Base Training For Non-Professionals: Dec ‘22
Hey, Tom and Emma here 👋
Time is flying - here’s December’s newsletter instalment!
Musings
The traditional concept of ‘base’ training is that it involves high-volumes of low-intensity riding, which seeks to build your general aerobic fitness, economy and endurance, and in effect sets a strong foundations upon which to build your ‘higher end’ fitness later in the year.
While many elite and professional cyclists still follow this traditional high-volume training approach, for most this simply isn’t feasible…
So what should base training ideally look like for the non-pro cyclist who doesn’t have the capacity for high training volumes at this time of year? Here are 4 tips from us:
1. Prioritise fun and skills development
When your key goals are still several months away, make sure your training is engaging to avoid the risk of a motivational slump further down the track when your training is likely to be far more impactful on race/event performance! During the base phase, we recommend having at least one session per week where you’re riding for fun rather than ‘training’.
2. Avoid too many “taxing” sessions
Similar to the first tip, it’s probably best to avoid doing too many sessions that are mentally and physically very taxing. This probably means mostly avoiding sessions like VO2max intervals, and longer anaerobic power efforts, for example. This is because we want to preserve your training willpower until closer to your target events so that you can be in peak shape at the right time.
3. Target sessions that will help with subsequent training
Rather than looking for quick improvements in things like threshold power, through the base phase we’re looking to develop aspects of fitness that will set you up to complete better training when your target events are a little closer.
We recommend including 1-3 sessions per week that focus on Zone 3 riding (75-95% FTP), with the aim of building your muscular endurance and developing the aerobic capacity of your muscles.
1-2 times per fortnight, you can also include a little riding at or slightly above your threshold power in order to begin acclimating yourself to higher intensities, where Zwift racing or unstructured ‘fartlek' sessions can be good ways to do this in a fun manner!
4. Take the time to do some strength training
As you’ll probably be doing less high-intensity training, and you’re not racing, this is a great time to introduce some strength training, if you have the time.
We recommend doing this 2x per week, beginning with lighter weights and higher reps (e.g. 15-20 per set), but gradually working towards heavier weights, and roughly 4-8 reps per set, and 3-5 sets per exercise, taking plenty of time to recover between sets. Good exercises include squats, deadlifts and calf raises, plus some basic core strength work. Always consult a strength and conditioning coach before undertaking any weight training to make sure you’re lifting safely.
If you’re still feeling unsure on how to plan your base training phase, we have several autumn/winter training plans specifically designed for the base phase, which you can check out here.
Science
We’ve typically advocated keeping power well-controlled when completing endurance rides, aiming to keep your power below your ‘first ventilatory threshold’ (VT1), or typically between 55-75% FTP or 60-70% Max HR, at an intensity where fat oxidation is maximised. This is because improving capacity for fat oxidation is a key goal for most endurance rides.
However the study linked above, which is by Bent Rønnestad and colleagues, looked at whether inclusion of sprints within a long endurance ride can enhance the adaptations you’d usually expect from such a ride.
You can read a full review of the paper here, including a description of the methods used, consideration of any study limitations and a more in-depth discussion of the key take-aways.
However, the key points from the paper were that:
Adding sprints to endurance rides may have some aerobic benefits, and doesn’t seem to cause notable fatigue in elite cyclists. However, we’d recommend that less well-trained cyclists take care with sprint training to avoid accumulating too much fatigue, which may impact subsequent, and more important sessions.
It seems that adding sprints to endurance rides may not suppress the stimulus for improved fat oxidation, and in fact may enhance this training effect. We suspect though that this may be conditional on the sprints being structured into blocks within an otherwise well-controlled endurance ride, and not sprinkled sporadically throughout the ride. So structured riding is still important!
News
We are excited to collaborate with Wahoo LeCol as their official training plans partner, where members get access to discounts on a while range of ready-to-ride programs. Check them out here.
As part of this collaboration, we’ve also produced a new indoor-specific autumn/winter training plan for those who quite understandably prefer to stay inside when it’s dark and cold!
Finally, we also have a new article on the pros and cons of sweet spot training in the base phase - check that out here.
That’s a wrap - if you have any feedback or comments, do get in touch at info@highnorth.co.uk.
As always, you can find all of our available products and services on our website, including our popular physiology guide, and hill-climb handbook.
Thanks,
Tom & Emma
