TriAya's Group: SHUT like dog on steak, sorry! (Page 10)

My bad! They look so much like PI's Vagabonds ... but they are GREAT and it is always important to match.

BASE BUILDING

As with every aspect of tri training, there are as many different opinions on how to build base as there are coaches, and every athlete is coming in with a different background and needs. These are just the basics and what I’ve found to be areas of consensus in my research, which does mean there are going to be some gross generalizations. Conversely, even for its simplicity, it gets technical/science-y in some places  As always … grain of salt, dig around for yourself, ask questions, etc. Also, I’ve organized the info as best I can, but I realize there are some places it gets messy. Best I can do for an internet forum post written quickly! Finally, feel free to ask specific questions about how this fits into your current level of fitness / training plan / life goals / will you get to heaven (re. tri heaven, only if you do base, I assure you ).

Building a Foundation

As the name suggests, this period of training is the foundation of the endurance athlete’s training cycle, and it mainly consists of long, steady aerobic work of increasing distance. This type of training should make up the majority of your cycle, especially as a beginning triathlete (that includes me). You know how the experienced athletes keep saying, “Just swim bike run, swim bike run …” and that nothing substitutes for time in the disciplines? Absolutely true, for many reasons. Simply, practice makes perfect. You’re training your nervous and muscular systems to respond in the way you want. You’re building strength in the exact ways you need it in order to race tri.

The question is, how exactly does one swim bike run, how much, and when?

The simple answer, as it pertains to base, is that if the most important thing is T.I.T.S. (Time In The … Saddle/Swim/Street), then the way you can SAFELY get the most time in is by doing your workouts at an aerobic level. If you train with heart rate zones of some kind, then you’re looking at approximately 50-75% max, and towards the lower end as you’re just starting out in your training or training season. [Lactate threshold heart rate is a better way to train, but ask me and/or do your own research if you really want details … I don’t want to “zone” out into numbers or areas of intense debate here.] Simply put: do your workouts at a pace where you could carry on a conversation. All your workouts, through the whole workout, during base training.

This is an area of contention. If you PM me (or several of you ask me to post) I will give you my reasons for saying “all workout, each workout.” If you look at the research/information yourself, you will at the very least find that nearly all coaches will say the more of a beginner endurance athlete you are, a) the more of that base should be in aerobic work, and b) the longer of a base period you need.

Let me repeat the most important part: the way you can safely do the most time training is at a lower intensity (aerobic level).

Physical Changes and Benefits

The major effect is that your body learns to use oxygen most efficiently to power your muscles, and the tried-and-true method to doing this is spending a lot of time in aerobic base building. (Cardiovascular fitness is related: basically, your heart—a muscle—has to do a lot less work to deliver oxygen, and aerobic fitness is that your cells, most importantly your muscle cells, can use that oxygen most efficiently). You’ll notice that some of these benefits are similar to those of active-recovery workouts (which are done at the low end of the aerobic zone).

The bottom line is that building a strong aerobic base is the #1 way to increase your athletic performance. If you want to go faster, first, go slower. In base, you gradually becomes faster while you are still putting forth the same amount of effort. Then if you eventually really put a lot of effort in (say, in a race), you will go much faster.

1. Improves fat metabolism. In aerobic training, your body preferentially uses fat as a fuel source, and the more you do, the more you are training your body to prefer fat for fuel. (Important for weight loss—the lower the intensity, the longer you can go, the more fat you will burn. Simplification, but fairly true). The number of enzymes that help convert fat into energy increase.
2. Develops slow twitch muscle fibers. These get bigger. They are the muscle fibers that will contract repeatedly without fatiguing (=> endurance).
3. Increases capillary density. Capillaries are small blood vessels that deliver oxygen to your muscles. The more you have, the longer you can continue to perform (=> endurance). 
4. Reduces risk of injury. You’re putting a manageable amount of stress on your joints, muscles, and connective tissue so they build up. Obviously, this is good in any case. Also, if/when you eventually introduce higher-intensity training, you will be putting a lot of stress on your body, and you’ll need to have your frame built strong.
5. Strengthens immune system. As above—good in any case, and higher-intensity straining also stresses the immune system, so it’s good to have it already strong.
6. More energy.

