Topic - The Training Year:
Base Training - Endurance
Date first posted on eCommunity - 14
June 2008
It's only June. But if we were elite ski-racers we would be well
into our annual training programme by now, in preparation for the
upcoming competitive season. We would have taken a month or so off
at the end of the season just gone, and for that month we would have
abandoned formal training in favour of a relaxed programme
of "active recovery" - in which we would have used activities like
hill-walking, cycling or kayaking to keep our bodies working, but in
a low-key, fun sort of way.
And then, after that month, we would have started structured
training again. By now we would be in the "base-training" phase,
working mainly to develop our aerobic capacity and our basic
strength. Our purpose would be to build a good foundation that would
sustain more intense workouts later in the year.
We are not elite ski racers, but even so we can do ourselves a lot
of good by following their example - up to a point. Base training is
important for everybody, irrespective of current level of fitness.
The thinking behind base training is very well expressed in Rob
Sleamaker's book Serious Training for Endurance Athletes, first
written in 1989 and now, in its second edition, something of a
classic. The idea, he says, is to "construct an intricate and
effective aerobic foundation and `plumbing system'". This
construction project involves not just heart and lungs, as we
sometimes think, but also the entire vascular system (capillaries as
well as arteries and veins), and also the aerobic energy system - which includes the ability of the body to burn fat at low exercise
intensity. Taken together, this involves a complex set of systems
for delivering energy and oxygen to the working muscles and for
removing waste from them.
One skier who followed Sleamaker's plan was Bill McKibben, whose
book Long Distance - a year of living strenuously we reviewed here
in September 2007. He described his own base training like this:
"The idea was to lay a foundation - to literally change my body so
that its network of capillaries would grow more dense . . . Then,
when the time came for intense training and racing, my powerful
heart would have the plumbing network it needed to flush the lactic
acid out of my muscles and supply fresh new blood rich with energy."
It is a big job to build these systems up, and a job that needs a
lot of time and attention. Our elite ski racers will approach it
with dedication. At the very top of the scale, they will train for
perhaps 800 hours a year (the Norwegian Olympic hero, Bjorn Daehlie,
apparently did 1000) and a significant proportion of that time will
be devoted to base training.
And if that sounds like bad news, well, the good news is that base
training is best done at very low intensities. It does not need to
feel like hard work - and it SHOULD NOT feel like hard work. Sleamaker recommends that as much as 60-70% of all training during
the base training phase should be carried out at low intensity. This
means a level that feels easy, that allows you to hold an easy
conversation while on the move, and at which your heart-rate remains
at 60-70% of your maximum value. At this intensity we should be able
to keep going for an hour or more. Sleamaker advises us to do a lot
of "long-duration, low-intensity sessions - usually lasting at least
an hour and up to six to eight hours, depending on your fitness and
your plan".
So, to get yourself ready for the winter, no matter what fitness
level you are currently at, take yourself out and do some long, slow
distance. For most of us that will mean cycling or country walking
or Nordic walking. For some it will mean gentle running - but do
keep it gentle and be sure to keep your heart rate in the correct
zone. You will help yourself by using a heart-rate monitor. You can
now pick up good, cheap ones - for about ₤20
- in some supermarkets.
As a quick guide to the correct heart rate, subtract your age in
years from the number 220. This gives your "maximum heart rate. For
low intensity training keep your heart rate down to 60-70 percent of
your maximum. (So, if you are aged 50, your "maximum" will be 220
minus 50, or 170 beats per minute. Sixty percent of that is 102 and
seventy percent is 119.)
Sleamaker suggests that - for endurance athletes in general - the
base-training phase should last for the first four months of the
training year. For cross-country skiers this means roughly the
months of May, June, July and August. Thereafter the training should
move into an "intense" phase, where intensity levels are increased
to help prepare the athlete for the upcoming competitive season.
But, remember, this applies to competitive athletes. For the rest of
us there may be little point in moving to a very intense second
level. If our main aim is just to improve our general readiness for
the ski season we can make the base phase longer, and then maybe go
to a slightly more intense level, in which we do slightly less of
the long, slow distance and instead substitute some intervals and
speed work.
During the base-training phase we should ideally do some regular
STRENGTH training as well as the aerobic endurance work. More on
this next week.
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