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A Case For Base
Why You Should Focus On Aerobic Training In The Early Season

  Written by Adam Hodges Myerson
  Cycle-Smart President
  February 2, 2007

Riders talk about "base" quite a bit, but the unfortunate reality is that very few of us actually understand what base actually is, and how to go about getting it. The old school says lots of long, easy miles in the winter. But 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 will go to the other extreme. In their haste to be race-ready, they will flog themselves with interval training, only to find themselves exhausted once the season actually starts (and usually trying to fix their form by mistakenly doing even more of the same).

Base training focuses primarily and almost entirely on aerobic fitness, but that encompasses much more than just being able to do a 30-hour training week or a 6-hour ride. There are a number of different ways to achieve an effective aerobic training load, and a proper base emphasizes every aspect. Not only do you need long rides, but those rides can be made up of extensive and intensive aerobic intervals to truly raise your fitness level.

Cycle-Smart Training Articles A Case For Base    by Adam Hodges Myerson    February 2, 2007 Power, Stability, and Confidence    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 20, 2006 Training While You Work    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 25, 2006 Surviving The Trainer    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 2, 2006 You Gotta Have A Plan    by Adam Hodges Myerson    January 8, 2006 Peaking For Cyclo-Cross Nationals    by Adam Hodges Myerson    November 29, 2005 How To Improve Your Starts For Cyclo-cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    October 18, 2005 Interval Training for Cyclo-Cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 9, 2005 Hang On To That Form!    by Adam Hodges Myerson    August 9, 2005 Resting Your Way To Fitness    by Adam Hodges Myerson    June 22, 2005 How Long, How Hard, and How Often?    by Adam Hodges Myerson    May 25, 2005 Warming Up    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 11, 2005 "Training" in Training Races    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 13, 2005 Preparing for a Cyclo-Cross Race    by Johs Huseby    November 16, 2004 Choosing Between a Club or a Team    by Kirk Albers    October 6, 2004 Running for Cyclo-Cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 22, 2004 My Aching Back (and legs, shoulders, hips, feet, neck)    by Christine White    August 4, 2004 Key Workouts for Early Season Mountain Bike Racers    by Kurt Perham    July 14, 2004 The Philly File    by Adam Hodges Myerson    June 12, 2003 Training Weaknesses, Racing Strengths    by Adam Hodges Myerson    May 15, 2003 The Lanterne Rouge - The fine art of driving the bus in a stage race    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 18, 2003 Choosing a Coach    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 13, 2003

Your goals in a base training period are to increase your aerobic endurance and efficiency, and increase your functional threshold power. In a general sense, your goal is to increase the training load or stress you can handle as way to improve those other factors.

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 call whenever they can, with either extremely long rides, or extremely hard rides. You can get pretty fit training that way, to a point. Soon, the bottom 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, restraint, and discipline. Training with 100% efforts all the time or letting yourself get sucked into racing on the group rides is the obvious thing to do. 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 3 training zones you need to focus on during the base period (ignoring Zone 1 or Recovery for the sake of this article):

Zone 2: Easy

The range for Easy is from 56% and 75% of functional threshold power, or 71-80% of threshold heart rate. This is the basic endurance zone, and the first aerobic capacity training zone. Anything easier than this is recovery, not training. Rides that focus primarily on this zone may range from 2 – 7 hours, depending on the background and needs of the rider. These rides are designed to burn fat, increases mitochondrial density, and increase blood plasma volume.

Zone 3: Light/Tempo

The range for Light is from 76% to 90% of functional threshold power, and 81-90% of threshold heart rate. Also known as extensive duration, or tempo. The emphasis here is still on endurance, although intensive rides in this zone will also have a positive effect on threshold power, and a smaller positive effect on VO2 Max. Fuel sources are the same as in as previous zones, though fat begins to be used less, and glycogen becomes the primary fuel source.

Interval lengths for this zone can vary from 15-180 minutes, depending on the purpose of the interval, and the ride in general. A straight “tempo ride” for the purpose of building endurance will typically consist of a single uninterrupted interval that approaches the maximal time a rider can handle at this intensity. For newer riders early in a training program, that might be as little as 30-45 minutes, while it is extremely rare to find a rider who can ride continuously in this zone in excess of 3 hours. Expected physiological benefits from training in this zone include increased mitochondrial density, increased plasma volume, increased muscular endurance (time to fatigue), and increased muscle glycogen storage.

Zone 4: Middle/Threshold

Also known as intensive duration, Middle is the specific threshold training zone. The range is between 91% and 105% of threshold power, and 91-100% of threshold heart rate. This power level, when normalized for weight, is probably the single most important determinant of ability to race effectively at any level. This is the system used when doing extended (>5 minute) climbs, time trials, and long breakaways. The more power one can produce at threshold, the "higher" all the other intensity levels shift as a result, since threshold power is the anchor point.

Interval lengths for Middle can be from 5-60 minutes, again depending on the purpose of the interval and the ride in general. One way to think of threshold is as the most power you can continuously make for an hour. As such, it makes sense that a workout focusing specifically on building threshold power should include at least 15 minutes of work at this level, but probably no more than 60. Interval lengths when focusing on training threshold power ought to be in the 15-30 minute range. Shorter intervals can be used for opening up workouts, or as part of an intense warmup, but in general are not as effective at increasing threshold power as the longer blocks. The first 3-5 minutes of any interval in this zone are spent simply getting all metabolic systems up to speed. That’s perfect as a warmup, or as part of an opening ride, but less than ideal if the purpose is to get 30-60 minutes of real training in this zone.

Expected physiological benefits from training in this zone include increased mitochondrial density, increased plasma volume, improvement in VO2 Max, and increased sustainable power.

Notice that nowhere in these recommendations for the base period has there been mention of 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 season lasts, and how many more anaerobic intervals they can do once they finish their base training, the results speak for themselves. Normally in your base period, introducing racing or hard group rides once a week in the final month will provide you with all the anaerobic work you will need, and often more, as you begin to make that transition to being fully in season. Remember that training hard is easy. You want to add some brain to that brawn, and leave your ego, as well as your competitors, behind.

Special thanks to John Verheul, who contributed largely to original versions of this article.

To learn more about Adam, or for more articles by Cycle-Smart coaches, visit www.cycle-smart.com.

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