Establishing and Developing Your Base
During base training, your dual focus is to build endurance and foster neuromuscular speed. This means your training will primarily consist of endurance sessions in Zone 2, or “conversational pace.” Often termed “long slow distance” (LSD), this work is foundational to developing your aerobic system. Yet this work needs to be complemented with training to develop neuromuscular speed. This simply involves incorporating several short bursts of speed of less than 10 seconds in duration into one or more endurance workouts each week. The short sprints are punctuated by ample recovery in between. These “alactics” stimulate the firing of fast-twitch muscle fibers without tapping into the lactic acid system. Note that this is “pure speed,” as opposed to the notion of speed as it is sometimes used to refer to activities of a few minutes in duration that do tap into the lactic acid system. In addition, you should supplement your sport-specific training with functional strength work (see videos) and form drills (see videos) to further foster proper neuromuscular patterning for economy of movement. As your base training progresses, you can add in work closer to your lactate threshold—that is, tempo work and cruise intervals in Zones 3-4, or “comfortably hard” pace. With this overview in mind, let’s look at some of the key workouts during base training in more detail.
Endurance Workouts
Endurance workouts form the bulk of your training time. This is true across the base-build-peak progression; but endurance workouts are particularly important during base training because this is your starting point for building your fitness.
An endurance workout consists of a continuous effort in Zone 2 or at “conversational” pace for durations of 20 minutes up to several hours (depending upon the sport, the athlete, and the event being trained for). The purpose of these workouts is to build your aerobic base by developing the ability to better metabolize fat and spare glycogen (stored carbohydrate) as a long duration energy source. See table 5-1 for a summary of this type of workout.
| Endurance Workout | |
| When | All training phases, especially base training |
| Why | To build the aerobic base by developing the ability to better metabolize fat and spare glycogen (stored carbohydrate) as a long duration energy source |
| What | Continuous effort in Zone 2 or “conversational” pace for durations of 20 minutes up to several hours |
| How | Use heart rate, power, pace or perceived exertion to monitor intensity |
One endurance workout each week is typically designated as the “long” session. The long swim, long bike or long run simply represents the longest session in each of these disciplines for the week. As base training progresses, the duration of the weekly “long” training session is gradually increased during the “up” weeks of your training. This is the case for at least the long bikes and long runs. For many triathletes—especially those training for short course events—there is little difference in duration between the “long” swim and other swim sessions.
During your endurance runs, focus on keeping a high cadence. Elite runners average 28 to 30 left foot strikes per 20 seconds (84 to 90 per minute). Aim to improve upon your personal baseline to develop good neuromuscular patterns and running form. During the endurance bikes, focus on keeping your cadence at 90 revolutions per minute or more throughout the ride (use a cadence sensor on a bike computer or Garmin training device for feedback).
Although you can certainly do your endurance swims in open water (if available) or for a prescribed amount of continuous time in a pool, you can also break up the swims into intervals. This could be anything from 100s up to 1,000s, punctuated with rest intervals of about 10 seconds for each 100 you swim during the work interval. For example, you could do a set of 15 x 100 meters with 15-20 seconds rest. Or you could do 3 x 500 meters with 50 seconds rest. Or perhaps 2 x 1000 meters with 90 seconds rest.
The long endurance session each week provides you with a designated day to focus on a single session of greater volume. As you progress through your base training, this long session will increase in duration (at least for the bikes and runs). Start at your current fitness level and gradually add duration from there. Generally speaking, you can follow the 10 percent rule of thumb to gradually increase the duration of your long session until you hit your maximum targeted volume in your training plan for that type of workout. The precise volume you target for the long session in each discipline will be determined by the type of event you are training for. In other words, your long sessions will be longer for long course events (e.g., Ironman and Ironman 70.3 triathlons) than they would be for short course events (e.g., sprint and Olympic distance triathlons). For short course training, you can top out at 2 to 2.5 hours for long bikes and 1.5 hours for long runs. There is a definite benefit, though, to being out there for that amount of time even for short course training.
