Coaches Corner part II (Click Here)

Coaches Corner part I

Welcome to the first of a series of articles I hope to bring you about the sport of triathlon. Since it’s the start of the season, you are going to be noticing that your training calendars talk about Base Building” and so I thought it would be a good idea to address that in our first issue. So, what does “Base Building” actually mean and why do we do it? I have included a well written piece from Cycling Coach Lorri Lee Lown which addresses these questions and also talks a little about Periodization which is a fancy term for our three week build period – followed by a recovery week. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me. See you out there! Coach Pete.
Periodization is a method of developing a training program based on a specific goal, typically defined by the calendar. Think of it as a project plan for your training. The macrocycle (typically one year), helps you define the times you’d like your performance to peak (a specific race or event). Within the macrocycle, we develop mesocycles (phases) with specific training objectives such as base, strength, power, peak, and maintenance. And within each mesocycle, we plan microcycles – typically specific training for each given day within a week.

The most important phase of our training is the base period. For most cyclists, since we plan to peak in the spring or summer, fall is traditionally the time when we focus on endurance/base-building rides. Also known as LSD (long, slow distance), these rides are high in volume (time), but low in intensity (heart rate). This can be a challenge on the road, because an endurance pace for most riders is pretty darn slow and doesn’t allow for much climbing (a challenge in choosing routes here in Northern California). It’s just so tempting to hammer, catch a rabbit on the road, or join in a fast-paced group ride. But to truly build base, it’s necessary to be extremely disciplined and spend most of our time on the bike at a lower (read slower) intensity.

An endurance ride can be a real challenge, both mentally and physically. Our goal is to achieve and maintain a steady-state heart rate between 65% and 75% of our maximum heart rate for 90 minutes or more. If planning for a specific event or type of event, a good guideline is to plan your longest rides to last 10-15% longer than your longest event. I tend to prescribe training in time, rather than miles, since there are too many variables (terrain, wind speed and direction, weather) that will affect your pace and thus your distance. During an endurance ride, you want to achieve a constant, smooth, moderate-resistance pedal stroke -- try to spin a nice easy gear at about 80-90rpms.

So, how does our body respond to base-building? Well, in several ways really. First, endurance rides help build capillary density, which in turn allows our body to function more efficiently (oxygen and fuel delivery), improving aerobic performance. Intense riding will break down our capillaries, so the standard recommendation for the base
phase of training is to spend no more than 20% of our ride time at a higher intensity. Recent studies also suggest that ANY time at a higher intensity will break down any increase in capillary density (as will resistance training during this phase). As I’ve come to learn, science isn’t an exact discipline, so we’re always learning new things
about how our body works and responds to training.

The second physiological result of endurance riding is that at a lower intensity, our bodies burn a higher percentage of fat as fuel (as opposed to glycogen, the stored form of carbohydrate). Thus the popular term “fat zone” or fat-burning ride.” This can, of course, be deceiving to many people, because in reality, your body is burning more TOTAL CALORIES at a higher intensity level (although the percentage of fat as a contribution to fuel is lower). So relatively, you burn more TOTAL FAT at a higher intensity (since the caloric total is higher). But the key here is that our body’s first choice for fuel during higher intensity exercise is glycogen, and exercising at a
lower intensity level helps your body become more efficient at burning fat for fuel. This is extremely important as you ride for longer durations (more than 90 minutes, such as in a century or road race), since our bodies’ glycogen stores are finite and it can be a challenge to replace all the calories we burn during a longer effort. By training your body to utilize fat as a fuel, you’re effectively stretching out your body’s glycogen stores to be used for a longer period of time.

Low intensity cycling also stimulates slow-twitch (type I) muscle fibers more predominantly that fast-twitch (type II) muscle fibers. These fibers then adapt by becoming more efficient at lower intensities with less fatigue. Because of this adaptation, we need to recruit fewer muscle fibers to maintain a given effort, and the fibers that are at work are more efficient. All good for cycling, because then we use less energy (fuel, oxygen) to ride!

Spending time at a Base level also allows for the strengthening of soft- issue before introducing the intensities. This is particularly important for athletes who are injury prone

However all this can be hard to do – its hard to resist jumping out for that sprint, doing those hill repeats but the big problem with consistent high intensity training is that it does not allow for the physiological phenomenon of supercompensation to take place. If you are constantly training at high intensities, this becomes the new "norm" for your body. There is no new stress that is placed on the body, and therefore the body reaches a state of being balanced at that intensity, and does not react. However, by training at low intensities for a period of time, and then "shocking" your body into intensities for which it it not prepared, it sends your physiology into a state of stress and panic (a good panic) and overcompensates your body to a level that it would not have done if the intensities were "normal".