleep and balancing training stress with life stress matters. train as much possible.

4

  1. There is no off season.

  2. you build your base virtually your whole ‘career’.

  3. if you don’t, you don’t improve.

  4. for someone newert to the sport, if you are thinking “next year” I hope that is in the context of the “next three to five years”

  5. nutrition, sleep and balancing training stress with life stress matters. train as much possible.

Yes, as I said above I realize there is a cumulative effect of training. I also understand base building happens over years not soley in a training block. My question is more regarding the book AND if doing a base building block is worth while and needed to make gains when intensity come back around.

Thank you

5

I hear ya, and sorry that I was kind of rash in my response, not my intention. Your question is actually completely valid, and I will let the coaches on the forum give their takes which will be far more well-researched than mine. I will say that from my own experience, taking months 3-8 out from a race to focus more on aerobic base building has worked great for me. I will throw in some intensity every once in a while (e.g., maybe 2 sessions for each sport every month) just to keep on providing my body new stimulus, but I don’t layer on regular intensity until I get closer to my priority races. For me this has to do with staying injury free. Think of all that base-building as building the foundation for the fort, and then the intensity as the heavy-bolts on top. If you don’t have the base, the fort crumbles.

In over simplified terms:
Dec - Feb: Pure base
March - April: Base with a lot of tempo and strength (e.g., hill running, low cadence cycling, etc) and maybe an early season race
May - June: Lots of threshold work, layer on intensity (e.g., supra-threshold work, VO2 intervals, mile repeats, etc)
July - August: Race specific work and racing
Sept - Just maintain and stay healthy
October - End season racing
November: Although I agree with 99% of what Francois says, 3 weeks of “off-season” although I would argue that gaining some weight and letting the body recover on a deep cellular level is actually a big part of training…and he might agree

Again, sorry if my post came off as being an asshole, I’m here to help!

6

Much appreciated! Thank you

7

I just don’t like the term off season when it is actually used to recover and regenerate. Off season gives the wrong impression. Sounds like
3 months of staying on the couch getting fat. I prefer a few weeks of unstructured training, or just doing different stuff, hiking, snowshoeing, etc.

8

What is your experience with base building in the off-season? If you believe in it how long do you base build?

The two most important things:

  1. Consistency
  2. Frequency

Before you worry about periodisation, intensity etc the above two must be accounted for.

I generally take two complete weeks off and then another two weeks of whatever I feel like training. Following that I have a specific swim-block whilst doing some maitenance on the bike/run. This even itself out after two months of the swim block (for others it could be less, but I’m a big fan of a specific off-season swim block, regardless of which distance you do). As the race season approaches, intensity is slowly worked into my program. For you only training 7-10hrs a week, you shouldn’t need to dial back the volume too much (if at all…barring injuries). Intensity starts at strength endurance work, progresses to tempo, then shorter race pace stuff and then in the 2-3 weeks before my A race, speed.

If you don’t base build what do you do?

Be prepared to have a shitty season…base is key

9

Thanks! Sounds like I will finish the book and put some stock in the philosophy.

Def looking forward to getting some hiking, CX and other fun stuff in with little structure for a bit then start the base.

10

Genetics
work ethic
age
Genetics
Training plan
genetics
belief
genetics
.

11

What is your experience with base building in the off-season? If you believe in it how long do you base build?

The two most important things:

  1. Consistency
  2. Frequency

Before you worry about periodisation, intensity etc the above two must be accounted for.

I generally take two complete weeks off and then another two weeks of whatever I feel like training. Following that I have a specific swim-block whilst doing some maitenance on the bike/run. This even itself out after two months of the swim block (for others it could be less, but I’m a big fan of a specific off-season swim block, regardless of which distance you do). As the race season approaches, intensity is slowly worked into my program. For you only training 7-10hrs a week, you shouldn’t need to dial back the volume too much (if at all…barring injuries). Intensity starts at strength endurance work, progresses to tempo, then shorter race pace stuff and then in the 2-3 weeks before my A race, speed.

If you don’t base build what do you do?

Be prepared to have a shitty season…base is key

I am absolutely no expert… not even close but here is my 2 cents.

What he said above about consistency and frequency… so true. Don’t just s/b/r when you so feel and total the same amount of hours per week. People will say it over and over… 6 days of running 7 miles, totaling 42 miles is better than running 3 days of 7 miles and 1 20 miler.