Endurance Workouts with Alactics
As noted earlier, your focus during base training centers on building endurance along with neuromuscular speed. To work on developing neuromuscular speed, you can incorporate several short, alactic bursts of less than 10 seconds in duration into an endurance workout. These are called “alactics” because they are not long enough in duration to tap the lactic acid system. Although alactics do utilize anaerobic energy pathways, they do not stress the body the way the lactic acid system does and can be used throughout base training to develop the body’s supporting structures (e.g. muscles, ligaments, tendons) that need to be in place for higher intensity aerobic and anaerobic work down the road. In addition, alactics condition the fast-twitch and intermediate fast-twitch muscle fibers that even endurance athletes utilize during prolonged activity; and this work (along with form drills) plays an important role in improving your neuromuscular patterning for economy of motion.
Once you are warmed up, add a handful of short accelerations to an endurance workout. Start off easy and gradually pick up your pace until you’re at full speed. Hold top speed for up to 10 seconds; then wind it back down. These are “feel good” sprints—you want to feel good going fast. Focus on good form. Don’t worry about time or heart rate during the accelerations. Swim, bike or run for 2 to 3 minutes between each acceleration or until you feel fully recovered and ready for the next one. See table 5-2 for a summary of this type of workout.
| Endurance Workout with Alactics | |
| When | All training phases, especially base training |
| Why | To build the aerobic base and neuromuscular speed |
| What | Continuous effort in Zone 2 or “conversational” pace for durations of 20 minutes up to several hours. Throughout the workout, add 4-16 short accelerations where you build to maximum speed and hold it for up to 10 seconds. Start off easy and gradually pick up your pace until you’re at full speed. Hold it for up to 10 seconds; then wind it back down. These are “feel good” sprints—you want to feel good going fast. Focus on good form. Don’t worry about time or heart rate during the accelerations. Swim, bike or run for 2-3 minutes between each acceleration or until you feel fully recovered and ready for the next one. |
| How | Use heart rate, power, pace or perceived exertion to monitor intensity (except during the alactics themselves) |
Recovery Workouts and Drills
“Recovery” workouts are done in Zone 1, or “easy pace” to provide a physical and mental break from the harder days. These workouts are typically quite short in duration—enough to loosen up and get the blood flowing. Nevertheless, they also add to your overall training volume. The key to a successful recovery workout is to avoid the temptation to go faster than recovery pace (even if you’re feeling good); otherwise you sabotage the point of the workout. See table 5-3 for a summary of this type of workout; and see the swim, bike and run workouts at the end of the book for specific examples.
Recovery workouts—as well as other endurance workouts—provide a great opportunity to incorporate drills into your training. Athletes that regularly incorporate drills into their training are better able to recruit muscles needed for the task, leaving them less injury prone. And when the going gets tough, they are more efficient. Given that an improvement to economy of motion is just as good as an improvement in VO2max when it comes to that final number on the stopwatch, it only makes sense to squeeze as much “free speed” out of your performance as possible. The key to developing good form is to ingrain proper movement patterns into your muscle memory so that they become automatic; and proper movements can be trained through drills. With proper movement patterns instilled as the default setting, you will be better prepared when fatigue threatens to break down your form.
Drills should be introduced into your workouts at the beginning of your base training. Throughout the rest of your training phases, you can continue to incorporate drills into your recovery or endurance workouts. Form work is particularly important for swimming and running.
| Recovery Workout | |
| When | All training phases |
| Why | To aid recovery, add to your training volume and loosen you up for the key workouts of the week |
| What | Workout done in Zones 1-2 or at “easy” to “conversational” pace; usually 20-30 minutes in duration, but can be longer |
| How | Use heart rate, power, pace or perceived exertion to monitor intensity |
Early Base Training Sample Schedules
With these basic workouts in mind, let’s look at some sample early base training schedules that draw from these workouts. Tables 5-4, 5-5, and 5-6 illustrate sample weekly schedules for the early stages of base training for triathletes doing two, three, and four workouts per discipline per week, respectively.
