More often than not I am bombarded by athletes that want to run their first race, be it 10km’s, a half marathon or the full monty of 42kms. And they want to do it in just 8 weeks.
My response to this is usually something along the lines of “Go build your foundation, and I will build you your house”. Wait, what? How did this article suddenly become a DIY construction piece?
Well, it’s a metaphor I use for training my athletes. Without a foundation there is no house. And even if there is a house it doesn’t hold up well against the elements or time for that matter.
In this case the house is your training as a whole. The foundation is your base, or more specifically your aerobic base. Without which meaningful conditioning cannot be achieved.
Base training forms the foundation of all levels of endurance. It is the reason you will run, cycle or swim more efficiently. So join me as I take a deep dive into the world of true aerobic foundational programming.
Why is it Important to Build your Base?
Remember the house analogy in the introduction of this article? Now have you ever seen a house built from the roof down? Of course not, because that would be crazy. And I am pretty sure it goes against the laws of physics.
But back to my point, far too often I get athletes wanting to take a dive in the deep end. They jump straight into hill training, excessive tempo runs and multiple high volume long runs in a very short time frame.
And do you know what happens? They get hurt or develop some overuse injury that forces them to compensate and eventually they get you guessed it, hurt.
Do you want to know what does not happen? Any significant improvement in their conditioning.
Following a tapered approach to your training, starting with your base training and scaling it up from there, seems to be the winning formula. This approach allows your body to undergo significant adaptations through progressive overload. This is based on the fact that you will be giving your body enough time to build up the endurance it needs to withstand the coming weeks of higher load and intensity training.
Our bodies are adaptative by nature, but they need time with any new stimulus. And since most of you aren’t season runners, I mean why else would you need help with this topic, the amount of running you will be doing is a huge amount of new stimuli.
And that is why it is vitally important to build your aerobic base. This training allows for necessary physiological adaptations to occur allowing for improved conditioning and fitness. As well as significantly decreasing your chances of developing overuse injuries.
Always remember, when it comes to running, sometimes less is more.
How to Build your Aerobic Base in 3 Simple Steps
That’s a phrase one of my college professors used religiously. Now I might be butchering the actual statement but bear with me. You see when training for any specific goal, being able to keep track of your progress is a vital component of your training process.
Now here is an example of how it would look like for your first week as a runner:
Day | Workout |
|---|---|
MONDAY | 30 min run, 10 min warm up and cool down excluded. |
TUESDAY | 30 min run, 10 min warm up and cool down excluded. |
WEDNESDAY | 15 min run, at a faster average pace. |
THURSDAY | 30 min run, 10 min warm up and cool down excluded. |
FRIDAY | 15 min recovery run, the focus here is to build up a sweat but very little intensity. |
SATURDAY | 45 min run, 10 min warm up and cool down excluded. |
SUNDAY | Rest |
Add 10 - 15 minutes to each day the following week and repeat this process for a total of 4 weeks or until you're averaging around 60 minutes per run.
As you can see, it is actually very simple to do and that’s the point. This is by no means a complicated or super sophisticated method of training. But what it does guarantee is results… If you execute it correctly.
The History of Base Training
So where does base training originate from? Well, in the 60’s (1960s not 1860s) there was this coach based in New Zealand implementing training strategies that at the time was deemed unconventional at first, but turned out to be revolutionary in the end.
In a nutshell, he realized that when we first build our aerobic base before we implement interval and hill training. We develop a sort of deep foundational fitness. This was a stark contrast of what the top other coaches and athletes were doing at that time.
This mastermind was Arthur Lydiard, he developed a pyramid style training regime with aerobic training forming the base of the pyramid. Thus the term base training was coined and runners and coaches alike, all over the world started to adapt this mode of training.
Why? Well maybe because he athletes dominated the 1960 and 1964 Olympic games in events ranging from 800m to full marathon. Oh, and there was that one time where one of his athletes broke 6 world records (3 of them in a single week) so you know nothing crazy.
And it was from that moment on that the concept of aerobic base training was born. Later to be shortened and simply known as “base” training.
Understanding Aerobic Base Training
In order for you to understand the concept of aerobic base training you will need a quick crash course in exercise physiology. Don’t worry, it’s nothing too complicated.
So, I am willing to bet that you have heard the phrases “VO2max”, “Oxygen efficiency” and “lactic acid/lactate threshold”.
Simply put your VO2max is your individual capacity to take in oxygen and utilize it. The more oxygen you can use the better your VO2max will be.
Oxygen efficiency is how much effort your body needs to make to utilise the oxygen you take in order to improve performance.
And last but not least the infamous lactate build up also known as lactic acid accumulation.
Lactic acid or rather lactate is the byproduct of energy production during strenuous exercise. No, it’s not the aches and pains you feel days after an intense hill session, that is delayed onset muscle soreness.
Lactate build up is experienced as that burning sensation you get in your muscles during and immediately after tough workout sessions.
Lactate is unfortunately a hindrance to performance. The faster it builds up, the slower you will run, cycle or swim. The point where lactate accumulation starts to affect your performance is known as the lactate threshold.
The good news is that this threshold isn’t a finite construct, meaning it can be improved by increasing the threshold or rather delaying the point at which the threshold is reached. Science man, don’t you just love it!
Anyway, the equation is quite simple. The more you train the better your VO2max will become. An improved VO2max results in a better oxygen or running efficiency and ultimately a higher lactate threshold.
In layman’s terms, improved conditioning and a higher level of aerobic fitness.
And that ladies and gentlemen is the basic physiology behind base training!
Obviously there are a lot more factors to consider and then there is the fact that each person is physiologically different. But the core basis of this concept is still quite straight forward.
ConClusion
Aerobic base training was coined by Arthur Lydiard, he realized that when we first build our aerobic base before we implement interval and hill training. We develop a sort of deep foundational fitness. This training allows for necessary physiological adaptations to occur allowing for improved conditioning and fitness.
As well as significantly decreasing your chances of developing overuse injuries. By strategically and conservatively increasing running time and intensity over a set period of weeks, you can significantly improve your aerobic fitness as well as your overall conditioning.
By implementing aerobic base training, you will be getting your body “ready” for all the grueling interval and hill workouts you will be doing in order to get race ready!
So remember, go build your foundation before you build your house.
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