But I do think I disagree with building base or at least how. Personally, I have endurance genes. Simply completing an Ironman in 17 hours is something I could probably do without any type of specific training. However, running a 5 minute mile seems almost impossible and I can run an open 1:28 half-marathon/3:10 marathon. Yes, that is actually possible. I think my fastest short interval sprint when training for the 1:28 was 5:14. No chance even fully recovered I would do better than that pace for a full mile.

So, I’m spending my “offseason” doing less hours and more speed. I’m not completely abandoning easy zone 2 but I’m going to work on what I hate and suck at. And in 11 months, when I have to start building for my next IM; I should be much faster and have no problem with adding the miles. Hope to shit it works.

12

That’s interesting how you speak about a lack of speed.

Question.

What is your run technique like? It might be a big limiter. The ideal cadence for a 10k is above 100 and IM around 90-95. Many people overstride and have hence have a low cadence.

Have you looked at adding in strides at the end of your runs? (e.g. 4x80m at close to max with walkback recovery). My mate from college (runs a sub 8min 3k) adds strides to most of his runs, especially after his 25k+ weekly long run. I think strides could be your key, I’d be wary of adding too much speed for an IM build, strides and short surges randomly thrown in runs are great ways to build speed. Also looking at adding in some hillwork, it has done wonders for my technique and speed, let alone helps you maintain form deep into a mara.

I think people throw in ‘speed’ to freely around here (not directing this at you, just in general. I did laugh when someone who just ran a 4.30mara was saying speed was his limiter). Speed is essentially efforts considerably faster than race pace. For example on the thursday before a sprint race I have done 20x200m on 2mins (hitting 30-32s) that is a speed workout.

Good luck

13

I will say that from my own experience, taking months 3-8 out from a race to focus more on aerobic base building has worked great for me.
It occurs to me that not everyone will have the same definition of “base building”. There are just so many different philosophies and variations on the same general theme.

What does this mean, specifically? All workouts in Z2, or something different?

And how is Z2 defined?

Etc.

14

Question.

What is your run technique like? It might be a big limiter. The ideal cadence for a 10k is above 100 and IM around 90-95. Many people overstride and have hence have a low cadence.

Ding ding ding. Too funny you called it. As for running, yes, my cadence is absolute shit… 80ish. I’m working on it and definitely am focusing on that. Improving my cadence would significantly help with times.

Though, for biking; there doesn’t seem to be a limiter unless I’m just too blind. I can average 20mph for IMoo and still have really strong run legs but my top end speed is absolutely nothing impressive. It’s a lot like my running in terms of ability.

And let’s throw swimming out the window. I’ve swam competitively since I was 6 and swim sub-1 hour literally without trying.

15

Has anyone read the book I referenced as well?

16

What do you understand base to be?

How does the author define it?

How are these answers different than aerobic capacity? Or FTP for that matter?

Base is a confusing term that really means nothing different than some commonly used and much more clear terms, such as fitness, FTP, aerobic capacity etc.

17

Base is a confusing term that really means nothing different than some commonly used and much more clear terms, such as fitness, FTP, aerobic capacity etc.

^ ^ ^ ^
That

On this forum, I think it’s understood by many as long slow stuff.

18

Base seems to be more of aerobic capacity in this book so far. I’m surprised not many have read it as it came highly reccomended from the cycling forums. The forward is by Joel Friel.

19

Be careful about applying one-size fits all formulae. What is right for you is highly dependent on a great number of factors that are unique to you. I do think, that if you are relatively new, then “building base” or putting in a lot of sub-threshold training volume is probably a good thing. If you can prepare yourself to be mentally and physically able to train day after day, year after year, you’ll set yourself up for a nice lifestyle and a rewarding racing career.

I’ve been at triathlons now for 12 years and I focus on Ironman racing as my “A” races. I have 6-7 years now where my training is 800-1000 hours/year. As a consequence, I don’t build my base per se (my base is what I’ve down over the last decade). Since, my IMs are in the fall, I actually do my speed work (on the run especially) earlier in the year and as i get into the summer I do more long-distance, sub-threshold work as this is more specific to IM racing…In my early years, however, I did do base building quite a bit–just to get my mind and body ready for all the work…

20

Ride in fast group rides and try to hang on
.