What is base training and why do it?

When I first started out as a triathlete, I remember going for regular winter runs round the local reservoir (a 6 mile loop) and to keep up with the crowd, my heart rate was in the high 170’s and it felt like hard hard work yet I really wasn’t moving that quickly. The people I was running with always used to go on about how they were running ‘aerobically’ today, and keep their heart rate around 145. WHAT!!!!??? I experimented with this. I was going so slow it was almost a walk, before I could ‘run’ if you could call it that, with mine that low. Nah, I thought, far too boring, and went back to the bust a gut plan I had been working on before. No pain no gain, right? That’s what they sad wasn’t it? I really had no idea how they did it. When asked they said ‘lots of long slow runs will sort you out’. I tried that too. Seemed to make no difference.

My performances that first year were mediocre, and at the end of the next season I got a coach during the winter. On the programmes I was sent, there were always long runs. I was regularly running 7 miles home from work twice a week, ordered to go slower, within certain heart rate zones. Ok, I thought, long slow must just be what you do in winter, no?  But I still wasn’t sure why, because I still couldn’t run round the reservoir at that pace they set, and have a heart rate of 145. It just was NOT possible!! I’d need to be walking!!

What I didn’t understand at the time, is what was lacking from my fitness and my training. Aerobic work. So I completed the winters training in that fashion, as ordered by my coach. I thought nothing more of it.

I then began competing at GB level (so something must have been going right!). Still in the back of my mind, running was always my weakness, so I decided to get a run coach too after hearing that Alistair Brownlee had a triathlon and a run coach. My triathlon coach wasn’t sure about this at first, and to be honest neither was I! BUT, if Ali Brownlee can make it work, then surely so could I? So this winter, I got the plans, and suddenly the long 7 mile runs home from work were missing. I thought the coach had made a mistake! I asked where they had gone and was told I didn’t need them. How did he know that? I needed proof, which came when I did the metabolic assessments in November. Aerobic capacity in running according to the test, was excellent, a vast improvement on previous tests. What happened there?!? It seemed to have sneaked up on me without realising! But what it did show me is this:

·        Developing base fitness in running, took years, not months!

·        Don’t expect the effects of base training to be immediately noticable, but be persistent, it takes time

·        It maybe took me longer because I was starting from scratch?

·        Don’t stop once you have the base fitness, too much at the top end and you will soon lose it!

So what exactly is the benefit for me then? So what, I can now run around that reservoir with a low heart rate and the run now feels much easier, but so? Why is that beneficial? My coach says that without the base fitness you would be more tired when racing. How does that work? Here’s the science:

‘Whether you compete in sprint triathlons or the Ironman, building a monster aerobic system will serve you best. Aerobic training will develop your ability to produce more power (speed) while burning fats, which are in abundant supply, and thus sparing the limited stores of carbohydrates in your body.’

‘The second metabolic adaptation necessary in Base Training is an increase of the muscle cells aerobic energy production factories called mitochondria. These small powerhouse structures use fats and oxygen to make energy while not producing fatigue causing lactic acid and waste.’

From ‘the science of base training’ http://www.phase-iv.net/resources/science-of-baase-training

‘Research from around the world has confirmed that development of substantial physiological infrastructure must precede the hard work of the competitive phase. Without the necessary infrastructure developed through Base Training, the hard work to prepare for competition will not be as effective and in fact may not be tolerated at all but instead lead to injury or illness’

From ‘base training’ by Robert Forster http://sports.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/scarabs/message/4883

So, last winter, I did the base, now I can maintain the base and work on the speed, with the new run coach? No? Everyone I talk to says ‘noooooooo, you don’t do speed work till spring!’ To be honest I have been ignoring ‘everybody else’ and doing it this way anyway! Jodie Swallow told me a while back that she continued to do fartlek throughout the year. Brett Sutton in his interview on IM talk http://melanieryding.blogspot.com/2010/12/brett-sutton-interview-part1-im-talk.html says periodisation is rubbish! Well, he would know, he has the athlete results to prove it!!

When I went searching for the theory behind periodisation on the internet, to be honest, I struggled to find anything that wasn’t in favour of it. One article I read http://mytriathlontraining.com/category/wordpress-tag/periodization seemed to actually suggest the problem was actually based on triathletes overtraining, or training too much in the ‘grey zone’ as Brett Sutton calls it. So, with this in mind, I interpret periodisation in many ways, and can perhaps see everyone’s view point.

·        Is periodisation not just a term that describes how you organise your training into chunks?

·        Is there not benefits to working on both base and speed in winter, and simply altering the balance slightly depending on the time of year?

There is many definitions of ‘periodisation’ some of which can be found here: http://www.bodyactive-online.co.uk/training/resistance/methods/periodisation/periodisationtraining.asp however I believe anything that is structure could come under the term, therefore, Brett Sutton structures his athletes training (I’m sure it has some kind of structure?!) therefore you could argue we all periodise, it’s just a case of how YOU organise yours different to HIM?

So, what do I conclude from all this?

·        Base fitness may take you more than just a few months to build up but it’s a vital foundation for speed work, not to mention keeping you injury free!

