Top Tips For Cycling Base Season
While we have an entire full blog that dives into base training, I was chatting to the coaches about base training and this musing specifically hits on two aspects: execution (from Keegan), and some training reflection (from Landry).
I’d like to present their 3 Top Tips, and add some reflection of my own to them.
Execution and Reflection could be musings all their own…I loved how both coaches naturally came to this from different angles.
So, what are your top 3 tips for Base??
Keegan’s Base Training Thoughts
1. An obvious one but: CONSISTENCY.
I feel this is the time of year wherein doing the training with consistency is even more important than ever. The entire season is built in the winter as we all know. Brick by brick with maximum consistency and as few peaks and valleys as possible.
2. Don't just cut out all intensity for 6 months.
I see this idea of "base season easy miles" still circulating big time within the community. Obviously, in the winter months, we gotta take a big step back on intensity to work the energy systems we want, but I also don't think it's a good idea to go October through February without touching anything above tempo.
Just the occasional light reminder sessions, hitting some higher zones, can help ease the transition when we do start building in towards specifics. That way it does not take us an entire month to just get to the point where we feel that our bodies can tolerate a medium-high load of intensity.
3. Pace yourself in these early months of base. I think it's super easy to come out of the off-season reset period hyper-motivated and feeling like the season is coming up quickly. But if our goals are in the spring, in summer we still have a long time to go. and I feel the body can only be in that highly taxed/carrying a high training load for a certain amount of time before we start going the other way.
It’s just about planning the season well and not getting too carried away too early. (if he has a coach, surely this won't be an issue)
Brendan’s Musing on Keegan
1. What does Keegan mean as peaks and valleys in #1?
To me, the peaks: don’t do too much overall, or in big waves so that you burn out, or in terms of timing: coming out TOO HOT as he heeds caution too in #3.
Valley: this is obvious. Don’t miss big blocks of training! I had an athlete get off the bike for 2.5 weeks for vacation and he was SHOCKED that it was going to take 6 weeks to start feeling normal again. Endurance sports: NO SHORTCUTS.
Also, in the micro: don’t miss two days in a row. It’s not just 48 hours. Think of this…you ride Monday AM at 6am before work and finish at 8am…you miss Tuesday and Wednesday. You get back on the bike Thursday at 6am. You didn’t miss two days, but it’s been 3 days, or 70 hours in this case, since you last pedaled! That’s a long time in endurance to land. Avoid this!
2. Light touches of intensity.
While this might seem like a new concept over the past 2-3 years, where we hear more and more about some intensity being involved in the training programs over the winter, in actuality I don’t think it is a new concept…at least not to where I was training.
In Upstate NY we rode fixed gear bikes from Nov 1 to Feb 1…then people would slowly bring out the road bike when the road wasn’t covered in salt—but most intervals were still getting done indoors, starting around January 1. HOWEVER, even when the most old school riders were saying “BASE ONLY”, we were riding fixed gear up hills…short punchy ones and shallower 5-minute ones. What is that actually? Not base miles, but high torque and some short, sharp 30-60s efforts.
I wish I had heart rate data from then, but I promise you, it wasn’t 60% HRMax.
What’s the point? Even with some light touches of this intensity, we didn’t wreck base training. THE MAJORITY of the training (in terms of singular sessions and macrocycles) was endurance-based. That’s what our bodies will draw from. These short punches just kept us acclimated to what those efforts felt like. I would highly doubt we could crank good 5 x 5min at that point in time, but that doesn’t matter—we aren’t building fitness in that capacity.
3. Pace yourself.
This is dead on. Not sure I’d add or subtract anything from this statement! We’ve all heard the term “January Superstar”....great in the preseason, cooked by Nationals. It’s a long year. We’ve heard many athletes talk about how pushing that extra bit a few too many times can really topple things.
Landry’s Base Training Thoughts
1. First, I think the most important thing to focus on is where you want to be next season. For me, it's always highly motivating when I think about the mistakes I made in the prior year, and what I'm going to do differently to be even better the next year.
