But first, let’s explain the traditional approach to base training and why riders might choose to take it. This is where Sweet Spot training enters the picture. But there is plenty of evidence to support lower overall training volume in exchange for more demanding levels of intensity. What’s the Main Difference between Traditional Base and Sweet Spot Base?īase training is most commonly accomplished via a traditional, longer, slower approach that imposes high amounts of low-intensity stress. Base training does just that, regardless of whether you choose a Traditional or Sweet Spot approach. It’s easy to compromise the effectiveness of high-quality, high-intensity workouts by failing to adequately prepare your mind and body for them. So if you’re new to endurance sports, coming back from a long layoff, or you’ve dealt with your fair share of joint injuries already, base training is where to start.Īlso of merit is the act of gradually increasing your basic tolerance for work. A lot of athletes will move into too much high-intensity work before their underlying support tissues can handle the stress. Rushing this slower adaptive process opens the door for frequent joint injuries. This is often referred to as joint durability, and it’s something that occurs over a longer span of time than most of the more obvious fitness gains. Of keen importance to endurance athletes is the heartiness of our connective tissue. So those are many of the physiological and structural benefits achieved through base conditioning, but there are others. Are There Other Benefits of Base Training? The best news of all is that your mitochondria are involved in turning energy into speed at higher intensities as well as low intensities. So, as you spend more time stressing your aerobic energy system, your body creates more mitochondria that are more efficient. This transformation takes place within the mitochondria in your muscles. During this phase there are various transformations happening on different levels, but for the sake of simplicity, we’ll just focus on the efficiency of muscles to transform energy into speed on the bike.Īs you focus your training on developing your aerobic capacity, you train your body to become more efficient at turning fuel into energy using oxygen. This foundation is achieved through effective base training in which a cyclist raises their fitness level. Much like a pyramid, our fitness is built in a hierarchal fashion with the initial work serving as a critical foundation that will eventually support a higher peak. The more O2 the muscle can utilize, the more work it can do–aerobically–and generate only water and CO2 as waste products. – Translation: more fat can be metabolized which reduces the amount of sugar necessary to fuel your musclesĪll of these adaptations coalesce to achieve a shared outcome, which is more oxygen extraction at the muscle. – Translation: more blood pumped out resulting in greater blood distribution per heartbeat

– Translation: more of the catalysts necessary to aerobically produce energy from incoming fuel

– Translation: more of the muscle cell components that aerobically process fuel necessary for muscle contraction – Translation: more of our tiniest blood vessels which deliver blood (oxygen & nutrients) to the muscle cells and also remove metabolic waste Much like the name implies, this form of fitness is the very base upon which all further training is built.īut what exactly is it? I often see the same set of aerobic adaptation terms thrown around with little explanation of what each term actually means, so allow me: It may seem counterintuitive to revert to base training every year after reaching new heights of performance, but this strategy pays dividends come race season.īase fitness is synonymous with aerobic-base fitness, and this type of fitness is achieved via specific training that spurs particular physiological adaptations.

Base one trainer