The Importance of Base Training for Cyclists
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!
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