2. Secondly, I think this would be the case for everyone, is to ride as much zone 2 as possible. I don't think there's a single case where this wouldn't be beneficial for someone. If someone has 15 hours, ride 15 hours. If it's 8, ride 8. Pick a sustainable limit and try to hit it every single week.
3. Third, think about what the top limiters were from the prior year and how you are going to improve upon them next season. So for example, last year for me it was "late-in-the-day" efforts and durability. All of base season I incorporated efforts late into my rides and that really helped. So while we're building the base with zone 2, address the other limiters during base as well.
Brendan’s Musing on LB
1. Reflection
This is what really stands out from his statement—looking back at the entire year. What went well? But also, what didn’t? And how do we think we can rectify this?
There is not always a clear cut answer, but I am a firm believer that doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. BUT THAT SAID, one must also consider the fact that endurance sports’ gains/performance increases do take time and pile on top of each other, so you might be on the right path and just need more TIME, but reflect and honestly ask oneself: do I think that what I’m doing is going to take me from where I’m at to where I want to go??
2. More Zone 2
So I agree mostly with LB on this one, but the only thing I’d want to **** is “Ride as much zone 2 as possible, but do not forget that intensity is also important at the right dose and right time!***
We’ve hit an era of course correcting: back in 2009-2010, power meters were becoming much more common. I would say 20% of the people in my club had one (200 members) and they were on the rise.
As we looked at more and more power files, athletes became aware of how much smashing we were doing and not actual endurance. Oof, those group ride files were a rude awakening: hammer, coast, hammer, coast….there’s a place for that, but not 3x a week.
So yes, ride as much zone 2 as your life allows AND that doesn't make you too tired to do the intensity when you need it. Maybe your plan doesn’t include any intensity in the base period—not my cup of tea, but if so, this could be a mute point. But, I do think there is a point that too much Zone 2, or just too much riding in general, dulls us out, and I’d be cautious of that.
No one wants to be flat, without realizing it, when you go to start a build phase! This in itself could be a great check in, or litmus, as to why some intensity should be dosed at least once every ten days during the base period.
3. Limiters
This is a REALLY good thing to think about, and it weaves in with points 1 and 2 as well. The one thing I’d add too is: is this limiter going to be an issue in the early points of the year?
Said differently: can I address this limiter once the race season starts, or do I need to get cracking with it beforehand….KNOWING that since it’s a limiter, it might take some time to address. Not 2-3 weeks, but maybe 2-3 blocks!!!
WIth that, you might be doing some training in January and February that your friends or teammates aren’t. Focus on your limiters, and not theirs!
But again, gotta read carefully what Landry said: “while we’re building the base”. That still has to take priority!
Other Musing Things
Per usual, I like to drop a few extra breadcrumbs down here:
First: a shout out to Vespa. I still don’t know how this works, but I feel SO good on long rides with it. Instead of pushing 260W, I’m pushing 285W. I need to get to testing it on the really hard days too. It seems like this shouldn’t work, but the legs just turn over so rapidly.
If you need a trainer for winter time, get $200 off the T3 with the code “BrendanT3”
Second: house music & rap music
Nutrition: been eating raw oats with milk instead of microwaving them; what a great change and even easier to travel with! Not sure why I’ve been sleeping on this. Overnight oats: so easily digested; I’ll be doing that this season. Love these gluten-free oats. Get the big box.
Current Challenge: having patience as we build up my Cervelo TT bike!!!!! And itching to race! At least the torque intervals feel a bit like smashing and keep the desire to just full throttle all the climbs around here at bay. 😆
What I’m Reading: Insanely Simple. Idk what I really enjoy about this; the storytelling is good, but how it ties into some business/life lessons is what might be resonating the most. EIther way, just enjoying it.
If you haven’t heard about ketones, here you go, and a discount.
Lastly, coffee. Dune. Dune. More Dune. They ran out of the Indonesian.