The Importance of Base Training for Cyclists - Triathlon Week

Robert G. · 02-10-2003, 12:47 AM

by Lorri Lee Lown
Lorri@VeloGirls.com
USACycling Licensed Coach
ACE-Certified Personal Trainer

If you do the same thing, the same way, all the time,
you become really good.....
at doing the same thing

I used this quote as the opening slide at a recent lecture about off-season training to introduce the theory of periodization and the importance of varying our training throughout the year. Many cyclists believe that by riding hard, fast, long & hilly all the time, they’re training to be the best rider that they can be. But what they don’t realize is that our bodies have an amazing capacity to adapt to the training stresses we impose, and so if we train the same way all the time, our bodies adapt and we don’t see continued improvement.

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.

Endurance is the foundation of all else we do on the bike. Riding in a moderate heart rate zone builds the base for us to later increase speed, strength, and power. Endurance rides also help your body adapt to the stresses you’ll impose later in the season, preparing your muscles, connective tissue, and joints, and improving balance, posture, and flexibility. Not to mention helping you adapt to long hours on the saddle!

Anecdotally, I’ll tell you that our race team hates this! Here we have a great group of women racers – the largest women’s race team in Northern California – many of them new to bike racing. And every time they train together they want to RACE! For riders who’ve never followed a formal, periodized training program, the base-building period can seem counter-intuitive and frustrating. I keep telling them that I’m not crazy and that I’m not making these theories up! The training I prescribe is based on the research of my heroes – Joe Friel, Ed Burke, Davis Phinney & Connie Carpenter, Fred Matheny, and Sally Edwards. All of them have great books that will help you understand the importance of base training in more depth and will guide you in developing your own periodized program.

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!

And there’s another benefit to base training that isn’t frequently researched or written about. Low intensity riding allows you the opportunity to slow down and smell the roses! By relaxing on the bike, we’re reminded of the primary reason many of us began riding in the first place – the sheer joy of riding. So, slow down and enjoy the ride!

Miggy · 02-15-2003, 05:26 PM

This a great article on an important aspect of training..But not an easy one..

I once spoke to Frank Mcormack about his winter program and he told me "Well, you gotta learn to ride slow"

I'm stll learning..

2LAP · 07-15-2003, 05:49 AM

Yes there are many benefits of BASE training, but these can be also acheived using specific high intensity sessions.

I'm not so sure that people who work or live in poor climates need to do so much BASE training, because more can be acheived in shorter more intense sessions. Some may even argue that you are training to go slow!!!!!

Cyclists seem to be dead set on keeping up their traditions and I think that hours in the saddle are one that we can get rid of!!!! Cyclists need to appreciate that 'BASE' training is far less important than a periodised program that specificaly targets physiological characteristics using specific sessions rather than empty miles!!!

JustsayMo · 12-02-2003, 08:02 AM

2LAP wrote: "Cyclists seem to be dead set on keeping up their traditions..."

Guilty as charged.

I raced for years using traditional methods (fearing weights, upperbody strength, low cadences, non conforming Knee over pedal spindle positioning .. too much protien and any fat ...).

I didn't try anything else until I was in my mid-thirties. All of my personal bests were set in my late thirties... Too bad it took me so long to be *enlightened..*

Zylo · 09-19-2004, 06:47 PM

Great Read. Thanks!

wannatri · 09-21-2004, 08:58 AM

You should check out "The Ultimate Ride" by Chris Charmichael (Lance's coach, former USA cycling coach and founder of CTS). Charmichael discusses periodization in great detail. The book covers every aspect of base training and preparing yourself to race. The book is about cycling, but the same principles -- i.e., the 4 periodization phases, can also be applied to other sports.

Smartt/RST · 01-02-2005, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert G.

by Lorri Lee Lown

I had the pleasure of meeting Lorri at the USA Cycling Summit in Colorado Springs last November, she seemed an excellent person in the cyling community. However, there are some concepts in this article that I must refrute, or at least qualify...those points that I haven't commented on, I agree with.
And yeah, it's a lot, but it's a heavy subject....

Quote:

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.

This is a long held belief that is based on those who spend many hours/week training on the bike. What's more important than following the practices of old is understanding the relationship between volume and intensity. The more volume you do during the winter, the more you should spend time at low- to modertate-intensities; but this also means that if your volume is low, you can (and should) add some event specific intenisty to your winter training.

Quote:

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.

At RST, we like to eliminate "junk" mileage as much as possible, so we prescribe endurance paces (zone 1/2/3) as 75% to 85% of max HR. This is a contentious subject among coaches/experienced athletes, however all of the training intensities that RST uses are based on the physiologic responses of athletes and with the intent of maximizing training time. Yes, you could develop endurance by training at 65% of your max HR, but it will take longer, and the physiologic response at 75% of max HR is not significantly different.

Quote:

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.

Uh...I have never, nor has any exercise physiologist that I know said anything about this. I don't know about this "new" research (of which I can find none), but there are numerous studies on how capillary blood flow in the exercising muscle is directly related to exercise intensity (eg: the harder you go, the more blood flow to the legs). In fact, training at VO2max is the single best way to increase the capillary density of all muscle fibers, as both type I and type II fibers will be recuited to generate enough force to reach VO2max related intensities and blood flow is at maximal.

Quote:

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.

This is generally true, but to clarify, the maximal amount of fat metabolized/min occurs at about 75% of VO2max or 80% of max HR, a very "medium" intensity (or one that a trained cyclist can maintain up to 3hrs w/good nutrition). It's important to remember that even after training at intensities up to 85% of VO2max or 90% of max heart rate, the resulting physiologic adaptations will still increase your ability to metabolize fat (eg: increase mitochondrial volume and related aerobic enzymes).

Quote:

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!

One of the primary goals of base training is to cause aerobic adaptations in the type II muscle fibers. This is done either via very long rides (as type I fibers fatigue, type II fibers will be recruited) or intensities that demand type II recruitment from the get go (eg: zone 3-4). Also, to perform a set amount of work (eg: go from point A to point B, no matter how fast or slow) always demands the same amount of work/energy, this is a simple law of physics (not including factors like wind). It's where the energy comes from and how it is subsequently metabolized that changes.

Quote:

And there’s another benefit to base training that isn’t frequently researched or written about. Low intensity riding allows you the opportunity to slow down and smell the roses! By relaxing on the bike, we’re reminded of the primary reason many of us began riding in the first place – the sheer joy of riding. So, slow down and enjoy the ride!

Damn straight. But if I'm coaching you, I want blood, sweat and tears!!! ;)