The importance of base-building: Setting yourself up for success
Without building an effective base in training, you are leaving a lot on the table...
WEEKLY WISDOM: NO BASE, BLEH RACE
Alright, the header is stupid corny, but there is some truth to it. I can not emphasize enough the importance of building a strong base, so sorry if I sound like a broken record but I have to drill this into your guy’s heads!! Base-building is an extremely important component of training that can NOT be overlooked. Let’s go over the basics of base-building…
WHAT IS BASE-BUILDING?
Base-building is the beginning phase of training, lasting weeks to months in length, marked by the development of your base-level aerobic and anaerobic capacities. Primarily, the focus is on developing your aerobic engine during this period of time, and traditionally speaking—with iconic coaches such as Arthur Lydiard—this used to be the only thing emphasized in this phase. However, I believe, as do many others now, that there should be an element of speed to a base-building block, regardless of the goal race distance. This concept is in line with the popularized training method of funnel periodization (ever heard of Renato Canova?1) where you’re always touching on the various systems, keeping them all in check. Looking at the below diagram (seen in “The Science of Running” by Steve Magness2), we can see that in the base section, we are working at two extremes, fastest (e.g. 10-15 second hill sprints) and slowest (e.g. longer steady runs).
Steering back to the point (oops), without an adequate base, you head into the more race-specific work without an adequate foundation, setting yourself up for a lower peak. The analogy that is often used for base-building is “the wider the base, the higher the pyramid.” This is a great way to think about this phase.
Suffice to say, don’t gloss over the base phase and dive right into the more race-specific training. Spend some time doing the boring work. You won’t regret it.
BUILDING A STRONG BASE THE RIGHT WAY
Practically speaking, base-building should mark at LEAST a month of your plan, but really, it should be closer to a third (or even half) of your training plan—depending on the race distance and your goals. Mileage should gradually and steadily increase until a point that you’re happy with, and eventual workouts should be general in nature.
An 8-week base phase could look something like the following…
WEEKS 1-2
All easy mileage with 2-3 days of strides post-run (e.g. 4-6x20” progressive strides w/ walk-back rest).
WEEKS 3-4
Mostly easy mileage—with 1-2 more steady easy runs—and continued post-run strides, but swap out one of the stride days with short hill sprints3.
If you’re new to hill sprints, start at 1-2x15” uphill sprints and progress slowly from week to week. If you’re used to them, shoot for 4-6x15” uphill sprints. These should be done at roughly 85-95% effort. Hill sprints are a great tool for maintaining/improving your speed and power before the harder work begins.
Start to incorporate a long run and build it up, week by week, going forward.
WEEKS 5-8
Continue with the weekly strides and hill sprints, but incorporate 1-2 lighter workouts per week and progress intensity/duration from week to week.
Do a little bit of everything:
Steady runs at marathon pace or slightly slower
4x7’ steady w/ 1’ rest, OR
20’ steady
Tempos/thresholds (broken and sustained)
4-6x5’ at threshold w/ 1’ rest, 2’ rest, 3-5x20” uphill sprints w/ walk-down recovery, OR
2x10’ at threshold w/ 75-90” rest, 0-2x5’ at threshold w/ 1’ rest, 4-6x20” progressive strides w/ walk-back recovery, OR
20-30’ threshold, 2-3’ rest, 4x150m strides on 90”-2’ cycles
Fartlek’s
8-14x(1’ at 10k-5k effort, 1’ easy) continuous, OR
3-5x(3’, 2’, 1’) w/ 1’ jog between everything, OR
1,2,3,2,1,2,3,2,1 w/ halved jog recovery (OR equal recoveries if you want to ramp up the paces OR use a float/moderate recovery for a more aerobic stimulus)
1’ reps at 5k/10k effort
2’ reps at 10k/threshold effort
3’ reps at threshold/half-marathon effort
Hill repeats
8-12x30” uphill repeats w/ jog-down recovery, OR
3-5x(30” at 5k effort, 60” at threshold effort, 45” at 10k effort) uphill repeats w/ jog-down recovery, OR
6-10x60” uphill repeats w/ jog-down recovery
Track intervals
8-16x400 at 10k-5k pace w/ 200 jog, OR
10-12x200 at 5k-3k pace w/ 200 jog, OR
2-3x(4x300 at 5k-3k pace w/ 100 jog) w/ 400 jog, OR
3-6x(800 at 10k pace, 200 jog, 200 at 3k pace) w/ 400 jog, OR
4-6x1k at threshold-10k pace w/ 75-90” rest, 2’ rest, 3-4x400 at 5k pace w/ 200 jog, 2-4x200 w/ 200 jog
3-5x1600 at 10k pace w/ 90-105” rest, 2’ rest, 4x200 strong w/ infield walks
This is a harder one, best to save towards the far-end of the base period.
Incorporate steadier and/or hillier long runs.
Notably, if your previous training block went well and you took a shorter 7-10 day break, you can return to a moderate-higher intensity more quickly than someone who took more time off and/or had a not-so-good training stint. Be mindful of this when determining what your base phase will look like.
Also, no one is telling you how long your base phase should be, so go as long as you’d like. If you have no peak races in mind, just continue building your base and keep training more generalized. Once you find one, THEN you can start to think about race specificity.
Hopefully, I cleared up base training for you to some degree. If you knew all of this, well that’s too darn bad. It can’t hurt to drill the importance of base-building into your head once more! :)
If you have further questions, please ask me of course! See my contact information at the bottom of this post; I would love to help.
Next up on All Things Running… Mihály Iglói: A coaching genius.
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If you want personalized coaching and/or training advice, I’d be happy to help. You can email me at jacobreesmontgomery@gmail.com or send me a direct message on Instagram.
Renato Canova is a legendary distance coach who coaches some of the best athletes in the world. He has had great success implementing the funnel periodization model.
A very insightful book that all runners looking to educate themselves should read!
Hill sprints are a cheat code!!!