·        Without base fitness, you will tire faster in race conditions

·        Periodisation is just a term, you need to organise your training in the way that suits You and YOUR needs best

Brett Sutton IM talk interview (part2) IM talk, episode 241

Brett: I have great athletes that have ironman bodies and short course heads. You need the mentality. An athlete he trained said ironman was the most boring thing he had ever done in his life. He stopped and sat on the side of the road! You also have the other people who are the other way round, they can’t do the distance physically but like doing longer stuff slower. Ironman is a psychological makeup.

e.g. swimming grp 6 x 100s flat out 1 every 10 mins, or 300m swim and get out. Distance swimmers would run you over to get to the flat out training side! The distance swimmers hate that pain.

How do you decide who comes into the programme?: Brett gets wannabes looking  for a miracle, lots of girl enquiries (they are more intelligent!) the guys (who don’t like an old guy like macca winning Hawaii) Brett uses the same fundamentals. Winning doesn’t change, the fundamentals do but the mentality stays the same.

‘Successful coaches have one thing in common, they have spent time in his group – Ben Bright. He teaches coaches to be self sufficient. Athletes have to get a feel at what works for them and why. Most important thing from an age group point of view, you can do a good ironman on back of good long training. Trouble comes when you start measuring everything all the time. Some times you’re tired, so people don’t do it, rather than just go a bit slower. Many people bore away in the gray area, either not going fast enough or not slow enough,’

which my coach calls JUNK MILES!!!

‘If you are a data freak, then you won’t get on with Brett at all!! Your confidence will be undermined!! Run like nature intended!! Learn to feel it, feel the technique that suits your body. E.g. if you are inflexible, you won’t be swimming with high elbows!! Instead of doing pilates to correct it, find a stroke that suits you better! How much flexibility do we need in triathlon? None! ‘We spend too much time on the fluff and not enough time on the meat and potatoes!’

If you aren’t a good runner, it’s not about speed, it’s about how much distance you can cover.

Running: how long do you ask your athletes to run? 'It depends on the athlete. Its different for each person, depends on their physiology.'

People are invited onto team TBB, given 2 years to see if they can make the jump up performance wise after training his way. Without this, there would be no Chrissie Wellington! They are very proud of the team ethic, their heart is in the right place, to look after the athletes. He goes on to discuss the prize pot, and how this affects TV coverage, and interest. He says in real term, triathlon is still an amateur sport, if you compare it to other major sports in the world. People need to ask themselves, how are we going to make this sport big? There are millions of people with MDOT on their leg. How many people do you see with coca-cola on themselves!! It’s a great brand, they need to market it as such, with a prize pot to suit. Team TBB are now looking at new ways to continue their development angles, they want to continue to create career paths for people. There are so many people that deserve a shot, and money doesn’t allow you the ability to give them all a shot.

LISTENERS QUESTIONS:

You haven’t got the guys coming through, is this because of the psychology, you are a hard coach?

‘I am very competitive. That’s why people don’t like me. It’s important for people to realise that in ironman, men argue that the men’s race is harder, but Chrissie is already beating them!? But the men don’t beat his door down to try it his way.’ The men come in TELLING HIM what they need to do. Triathletes see being beaten as a bad thing, Brett also teaches them HOW to win, and HOW to overcome. I came 5^th? That’s just a sign that you need to train harder! I do know the way to the top, if THEY have got what it takes.

When you first met Chrissie, did you imagine she would be where she is now?

They argues on day 2! It was obvious from the start that she was extraordinary. He tested her on day 2 on the run. She said that she never ran more than an hour. He sent someone out to run with her telling them to run till she couldn’t run any more, and she ran for 2 hours 40 before he came back because he was bored! Chrissie can push herself hard, on her own. Not all people can.

Team TBB have a saying  - there is no handcuffs. Its fine if they then want to go and try something different.

My thoughts:

·        My coach always talks about ‘junk miles’ and recently I have too been ordered to ‘slow down’ in certain areas. He said that if you train in that ‘grey zone’ as Brett calls it, all the time, eventually you will burn yourself out. You can’t sustain that kind of training and expect improvement.

·        I confess I am a data freak, however I am much better these days at not freaking out completely if I have an off day, and my run coach is working on teaching me to ‘feel’ pace, and often steals my watch, or orders me to take the stop watch screen off! It seems to be working, I often glance at the pace and think ‘jeez I can’t run that fast!’ .. er... Mel, YOU ARE ALREADY!!

You can listen to the interview on IM talk, here http://www.imtalk.me/ 

Brett Sutton interview (Part1), IM talk episode 240

This is a LONG LONG interview, so I decided to try and summarise the main points that Brett makes in this interview. Please remember he is talking from a long course triathlon point of view, in the most part.

Brett Sutton is lead coach with team TBB.

Has coached (amongst others)

Chrissie Wellington

Sarah Linley

Nicola Spirig

Tim Don

INTRODUCTION: Brett Sutton has coached from age of 15. Left and trained horses, returned. Doesn’t have a stopwatch, doesn’t time anyone. What he tries to do is a little bit different. Has done short and long course, worked with Ben bright and Tim Don for a while. Trained Chrissy Wellington and Nicola Spirig.

