Base training explained

**timothy.john** · 8th November 2012

**timothy.john** · 8th November 2012

More from Jo McRae, this time on effective winter training.

**Greg Quinn** · 8th November 2012

Why do you have to stick to lower intensity riding exclusively for three to four months? Surely you will lose out on top end power.

**ls28harry** · 8th November 2012

Just on with mine now. As you say, try to climb a hill without going to the next HR zone is almost impossible. It kills the club rides for me, (Too many hills round here). If I sit on the turbo on stay on the canals then I'm fine. The trouble is it removes the enjoyment and turns the ride into training session against the clock.

**Jo McRae** · 9th November 2012

Originally Posted by Greg Quinn

Why do you have to stick to lower intensity riding exclusively for three to four months? Surely you will lose out on top end power.

Physiologically the body responds and adapts most effectively if you focus on one aspect of your fitness at any time. This does not need to be completely exclusive of all other elements, but this phasic cycling in and out of different focal points is called periodization and is a key training principle used across all sports to enable athletes to ‘peak’ at a given time for a given event. If training is more ad hoc or random in nature, fitness will improve for a period but is likely to plateaux fairly quickly. Periodisation allows for further progression but makes it necessary to allow for an apparent drop in performance in some areas, while you work on others.
In brief, you are right that if you focus exclusively or predominantly on ‘base’/ lower intensity work you will lose top end power for a while. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.

If you visualise your cycling fitness as an equilateral pyramid or triangle with your peak performance or peak power at the top, you have a good visual representation of how this idea works. To be ‘more powerful’ you want the peak of your triangle to be higher. If you consider your ‘base fitness’ as the bottom of this pyramid, the broader the base the higher your peak is going to be. At the bottom you have the longer, lower intensity riding, and at the top you have the shorter, faster, harder riding. The winter is about building your base nice and broad and stable and then adding the height as you approach the spring/summer season. Without a good solid ‘base’ it’s difficult to build towards a peak.

There are some short cuts to a short term peak, but they effectively leave you with a narrow, unstable triangle. You may produce a good performance once or twice, but then your pyramid is likely to topple over. A rider with a good solid base will always be able to build a higher peak, performing more consistently and continuing to progress, but it takes confidence and commitment to take this longer term view and allow your ‘top end’ to fade while you work on the bottom.

**Beetlejuice** · 12th November 2012

Thanks, this was a pretty good read. I train without the use of HRM or power meter so I'm usually guessing when it comes to exertion levels. Would you say it's OK to be putting in say 2 or 3 gym sessions on top of your endurance rides?

**Bally** · 13th November 2012

"The higher end of the endurance or ‘base training’ zone will be roughly 35 to 45 beats per minute less than your ramp test maximum heart rate, or around 85-95 % of your sustainable 20 minute heart rate. Whatever the method of testing you use and whichever corresponding system of levels you work with there seems to be agreement that this higher level of ‘endurance’ work is critical in building ‘base’ ".
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The top end appears to be about 82% MHR which is the top limit of BC zone 3 (75-82% MHR). What is the optimum intensity to be targetting and what is the lower end?
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If commuting for only a total of 1 hour a day, is it still beneficial to keep the intensity below the upper level or is it too short a duration to matter?

**Bally** · 27th November 2012

Bump.
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TJ, can you get some answers to the above for me please?

**manic-me** · 30th November 2012

I'd also like a bit of clarification of durations for this type of session. I can fit in 50mins to 1 hour several lunchtimes a week - are these long enough sessions to be of benefit ?
Or should we be aiming for > 90 mins ?
If they do need to be long sessions what should I be doing in my lunchhour ( I'm going to regret asking that I can see :-) )

**ruariatp** · 17th January 2013

Riding fixed in the winter is a pretty time-efficient way to build a base for racing.. http://andbethere.blogspot.it/2013/0...in-winter.html might have some useful tips?