A) Energy in the sports sense. The number of mitochondria increase: these  structures in the cell produce energy. So => more energy. Important for races!

B) Energy in the layperson sense. You rev your metabolism without taxing your body too much. At most (to borrow a phrase from a friend), the workouts leave you “pleasantly tired.” If you’re getting a lot of training in, it’s important to avoid burnout, and doing the workouts at an aerobic intensity does just that. These workouts give you a sense of well-being instead of “I’m blown out;” they relieve stress and improve your quality of sleep.

C) You recover more easily from these workouts, so you can do more training (or attend to life—pretty important, huh?)

7. Mental improvements. (Will say lots more when I do a significant mental training post. These can’t really be lumped in a separate category, but I wanted this post to make some sense). You can be more relaxed and at ease, practice “meditative” workouts, and the steady rhythm of the workout (as opposed to having to “dig deep” or do intense intervals) lends itself well to mental focus that you’ll need for races. Remember, even “sprint” tris are 1-3 hours long.

Phew! That was a lot. Again, the BOTTOM LINE: building a strong aerobic base is the #1 way to increase your athletic performance, especially for a beginner endurance athlete. In any case, unless you build a strong aerobic base, your body is likely to break down, rather than benefit, from high-intensity training.

Duration of Base Period

The longer, the better. Like, years. Reality check: while the journey is the true reward, we want to do races, too. They motivate us by having something to work toward, something to enjoy, and then something to improve on.

Back to ideal (to help explain why a long base period is so important and makes up so much of the training cycle). This is what Joe Friel (who wrote the BIBLES, after all) has to say about it:

“Endurance implies an aerobic level of exertion … For the novice multisport athlete, endurance is the key to improvement. Emphasize this ability above all others in the first year or two of training … A high level of endurance takes years to mature … Plan on taking months and even years to fully develop endurance, rather than days or weeks.”

If you want to do more intense training, do it. Just build up to it with a proper base (and those in our group who have done a lot of long-distance stuff already have a fairly good base going.) But also know that it will not, in fact, kill you (and may benefit you as a beginner triathlete) to just do base work until it’s time to taper and peak for a race. [Interestingly enough, it’s how nearly every beginning marathon program works.] This way, too, you’re keeping your risk of injury and burnout low.

Many athletes struggle with doing base and staying in it for long periods of time—“I don’t really feel like I’m getting a workout!” What you’re not getting is that intense rush. What you are getting is the most important kind of workout.

I would also say building base is as fun as you want to make it. Remember: run/walk is a type of interval that breaks a workout up, makes it easier, makes it more interesting, lets you work out for longer. Also, as you progress through base, you get fitter, so you can incorporate things like hills or faster swim intervals and still remain aerobic.

Back to the point: so just how many months? If you look at the literature, we’re talking a bare minimum of two months (assuming you’re rebuilding base after having some experience in endurance sports). Again, the longer the better. If you’ve never built a base before or have taken an extended break, three or four months.

I was "lucky" enough to test this theory for nearly every race this year.  Talk about timing.  It never was too much of an issue, and I didn't feel too depleted, and in fact, my first tri, I won the Athena division.  Maybe there's something to it?

Terri, you are the poster child for why base building at a moderate pace WORKS, and why it's so important. GREAT JOB!!!

ERIN on BASE BUILDING (Oly tri, beginning swim) 

Yes, but note the "reality check" clause in the post. "Too many races" for sure is if you're not getting enough recovery time in between. Treeathlon is March; Battle of the Bay is April; that's just fine!

You do have a decent run base built up for sprint tris and short road races; not so much the Oly. Oly is better thought of as a mini-HIM than a sprint-plus. In fact, some parts of the BT Oly training plans call for more volume than the HIM plans, mainly because it's good to have that base. Most of the BT beginner training plans have this caveat:

"This program IS JUST a volume-builder.  If your new to endurance, its recommended to focus on only volume for your first year, the following years you can start adding intensity-specific workouts as you will have a good base.  BUT the following program is easily modified for intensity training."

As you ramp into the Oly training, just pay good attention to your breathing and level of exertion. If you can keep a 9+min/mi as you increase the distance, great! But if you're slowing down on runs or huff-n-puffing, then slow the pace or insert walk breaks. 