In table 5-4, the triathlete has scheduled two workouts per discipline for the week. One of those workouts is dedicated to a longer endurance session. Incorporated into that endurance workout are alactics. The second workout is designated as a recovery workout where the triathlete also focuses on drills. One day is designated as a rest day, or a day off from training.
| Day | Discipline | Workout |
| Monday | SWIM | Recovery w/drills |
| Tuesday | BIKE | Recovery w/drills |
| Wednesday | RUN | Recovery w/drills |
| Thursday | off | Recovery day |
| Friday | SWIM | Endurance w/alactics |
| Saturday | BIKE | Endurance w/alactics |
| Sunday | RUN | Endurance w/alactics |
In table 5-5, the triathlete has scheduled three workouts per discipline for the week. With workouts over seven days, this requires doubling up on three days while taking one day completely off from training. The long swim, long bike, and long run are scheduled on back to back days over the weekend. This mimics the order in which the events are encountered in a race. Even though these workouts are not performed on the same day (as with a race), the athlete still must deal with fatigue that is carried over from one day to the next. This particularly pertains to the long run on Sunday, which is scheduled the day after the long bike.
The second workout for each discipline during the week is a recovery workout. The remaining workout is an endurance workout that incorporates drills and alactics. On Thursday, a bike and a run are scheduled. Ideally, this will be done as a “brick” workout, which means the run is done immediately after the bike. This allows the athlete to practice running off the bike. For the uninitiated, running off the bike often results in wobbly legs. But with practice during training, the odd feeling of doing one after the other becomes more familiar and easier to handle. You can also use these workouts as an opportunity to work on your bike to run transition skills. But even if you don’t set up a transition area with your equipment all laid out as in a race, aim to limit your transition time to around 10 minutes during bike-run bricks.
Note that on Tuesday, the swim and bike workouts are scheduled in the same order encountered during a race. Although the logistics of arranging your workouts around other life commitments often dictate how you need to arrange multiple workouts throughout a given day, it can be helpful to mimic the order in which you encounter the events during a race—even when you do not perform the workouts as a brick. Here, the swim is done early in the day and the bike ride done later in the day—likewise for the swim and run scheduled on Wednesday. When not targeting a brick workout, it is a good idea to allow several hours in between workouts. This gives you time to recover and allows you to get more out of each workout as a result.
| Day | Discipline | Workout |
| Monday | off | Recovery day |
| Tuesday | SWIM BIKE |
Endurance w/drills and alactics Endurance w/drills and alactics |
| Wednesday | SWIM RUN |
Recovery Endurance w/drills and alactics |
| Thursday | BIKE/RUN | Recovery |
| Friday | SWIM | Long |
| Saturday | BIKE | Long |
| Sunday | RUN | Long |
In table 5-6, the triathlete has scheduled four workouts per discipline for the week. The fourth workout involves another endurance workout.
| Day | Discipline | Workout |
| Monday | SWIM | Recovery |
| Tuesday | SWIM BIKE |
Endurance w/drills and alactics Endurance w/drills and alactics |
| Wednesday | BIKE/RUN SWIM |
Endurance Endurance |
| Thursday | RUN BIKE |
Endurance w/drills and alactics Recovery |
| Friday | SWIM RUN |
Long Recovery |
| Saturday | BIKE | Long |
| Sunday | RUN | Long |
In sum, during early base training, one key workout each week should be a longer endurance session. Another workout should be dedicated to recovery. Alactics and drills can be added to either of these or a third endurance session. Additional workouts added to the schedule should consist of endurance and/or recovery sessions. The aim of the training is to build that all important aerobic foundation.
