Base Training Benefits

            Should we jump into two or three spin classes a weeks plus start hammering in all the masters swim classes?  How about racing for a personal best in every fall, winter and spring fun run we enter?  Not a good idea.  This is a common error for many aspiring triathletes and endurance athletes.  If you are aiming for status quo as an endurance athlete and never really hope to excel beyond where you are now, by all means, go for the everything now approach and become a “preseason hero!”  However, if you are interested in discovering the upper echelon of your physical capacities, take a step back and figure out what really needs to be accomplished.

The most important thing you can do now is train your body to do more of less effort (improve economy and efficiency) and at the same time develop a training resiliency that will allow you to enjoy faster recoveries from intense training sessions later in your season. 

Steps to improve economy, efficiency and endurance resiliency 

1)      Train consistently at lower intensities

2)      Improve your triathlon-related technical skills

3)      Increase your endurance-specific strength, balance, core stability, power and flexibility

4)      Lose nonessential body weight

5)      Improve nutrition and sleep habits

6)      Practice exercising and non-exercising breathing and relaxation techniques.

7)      Decrease mental fatigue through low-stress easy training.

Make your group classes work for you

I am not saying to skip spin classes for now or back out of master classes. You can even do most fun runs if you put the right focus on them.  Below are some ideas on how to work all the fun and challenging group training opportunities into an optimal program for you. 

If you have a hard time pushing big gears on the bike, than choose spin classes that offer repetitive hill climbing and strength work.  Just because you are in spin class does not mean you have to max out during every workout, but if you have a hard time pushing the high-end max efforts by yourself, choose one class each week that will help you develop this component of your fitness. 

Definitely go to master swim classes, but if you have three classes a week, try to swim really fast during one of these days and focus on technique and endurance the other days. 

As for fun runs: hop in and have fun but don’t run the whole race at top effort when you are not trained properly.  Instead, focus on running at a controlled strong aerobic or tempo heart rate for the first miles and then test out your legs with a fast last mile or a few intervals during the last half of the race.

Base Training doesn’t always meant easy training

            Building a training base should encompass most fitness components, including aerobic fitness, strength, sprints (define better…what kind of max power?), maximum aerobic power (VO2max), flexibility, biomechanics, balance, and lactate and aerobic thresholds.  Because it is very difficult to work on all these fitness components at the same time I encourage athletes to work on the areas that are more difficult or less practical to fit in during race season.  The most important fitness components to train for during race season are lactate and aerobic thresholds because both often convert directly to the pace an athlete will use in a triathlon.  It is very hard on the body to train at lactate threshold intensities and VO2max efforts in the same training period; especially when you are training for three sports in one. 

I encourage athletes to work on V02max efforts along with higher volume aerobic training.  The aerobic training builds muscular endurance and cardiovascular efficiency.  The VO2max training incorporates intensities that you could only keep up for about five minutes.  Typically VO2max workouts include just a few (3 to 5) intervals lasting around 1 to 2.5 minutes with a full recovery afterwards.  Because these efforts are more intense than lactate threshold, you will transition smoothly into LT threshold training as your season nears.

How flexibility and biomechanics come in.

Flexibility and biomechanics should be addressed specifically in your sport with complementary workouts designed to address each component.  To run faster you need greater range of motion to handle the longer stride length and increased force application.  Simply building strides into your routine, where you slowly increase speed of set of short 5 to 15second runs, will enhance your running specific flexibility and biomechanics. 

On the bike, if you are planning on racing in areobars, you need to be flexible in your low back and hamstrings to get the most out of this position.  Without the appropriate flexibility your pedal stroke will suffer—make sure you address these areas in your stretch routine.  Work with your local tri or bike shop and get properly fitted on your bike.

Swimming is technically demanding, making the practice of proper mechanics unavoidable.  However, do not over look flexibility.  After shoulder flexibility, an aspiring swimmer should address ankle flexibility.  Often I come across athletes who go backwards when attempting to use only their kick to propel themselves.  This is because their ankles are not extending (plantar flexing).  The best way to improve this situation is to just plain kick a lot more, both with and without flippers.  Specifically stretching your ankles will also help.

I am going to save the topic of strength training for another article, but hopefully these suggestions offer some practical thought on this rather broad topic for now.

Enjoy this exciting and dynamic time in your training.

Coach Jared

Date modified: 12/7/2009