Brett believes few know how to coach triathlon well, he says triathlon is unique. The way he organises training very similar, it’s how he puts the mix together that is different. Often athletes overtrain in his opinion, and often athletes trained harder when they were doing their own thing before they hooked up with him. E.g. Chrissie – doesn’t run / bike long, its broken up and switched around. He uses 10 day training cycles not 7. What most jam into 7 they spread into 10. He then gives athletes 2 wild card days where they can put their rest in where they want.

How does he organise it? Training camp situation, loose outline, what do they want to achieve, then – refine – how to achieve it.

Brett insists training is consistent and NOT periodised. He says compared to horses, humans tend to tell u lies. E.g. overtrain. He mentioned Loretta Harrop, who was always injured. When she said she has a bit of a niggle, he called the ambulance! Her idea of backing off was only running 80k a week! As a coach, it is his job is to protect. He then mentioned Darren Smith, premier short course coach. Brett says he doesn’t bark orders, he runs around slowing everyone down!

He watched Chrissie race at Roth, saw her last 5k, knew it hurt her lots. He knew that would cost her. She would not be going that fast if he was still her coach. He then mentioned the fact that she was then not at Hawaii. Breaking records just to make people happy, what’s the point? – it will just shorten your career.

Brett does not agree at all with periodisation! He says we are in an aerobic sport. He saya athletes tend to build up long course miles early in season, then they go on to sharpen them up, at which point they all break! Its 3 sports in one, you must train it as a triathlon. They are not separate sports. Everything is done dependent on what will come next training wise. Its different training for triathlon. NO huge amounts of crazy mileage early season. Certain level of volume is established, which is then held through the year. No taper for races, no stop watch.

Cadence: Doesn’t suit the majority. Likens this to running styles, everyone is different in what works best. Chrissie – 76 cadence, Belinda Granger 92. It’s what suits you. He doesn’t change what suits them best. E.g. Chrissie is more efficient in a big gear.’ I don’t train cycling, I train triathlon’ says Brett. The bike set up in a way that will allow them to run at best efficiency. Test at certain cadences, look at athlete physiology. Chrissie, v strong from hips down. Jodie Swallow, always had ability, but people didn’t understand that triathlon is Not swimming biking and running.

You can’t train triathletes like swimmers. It will affect the way they run. Test training theories out on slower athletes first. E.g. 4 anaerobic sessions a week, one in each sport, DOES NOT WORK!

Technique: Brett says ‘I am the technique guru, but I don’t watch all the top runners, and try and make my athletes like that’. One size fits all programme – DOESNT WORK. He got the sack at one stage for that. Everyone needs to be treated like an individual. Janet Evans – greatest ever distance swimmer – swim immersion man will roll in his grave!! She does none of that!! Need incredible endurance but also incredible strength. If you train too much in one area you will suffer in another area. No one teaches athletes how to ‘play defence’ – how to deal with things when the wheels come off.

How do age groupers be successful? Find good advice. No point in mirroring the technique of the pro’s when you can’t go at that pace. In ironman, everyone will collapse; it’s he who collapses least goes fastest. Stand up, nice cadence, don’t be worried about landing on your forefoot. Swim faster by doing more weights, this is rubbish!

Who cares about technique, if your body can’t handle it you will struggle, no matter how good your technique is. 40 x 100’s... 3.8k, so this is what you train. All sets are overdistance, (compared to race distance) and he says he does not care about the speed.

Brett talked about what athletes USUALLY do in the gym: Super compensation power work, 4-8 reps... endurance training... 3 x 25 reps. Seems a little odd he says 3800 arm movements in the race yet you only do 25..?

Most of his athletes have to go slow, teach them how to be efficient running with low HR. 10bmp above your race HR.

When u get off bike at HR140 training at 170 won’t help you.

The presenters thoughts.

He has the results to prove it.

They don’t believe there is only one way

A lot of people do overtrain

Mental aspect is important, team culture, total faith in your coach

My thoughts:

The one thing that I take away from this interview so far, is the message that Brett shouts loud and clear, that triathlon is not swimming, biking and running, it is triathlon. Therefore the whole approach has to be different.

My coach is ALWAYS telling me this, and I don’t think I listen enough. We all worry so much about our data, the splits, how fast do I cycle a TT, how fast do I run a 5k. But if I reflect for a moment, Phil Graves, outstanding cyclist, is yet to find the correct balance to be successful in triathlon. Take Jodie Swallow, I believe that she has always had talent, but look at the AMAZING results Brett has got working with her this year, she’s now 70.3 world champion!

On a more personal note, I have a friend who I have ALWAYS been chasing as far as running is concerned. She has always had the edge on me. In a running race, I have NEVER beaten her. Yet, in a triathlon, she has never beaten me.

It’s not swimming, cycling and running, its triathlon, and that’s UNIQUE.

you can listen to IM talk podcasts here http://www.imtalk.me/home/author/imtalkpodcast