It may seem counterintuitive to revert to base training every year after reaching new heights of performance, but this strategy pays dividends come race season.
What is Base Fitness?
Base fitness is synonymous with aerobic-base fitness, and this type of fitness is achieved via specific training that spurs particular physiological adaptations. Much like the name implies, this form of fitness is the very base upon which all further training is built.
But what exactly is it? I often see the same set of aerobic adaptation terms thrown around with little explanation of what each term actually means, so allow me:
Increased capillarization
– Translation: more of our tiniest blood vessels which deliver blood (oxygen & nutrients) to the muscle cells and also remove metabolic waste
Increased mitochondrial proliferation
– Translation: more of the muscle cell components that aerobically process fuel necessary for muscle contraction
Increased aerobic enzymes
– Translation: more of the catalysts necessary to aerobically produce energy from incoming fuel
Increased cardiac output
– Translation: more blood pumped out resulting in greater blood distribution per heartbeat
Increased fat metabolism
– Translation: more fat can be metabolized which reduces the amount of sugar necessary to fuel your muscles
All of these adaptations coalesce to achieve a shared outcome, which is more oxygen extraction at the muscle. The more O2 the muscle can utilize, the more work it can do–aerobically–and generate only water and CO2 as waste products.
Why Base Training is Important
Much like a pyramid, our fitness is built in a hierarchal fashion with the initial work serving as a critical foundation that will eventually support a higher peak. This foundation is achieved through effective base training in which a cyclist raises their fitness level. During this phase there are various transformations happening on different levels, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll just focus on the efficiency of muscles to transform energy into speed on the bike.
As you focus your training on developing your aerobic capacity, you train your body to become more efficient at turning fuel into energy using oxygen. This transformation takes place within the mitochondria in your muscles. So, as you spend more time stressing your aerobic energy system, your body creates more mitochondria that are more efficient. The best news of all is that your mitochondria are involved in turning energy into speed at higher intensities as well as low intensities.
Are There Other Benefits of Base Training?
So those are many of the physiological and structural benefits achieved through base conditioning, but there are others. Of keen importance to endurance athletes is the heartiness of our connective tissue. This is often referred to as joint durability, and it’s something that occurs over a longer span of time than most of the more obvious fitness gains.
Rushing this slower adaptive process opens the door for frequent joint injuries. A lot of athletes will move into too much high-intensity work before their underlying support tissues can handle the stress. So if you’re new to endurance sports, coming back from a long layoff, or you’ve dealt with your fair share of joint injuries already, base training is where to start.
Also of merit is the act of gradually increasing your basic tolerance for work. It’s easy to compromise the effectiveness of high-quality, high-intensity workouts by failing to adequately prepare your mind and body for them. Base training does just that, regardless of whether you choose a Traditional or Sweet Spot approach.
What’s the Main Difference between Traditional Base and Sweet Spot Base?
Base training is most commonly accomplished via a traditional, longer, slower approach that imposes high amounts of low-intensity stress. But there is plenty of evidence to support lower overall training volume in exchange for more demanding levels of intensity. This is where Sweet Spot training enters the picture. But first, let’s explain the traditional approach to base training and why riders might choose to take it.
The Traditional Approach
The traditional approach to base training has athletes putting in long hours on the bike at lower intensities (less than 75% FTP) so that they are using as much of their aerobic energy system as possible. It’s a logical solution that has additional benefits that include an increased dependency on fat as a fuel source, and an opportunity to mentally reset from an arduous season of training and racing. It can be effective, but it is hindered by a number of factors that affect the large majority of cyclists.
Firstly, this type of easy riding requires a completely different mentality than a racer’s mentality. After a season of hard racing at high intensities, it can be extremely demotivating to spin easily for hours on end, turn down a friendly city limits sprint with your mates or avoid going for PRs on your favorite climbs. What this does is label base training as a period of necessary restraint during your training plan, hence the bad reputation base training has earned.
However deterring the mentality may be, it is nowhere near as restrictive as availability. While there are plenty of cyclists that have more than ten hours to train per week, they are a very small minority amongst cyclists around the world.
Most people are time-poor with greater family and professional responsibilities that limit their available training time. The reason this is so limiting in the context of traditional base training is due to the fact that the improvements you are chasing only come through a very large amount of volume. If a cyclist is training at these low intensities without high volume, then they are doing very little to build their aerobic capacity.