Late Base Training Sample Schedules
As with early base training, late base training still involves your staple endurance sessions, including the weekly “long” workout. In addition, you should continue to include drills in your recovery and/or endurance workouts. But now you can begin to replace the alactics with the “comfortably hard” aerobic tempo (Zone 3) or threshold (Zone 4) workouts. Tables 5-7, 5-8, and 5-9 illustrate sample weekly schedules for the late stages of base training for athletes doing two, three, and four workouts per discipline per week, respectively.
In table 5-7, this triathlete incorporates some tempo work into the single endurance session of the week. The athlete might start with 10-15 minutes in Zone 3, or the lower end of “comfortably hard” pace. Alternatively, the athlete could perhaps start with 2 x 5-minute cruise intervals with 1-minute recovery interval in between. The athlete would then progress from there by first adding time at tempo and then upping the tempo into Zone 4 (the higher end of “comfortably hard” pace). The same strategy can be seen table 5-8 and table 5-9.
| Day | Discipline | Workout |
| Monday | SWIM | Recovery w/drills |
| Tuesday | BIKE | Recovery w/drills |
| Wednesday | RUN | Recovery w/drills |
| Thursday | off | Recovery day |
| Friday | SWIM | Endurance w/tempo |
| Saturday | BIKE | Endurance w/tempo |
| Sunday | RUN | Endurance w/tempo |
| Day | Discipline | Workout |
| Monday | off | Recovery day |
| Tuesday | SWIM BIKE |
Endurance w/tempo Endurance w/tempo |
| Wednesday | SWIM RUN |
Recovery w/drills Endurance w/tempo |
| Thursday | BIKE/RUN | Recovery w/drills |
| Friday | SWIM | Long |
| Saturday | BIKE | Long |
| Sunday | RUN | Long |
| Day | Discipline | Workout |
| Monday | SWIM | Recovery w/drills |
| Tuesday | SWIM BIKE |
Endurance w/tempo Endurance w/tempo |
| Wednesday | BIKE/RUN SWIM |
Endurance Endurance |
| Thursday | RUN BIKE |
Endurance w/tempo Recovery w/drills |
| Friday | SWIM RUN |
Long Recovery w/drills |
| Saturday | BIKE | Long |
| Sunday | RUN | Long |
In sum, base training focuses on building your aerobic foundation and preparing the body for higher intensity work to be done down the road—namely, through the use of alactics (early to late stages) and tempo/threshold work (late stages). As you move through your base training, your training volume increases. This means the length of individual sessions increases—particularly the weekly long workout in each discipline—resulting in a gradual increase in weekly volume.
Keep in mind that the duration of each workout—along with the number of cruise intervals or time at tempo—should be based on your current level of fitness, where you are in your individual training progression, and the length of the race you are targeting. Begin where you currently are and progress gradually and systematically from there. Once you have built your base; then you will be ready to move into the next training phase and build upon that base.
TRAINING GUIDE CONTENTS
Preface
1. Introduction
– Train with a Purpose
– The ABCs of Systematic Training
– The R&R of Training
– Begin with the End in Mind
2. Exercise Science Concepts
– Stimulus-Response-Adaptation
– Overload
– Overreaching and Overtraining
– Reversibility
– Specificity
– Energy Systems
– Aerobic Capacity
– Lactate Threshold
– Aerobic Threshold
– Muscle Fiber Types
– Periodization
3. Monitor Your Training Intensity
– What is Training Intensity?
– Key Indicators of Intensity
– Using Training Zones
– Training by Feel, or Perceived Exertion
– Training with Pace
– Training with Heart Rate
– Running with Power
4. Create Your Training Plan
– Prioritizing Your Events
– Overview of the Training Phases
– Choosing Your Periodization Schedule
– Filling in the Details of the Overall Plan
5. Create Your Weekly Workouts
– Creating Weekly Schedules
– Establishing and Developing Your Base
– Building Upon Your Base
– Peaking for Your Target Event
– Race Week and Race Day Warmup
6. Functional Strength
7. Recovery and Nutrition
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