Base Training

This Base Training is sheer drudgery.

Last week I put in 9 training hours, this week 10 hours. My training plan for the week ahead calls for 12 hours.

And it's all Zone 2 & Zone 3 Heart Rates.

For me, that's between 148 & 111 BPM. To put it another way, this really doesn't feel like working out. Masturbation feels more aerobic than this, for crying out loud.

How in the world did I actually come to plan this? I've been voraciously reading about Tri training -- The Triathlete's Training Bible, training sections in tri magazines, articles in my weekly mailer from Active.com, and even XC ski training articles. From all this gained knowledge, I've crafted a plan that will take me to the Liberty Half Iron & beyond.

In the past, I've never felt like I'd be getting a good training session in unless the intensity was at or above the "I kinda wanna puke right now" level. I've always been the guy at the front of the pack at the Wednesday night rides pushing the pace, sprinting up hills, and being told, "do you think we can keep it under 25mph?, gasp, gasp."

I've now learned that an early base training *at low intensity* has a very specific purpose. Low intensity training allows you to work exclusively in your aerobic zones, thus making your aerobic motors more efficient. This can also have the effect of increasing your lactate threshold--the point at which your body switches from using Oxygen as a primary fuel and switches over to sugars & carbohydrates--producing lactic acid---the chemical that makes your muscles burn. Incidentally, it's also what they consume at this intensity.

After you build a training base, you can then build & peak, pushing your body above the lactic threshold, and teach you anaerobic system to handle this lactic acid more efficiently, and allow you to push harder & faster with greater ease.

Joe Friel's Training bible is the most renouned work on triathlon training, and it's only a fraction of his catalog. He also has a blog.