The Sweet-Spot Approach
Nearly all cyclists have schedules that don’t allow them to put in the necessary training volume to get the desired adaptations out of a traditional base training approach. But that doesn’t mean cyclists shouldn’t dedicate time to base training. The Sweet Spot approach foregoes the high volume/ low-intensity approach for one of low volume/higher intensity, allowing cyclists to build their endurance in less time while preparing for the intense demands of race season.
Sweet Spot training requires working at a fairly high percentage of your FTP without pushing things too high, too soon. And it does it in relatively very little training time. This allows riders to establish a high level of fatigue resistance which lends itself very well to harder and/or longer efforts down the road.
Sweet Spot training concurrently develops a sufficient base of aerobic fitness coupled with an ample amount of muscle endurance. This helps you achieve many of the benefits of longer, slower work while also increasing your moderate-intensity stamina in the process.
The way this is accomplished is through higher intensity intervals that fall inside or around the Sweet Spot power zone (88-94%). These are far from all-out efforts and although the anaerobic energy system is making an increased contribution, the aerobic system is still being relied upon to a large degree. With higher intensity efforts like this, the aerobic capabilities are being stressed in numerous muscle fibers, and groundwork is being laid to increase overall work capacity. It’s hard work, but it’s engaging and very effective at preparing cyclists for a successful season of racing.
Are There Cases Where Bypassing Base Makes Sense?
Yes. The most common case where riders can bypass a base training phase involves an athlete who has fairly recently undergone a base phase. If base conditioning has already been performed, its effects tend to last a long time assuming some form of maintenance training takes place. In that case, a single base phase can carry a rider an entire year in many situations.
This also applies to cyclists who have worked through an entire Base/Build/Specialty cycle and are entering into another season of competition. At this point, bypassing the Base phase and instead embarking on a repeat Build and/or Specialty phase makes good sense.
One final case for ditching base training revolves around highly experienced, well-conditioned athletes. However, this may not entail completely skipping base training but rather reducing its duration. Commonly, we’ll see athletes of this nature trim a 12-week base phase down to as little as 4-6 weeks.
These tend to be athletes with enough experience that they don’t rely on the recommendations of others. They know from vast amounts of experience just how much base conditioning they need.
Conclusion
For most of us, Base training will forever signify the start of another training year. We’ll use it annually to nail down the essential forms of fitness before we endeavor to get more specialized and event-specific with our training. And we’ll do it not because we’re supposed to, but because it’s scientific, time-proven, consistently beneficial and prudent.
If you’re ready to start your base training, check out the Base training plans TrainerRoad has available.
Listen to the Discussion on Base Training
“Can I skip base training?” is a question we answered in one of our earliest episodes of the Ask a Cycling Coach. Listen to the episode’s full recording below to hear this and other questions from cyclists get answered.
Other Topics Covered in this Episode
- How to become a faster climber
- Why you should get rid of needless tension in your body when training
- How to ride faster in the flats
- How to choose between oval and standard chainrings
- How to plan your meals around training
- How to train for cycling at an old age
- How to manage training stress
- Why you should always train with a power meter
- Why mid-season slumps happen and how to manage them
- How to train for a long event with short training
- How to control your electronic trainer with your power meter
- Why does my power meter read differently than my electronic trainer
- How to combine running with an indoor cycling plan
- How your heart rate zones relate to your power zones
- How to manage cramping for cyclists
- Can I race during base training
- How to use the Kinetic inRide 2.0 with TrainerRoad
For more answers to your cycling training questions, listen to our podcast Ask a Cycling Coach — the only podcast dedicated to making you a faster cyclist. New episodes are released weekly.
The information in this article was last updated on December 20, 2017.
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As an elite enduarance athlete, educator, exercise and environmental exercise physiologist I must concur with Mr. Lee. I’m glasd you guys are on the right track. Well done!
Thanks William!
In line with this podcast on base training, what combination of training plans (base, build, century… ?) would you suggest to prepare for the Triple Bypass Century (10000 ft ascent) July 2016 in Colorado? I am a Master Age cyclist and have been riding several years and have completed several hilly centuries. My body works well with two weeks on one week recovery but am not set in stone with this training goal since Trainer Road training could produce CTL at a different pace. I use a Computrainer and Training Peaks software. I would like to move to a higher level of fitness. What would you suggest as a training plan for 2016. I have two A events planned and 2 or 3 B events. The first A event is 7/2016.
Hi Lewis,
I’m actually in the same boat as you, but usually only when it comes to the more race-specific specialty training. But you can apply my approach to any training phase.
