A Case for Base

Adam Myerson
02/15/2001

http://www.bike.com/features/template.asp?date=2%2F15%2F2001&page=2&lsectionnumber=5&lsectiondirectory=training

Riders talk about "base" quite a bit, but the unfortunate reality is that very few of us actually understand what “base" is, and how to go about getting it. The old school says to build base with lots of long, easy miles in the winter. But new school asks, what good is being able to finish a 6-hour ride if you get dropped on the first climb, or if your longest race is only 3 hours?

Some riders go to the other extreme and never build a base at all. In their haste to be race-ready, they flog themselves with hill intervals, only to find their body exhausted once the season starts. Those riders usually try to fix the bad legs by doing even more intensity.

True base training focuses almost entirely on aerobic fitness, but that encompasses much more than just being able to do a 35-hour training week, or a 6-hour ride. There are a number of different energy systems shifts that occur throughout the range of aerobic training, and a proper base emphasizes every aspect. Not only do you need long rides – you need long rides that are made up of extensive and intensive aerobic intervals to truly raise your fitness level.

Your goals in a base training period are to increase your aerobic endurance, your aerobic efficiency (both cardiovascularly and neuromuscularly), increase the power you put out at your lactate threshold, perhaps increase the threshold itself, and increase the number of minutes you can ride at or just below threshold. This will allow you to race at a lower heart rate for a longer time, recover quickly from both aerobic and anaerobic efforts, and increase the number of anaerobic intervals you'll eventually be able to do.

The problem is that most riders think that aerobic training is too easy. A rider wants to get better, so that rider goes out and trains as hard as they can whenever they can, with either extremely long rides, or extremely hard rides. You can get pretty fit training that way – to a point. However, the bottom soon falls out of that type of training, and staleness sets in. Riders should remember that training hard is easy, but training effectively takes self-control and discipline. Training with 100% efforts all the time or allowing yourself to get sucked into racing on the group rides are the obvious things to do, but they don’t work best. That's why most riders never reach their full potential.

They key to base training is a slow burn, with the emphasis on the burn. There are four training zones you need to focus on during the base period, and I prefer to give them descriptive names, rather then cold numbers. Those of you who have read Greg LeMond's Complete Book of Cycling, or are familiar with the work of Swiss coach Paul Koechli may recognize the terms.

Recovery

The heart rate range for the recovery zone is below 70% of lactate threshold, or below 60% of your maximum heart rate. Your body uses mostly oxygen, fat, and sugar as its fuel sources. In this zone, lactic acid is cleared from the muscles quickly and minimal new lactate is produced, allowing recovery to take place. It's important to point out that this is not a training zone; it is a recovery zone. You use this zone primarily as recovery time between intervals.

Easy

The range for easy is from 71-80% of lactate threshold, or 61-72% of max. This is the basic endurance zone. Fuel sources are the same as the recovery zone, but more sugar begins to be used as fuel to supply quicker energy, and so more lactate begins to be produced, a trend that intensifies with the increased intensity of each zone.

Light Intensity

The range for light is from 81-90% of LT, or 73-80% of max. The emphasis is on aerobic efficiency and endurance, and it's done with intervals of extensive duration at a higher than normal cadence. Interval length for training in this zone is from 15-30 minutes. Recovery time should be 50-100% of the length of the interval. The feel is comparable to a rolling tempo in a road race, or perhaps sitting in during an easy criterium. You can still speak in full sentences, but that speaking is somewhat uncomfortable. Your endurance rides should be at least half in light, so if you want to do a 6-hour ride, you better be able to do 3 hours of it in light intensity. Doesn't sound easy to me.

Middle Intensity

Middle is the lactate threshold training zone, but the target is about 10-14 beats below your threshold. In the past, it was thought that to improve one’s threshold, one had to ride at threshold. It's since been shown that training 10 or more beats below yields the same training benefits without doing nearly as much damage to the muscles. The range is tight in order to be specific, from 93-95% of LT, or 84-86% of max. You want to stay out of the no-man's-land between light and middle when you're training, to be sure to differentiate between the efforts.

Interval lengths for Middle should be from 5-20 minutes, with 10-15 minute blocks being the ideal range. Recovery should be approximately 100% of the interval length.

With Middle intervals, the emphasis can be on either aerobic strength or speed, and should be controlled with cadence-- high or low to emphasize the area that needs to be addressed. Either way it should be an extreme; you should never feel comfortable doing these intervals. Normally it's best to start the season emphasizing high cadences. Once a cycle is complete, you should be ready to begin working on strength. How many minutes of middle you should aim to complete is based on the volume you need to be capable of in a race. In your category, how long is your average criterium, cyclo-cross race, or district time-trial?

Notice that nowhere in these recommendations for the base period did I mention any anaerobic intervals. That's because you don't need to do them until your goal volumes of easy, light and middle have been achieved. This frightens many riders, but once they try this approach and find out how much easier their races have become, how much longer their seasons last, and how many more anaerobic intervals they can do once they finish their base training, they always become believers. Normally in your base period, racing once a week will provide you with all the anaerobic work you will need, and often more. Remember, training hard is easy. You want to add some brain to that brawn, and leave your ego, as well as your competitors, behind.