How to Do Base Training Properly

Get Fast Podcast, Ep 236, with Gerard and Jordan Donnelly

Base training is endurance work done without constant stopping, so fatigue builds through the whole session. Add some short, hard efforts and time spent on your weaknesses. Many fit athletes have a weaker base than they think. Getting this phase right sets up the rest of your season.

Should you take a break in the offseason?

Yes, but understand what it costs. Gerard doesn't want anyone training the same way all 52 weeks of the year. A season needs building, racing and recovery periods, and a mental break helps prevent burnout.

What has changed for Gerard over the years is how much attention he pays to what athletes do during that break. He uses a scale. Say you started at level five and you're now at seven, with a ceiling of 10. If you stop completely for six or eight weeks, you can drop back to five, then need another six or eight weeks to get back to seven. That's close to a third of the year spent getting back to where you were.

Athletes who keep some easy structure through their break avoid that drop and keep moving up. Gerard is clear that taking real time off is fine. Just don't expect to improve at the same rate as someone who kept looking after their fitness.

Jordan learned this himself. He stopped riding for a while and kept running, thinking he'd be fine. Getting back on the bike took six to 12 weeks of hard work, well short of the numbers he knew he could hit. He says he never wants to go backwards like that again.

The base phase also goes faster than you think. Before you know it, winter is ending and your first race is only weeks away.

What is the biggest base training mistake?

Stopping. Gerard often sees rides that look long on paper but include plenty of time standing still: coffee stops, traffic lights every hundred metres, or waiting at the top of hills for slower riders. Every stop is recovery, and recovery breaks up the steady build of fatigue that endurance work is meant to create.

To fix it:

• Choose courses without constant traffic lights.
• If you ride with a group of mixed ability, ride back down the hill to meet the slower riders instead of waiting at the top.
• Keep pressure on the pedals the whole way.
• Have as many coffees as you like, at the end of the ride.

The same goes for running. A long run around city streets brings constant stops at traffic lights. Driving out to the hills gives you a long run with no stops and more elevation.

What did the Zwift rides during lockdown show?

During Melbourne's long COVID lockdown, the squad rode long endurance rides together on Zwift. Gerard has ridden 100 to 200 km most Saturdays for 30 years and considered himself endurance fit. Even so, he got cramp at the 80 km mark of a 100 km ride in the first couple of weeks.

He worked out why. Outdoor rides include plenty of freewheeling and time off the pedals, even when you try to avoid it. On Zwift, the pressure never comes off. Athletes who came out of that period had the best performances of their careers over the next three to four months.

Zwift doesn't need to replace outdoor riding, but it's a good option when the weather is bad.

Why do fit athletes often lack a good base?

They may be doing fine in races, but they could be doing better. Gerard uses crit racers as an example. Riders who come out of winter with a strong base start the season flying. Riders who race week after week and drop their endurance riding get slower as the season goes on. Endurance work isn't only for the base phase. It stays in your program all year.

What intensity should you do in the base phase?

If you've just finished a long racing season, back off the intensity for a while first. After that, the base phase is the time for high-intensity work.

Jordan sees many endurance athletes doing lots of zone two to four work, such as bunch rides with steady zone three and four efforts. That leaves them short of top-end fitness. A more polarised approach works better:

• Most of your time on pure zone two endurance work.
• Short, hard sessions in zones five and six, not zone three and four.

Lifting your FTP and VO2 max takes practice at those intensities. In Gerard's words, you can't go from "a four-cylinder car to an eight-cylinder car" without practising what the bigger engine can do. Do more of the sessions you're not good at.

How can you keep base training interesting?

Find different events:

• Cross country races, fun runs or parkrun
• Zwift races
• Crit racing, for triathletes
• A gravel event

When this episode was recorded, the TriVelo coaching group had run a Thursday night winter handicap race on Zwift for four or five seasons. Beginners get an eight-minute head start on riders who win races, so everyone has a chance of winning.

What else should you work on?

Use the base phase to fix weaknesses:

• Let lingering niggles and injuries settle.
• Add strength, rehab or physio work.
• Add an extra session for your weakest triathlon leg.

If you do get injured during the season, don't rush back for a race that's too close. Gerard has told quite a few injured athletes to skip that race, enter a later one and redo the base work properly. Racing too soon is how athletes end up in a cycle of repeated injuries.

Related

• How we coach triathletes
• Cycling coaching
• Real athlete results
• About Gerard Donnelly