You’ll simply reutilize the recovery weeks in a manner like this: week 1, week 2, week 4 (recovery); week 3, week 5, week 4 (recovery), week 6, week 7, week 8 (recovery).
In the event the recovery week isn’t enough of a reduction in workload for that particular week, trim down the number of workouts or even the intervals within the workouts in order to keep your TSS in line with your particular requirements.
The Podcast seems to be broken?
Thanks for the heads up Simon. All fixed!
I read on Slowtwitch that you were close to adding Ironman specific base training plans to the queue. How close are we to seeing this? Thanks!
We’re hard at work on those as we speak. Expect an announcement very soon 🙂
For those trying to decide between traditional and SS, I’ll mention that in episode 11 of the podcast, they say that unless you are doing high volume on traditional, you should be doing sweet spot. I find it curious that they even bother listing low and mid volume plans for traditional.
We’ve debated listing those before, but they are used by a lot of people, and for good reason. It’s all relative to what the cyclist’s past and current training volume/intensity is, and what their available training time is.
For some people, Traditional Base Low Volume may be a step up in volume from what they are used to. For example, those recovering from injury, just getting into training or returning from a hiatus would align with that scenario.
Many people use those plans as supplementary plans as well. If they are planning to do a lot of unstructured riding outside, but want to get in a small amount of structured, low-intensity work inside, then a lower volume Traditional Base plan would be a good fit.
For the majority of cyclists, Sweet Spot base will be a better fit. Most of us don’t have unlimited time to train, and the greatest benefits of the Traditional Base approach come when coupled with a great deal of volume. Another reason Sweet Spot Base is good for the majority is that most of us are not so close to our physiological limits for a whole season of racing that we are required to take the traditional approach to rebuild.
Hopefully that clarifies things for you Travis. 🙂
Post not answer the question, example “if i have ride outdoors 2 seasons, mo than 5000 km in a season, have ftp more than 280 w… , can ride with avg speed 3… Km/h…..” Do I Need base training?
If you have the time, Coach Chad always sees benefit in Base training. If you’re an incredibly base-conditioned athlete, the Low- and Mid- Traditional Base approach may not provide the necessary stimulus to spur the intended aerobic adaptations you’re looking for. However, in nearly all cases the workouts included in Sweet Spot Base are relevant to all athletes.
So to answer your question: we think you’ll definitely benefit from going through with some Base training with one of our Sweet Spot Base plans. 🙂
Hope this helps, Lex!
Hey Jonathan, Im still confused as to whether I should skip base training or not.
This calendar year Ive:
– completed riding an approx distance of 10,000 km, mainly on a trainer, (using Zwift) and climbed over 70,000 metres
– completed the Zwift 6 week FTP foundation builder workout set
– ridden in numerous Zwift group rides which include sprints and races in the final lap/s
I am soon to begin using the TrainerRoad plans but Im not sure where to start.
Thanks for your help.
BTW, I really enjoy your podcasts, (5/5), and I believe they help motivate cyclists to subscribe to your workout program.
It really just comes down to time. If you have the time, you will still most definitely benefit in going through with a Base phase. And it sounds like you’ll be best off doing Sweet Spot Base because of the intensity peppered in, and considering you’ve logged some miles indoors already. Then, depending on what cycling discipline you’d like to excel in, choose your choice of Build and Specialty plan.
It’s never really a matter of whether or not you need base training, it’s more of how much and how frequently you should revisit it. About the only time our head coach recommends skipping base is mid-season if you plan to re-build towards a second peak in a race season.
Looking forward to this training season — cheers!
Once the base is established somewhat (e.g., through completion of a plan at mid-volume), can you repeat builds? E.g., mid vol SS base, then hi-volume build, hi-volume build, then specialty? Or should you stay in base if you don’t have an event on the calendar yet? (put another way, how long can you stay in build? could you do a sustained power build, then take a recovery week, then go into a general or short power build? etc). How do you stack them if you don’t want to reach your peak fitness till an event you have yet to schedule?
I’ve been following the trainer road. I’m 63% done with the build phase “short power build”. My goal is to compete in a few crit races in march. I’m fairly new to cycling (5months) but decently fir…for a 44yr old anyway. My question is, can I switch some of the sessions around during the week, i.e. do Wednsdays session on thursday, and thurs on wed? I ask because I’m off on Wednsday so have more time to do the more intense ride. On thursdays I work 12 hr days, so get home late, making it harder for me to push as hard as the session requires. And also, I skipped the base phase, but seem to be handling the load just fine. Was that a mistake?