Decide after April.

You are right. Swimming is a different beast. The good news is that, in some sense, base is base (you're making aerobic fitness gains regardless of discipline), and you already have built an adequate aerobic base through running. For one thing, it's pretty hard to jack up your heart rate in swimming unless you're really flailing and sinking. For another, technique FIRST trumps all other considerations. Here's a gross summary/paraphrase of Tom Rodgers (a well-known tri coach and frequent Ironman AG winner):

Swimming is more like playing the piano or swinging a golf club; that's why it's called (rightly) "swim practice" rather than "workout." Water is 1000x denser than air, and look how many thousands of dollars and how much time we spend on aerobars, bikes, positioning, etc. Training for the swim (especially for the beginner) consists of frequency of practice, repetitive drills, and frequent intervals [note from Yanti: you'll build up plenty of endurance doing that, and better to get the technique down before doing long swim sets--otherwise it's like swinging a golf club incorrectly hundreds of times].

Without even taking into account the multiple factors of OWS, our own position in water is a three-dimensional affair (as opposed to running and biking, where you're generally only focusing on two dimensions, and not nearly to the vast degree as swimming). This multidimensionalism requires far more balance, but isn't self-correcting like it is on the run and bike: if you swim incorrectly or are imbalanced, you can repeat it  thousands of times.

Your weight is supported; recovery time within and between practice is less and you can train more often. Your heat dissipates in the water.

Looks to me like you are a wise and disciplined athlete by taking rest when you need it.

I'm interested to hear this too!

I just typed a big paragraph and my computer locked up and lost all the info, that sucks. With that said her is the short version:

Three months ago when I started swimming I had to rest every 25 to 50 meters. I can now swim up to a mile without stopping. I know that my form is probably not correct but what an improvement on my endurance and distance. After reading all the swim discussion I have come to realize that I may be that golfer that swings away a hundred times and keeps missing the fairway. With that said you have all inspired me to get with a swim coach after the first of the year. Especially since I do not really practice any drills and pretty much keep to continous freestyle. I assumed that was how you built a swimming base and it has worked to this point but after reading everything it is obvious that if I'm to improve I will need experienced guidance.

MrsUSMC - 2007-12-18 11:41 AM Thank you Hector. It's always nice, while I'm hanging on the side of the pool huffing and puffing, to realize that others have done it before me and it will happen less and less as my endurance builds up

Trust me I know exactly how you feel and something tells me I will experience the same thing again once I start doing drills. If it makes me faster then it will all be worth it.

HCS5QA - 2007-12-18 3:42 PM

MrsUSMC - 2007-12-18 11:41 AM Thank you Hector. It's always nice, while I'm hanging on the side of the pool huffing and puffing, to realize that others have done it before me and it will happen less and less as my endurance builds up

Trust me I know exactly how you feel and something tells me I will experience the same thing again once I start doing drills. If it makes me faster then it will all be worth it.

it will indeed! 

HCS5QA - 2007-12-18 4:09 PM

lastcall2003 - 2007-12-18 1:44 PM

HCS5QA - 2007-12-18 3:42 PM

MrsUSMC - 2007-12-18 11:41 AM Thank you Hector. It's always nice, while I'm hanging on the side of the pool huffing and puffing, to realize that others have done it before me and it will happen less and less as my endurance builds up

Trust me I know exactly how you feel and something tells me I will experience the same thing again once I start doing drills. If it makes me faster then it will all be worth it.

it will indeed! 

Hey beth! Thanks for all the swim tips, believe it or not I am soaking it up. 

You're welcome!  I'm glad they are helping - I'll be posting some more soon

(soon being in the next couple of days, I'm a little under the weather today )

HCS5QA - 2007-12-18 3:42 PM

MrsUSMC - 2007-12-18 11:41 AM Thank you Hector. It's always nice, while I'm hanging on the side of the pool huffing and puffing, to realize that others have done it before me and it will happen less and less as my endurance builds up

Trust me I know exactly how you feel and something tells me I will experience the same thing again once I start doing drills. If it makes me faster then it will all be worth it.

It just takes time - the focus on technique will really help.  I think it's great that you are going to seek out a coach

swimming can be very difficult to try and figure out on your own - the in person feedback is very valuable