Hey Wil,
We definitely don’t recommend skipping the Base Phase, but if you had been riding outdoors pretty regularly beforehand, you may be able to cope with jumping into Build.
As for switching days around, you are more than welcome to do so 🙂 As long as you still commplete all the rides assigned for the week, you will achieve nearly identical fitness gains. While you are unable to actually alter the calendar view by moving around the assigned days for workouts, the Training Plan calendar will mark your rides complete as they are done, regardless of the day you do them.
What we don’t recommend is for riders to regularly skip rides or substitute rides that are vastly different in nature from the workouts within the plan.
I hope this helps clarify things but please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns!
I’ve been using Trainerroad now for 3 years and love it. I’m coming off of 2 Ironman races Mont Tremblant in August and Arizona in November. My bike splits were 5:04 and 4:55. I averaged 12-16 hours per week of total training time through the summer and fall other than a two week break after Mont Tremblant. I took 3 weeks off with only swimming after Arizona. I’m just starting to bike again this week. My A race next season will be Kona in October. My first race of the season will be a 70.3 in June followed by a couple Olympic and possibly one more 70.3 later in August. What plans would you recommend I follow in my lead up to spring and throughout the summer?
Hey Kris,
This is hard to say based on not knowing the exact dates, events, or what you have been doing leading up until now. If you are starting your season now, you will be just a few weeks short of a complete Half Distance Triathon Base/Build/Specialty Progression. As such, I would recommend completing as much as you can before the event, switching to weeks 7 and 8 Specialty the two weeks prior. This will build your fitness as far as possible, while still allowing for a full taper before your event.
After your first event, you should have about 8-10 weeks until your potential next Half Ironman. I am not sure if the Olympic events are A races or B races, but assuming that the Half Distance is your objective, you should drop back into the Half Distance Build phase after getting an appropriate recovery following your event. You can do something like the first half of the Build Phase followed by a few weeks of Specialty followed by the Week 7/8 taper.
Like I said, it is hard to plan out not knowing your priorties and exact dates, but this should give you a working framework 🙂
Good luck with your season!
Would it make sense to add a long (4 hours) slow outdoor ride to the low volume SS base training?
I’ll be riding a 200km brevet every month anyway, what would be best for the other three weekends?
Hey Peter!
As long as you can handle the overall training stress, and enjoy long outdoor rides, then this is a great way to add volume to the Low Volume Plan.
If you prefer, you could do the Low Volume plan on weeks with big weekend rides and the Mid Volume Plan on all the other weeks in order to spread the TSS out more evenly throughout the week. Ultimately, this will be personal preference 🙂
Happy Training!
Thanks Bryce, good suggestion for using a “mid volume week” when a long weekend ride is not feasible.
On a tangent: what is the progress of uploading outdoor ride data into TR to get the full picture on your career page (mostly the TSS per week)? I seem to recall that this is an oft wished for feature, but development was put on the back burner in order to get the Android app out?
While I can’t give you an exact date on this feature, I can say that TrainerRoad will be able to provide a complete picture of your training in the very near future 😉
Hey.
If I had to trim down 6 weeks of the recommended 28 weeks, would it be best to skip 6 weeks of base, 6 weeks of build, or 3 weeks of both.
Thanks.
(5/5)?
Hey Mathias!
If you have to trim 6 weeks off of your plan, it is best to trim those weeks off of Specialty rather than Base or Build.
Specialty is the icing on the cake. If you don’t have a solid cake to spread it on, it has little value.
Your overall training plan would then look like this:
Base (12 Weeks)
Build (8 Weeks)
Specialty (Weeks 7-8)
Weeks 7-8 of Specialty serve as your Taper leading up to your event, and your Base and Build will get you to a solid foundation of fitness with which to crush your target event.
when do you go from base to build phase?
Once you complete both of the parts of the Base Phase, you will move onto the Build Phase 🙂
“…Base training does just that, regardless of whether you choose a Traditional or Sweet Spot approach.” This took me by surprise. Isn’t Sweetspot-Training considered to be rather high-intensitiv?
The intensity builds throughout the weeks of Sweet Spot Base, giving your body time to adapt to the increasing levels of intensity. This gives you a higher chance of success because each week is only a bit harder than the week before and there are no surprises.