Base Training

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  • Pammie

    After reading a detailed article on letsrun.com base training is all about running at a heart rate which is below your lactate threshold. This helps increase the heart rate at which your body reaches your lactate threshold and so enables you to run for longer at a greater heart rate. My understanding is that your lactate threshold is where your body stops performing aerobically and starts performing anaerobically. If you are comfortable running at 160 for a decent length of time then you are still below your lactate threshold and training aerobically. It may be that 160 is close to your LT and you should ease off a bit but I think it depends on individual fitness. I've got the article in Word format I'll e-mail it you if you want.
  • So if the percieved effort is too low is this no good? I'm 56 so even adding back on the extra 5 bpm my hr is only 129 max which is unbelievably slow. I dont mind slow but no good if its a waste of time and not improving aerobic fitness. Have only run without monitor so far and testing rate after it was 147. I' m comfortable at 140, so should I be aiming higher?
  • Chris - stick to 130 for now - but start to up the mileage. If you run at base building HR but do no more miles you have missed the point completely. Use the fact that it feels easy to do more. Maybe you could do 135 or even 140, but you will benefit hugely at 130 if you get the miles up.
    If you are used to running 30-40mpw then aim GRADUALLY for 60-70mpw. 70mpw base building is easier than 45mpw with an eclectic mix of speedwork, etc.
    It is in the miles that the benefit is gained - if you are 5bpm below ideal HR it matters very little as long as the miles are being done.
    When the mileage is up feel free to run at 140-145bpm, but go back to 130 the next day - play with it and se how you feel. But get the miles up first and a low HR can only help with that.
  • My only problem is the length of time it takes to do the same mileage - half as long again :(

    How much more mileage should I be looking at, PM?
  • Pantman,
    So your recommendation is to reach 60 - 70 miles per week?! I think that's much more than I'd ever want to run. Although having said that, I really don't know how many mpw I would like to work towards. Is this always your recommendation?

    At the moment I am running about 11 mpw!! I know, that's low, and I do want to increase this. But slowly, slowly.

    I suppose that the point is to reach 20mpw, then 30mpw, etc., until one finds the optimal number of miles for one's goals?
  • Well that was an eyeopener, first time with hr monitor and I couldnt run at all! After the initial 'oh b*ll*cks' reaction. thought after a years running all of which must have been anaerobic, I'm just not that fit! The run abit, walk a bit, is not that good, really hard to get a rythm so I'm just going for walking as fast as I can. I was still only 49% in the target.
  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭
    Chris, are you sure you're not setting your heart rate too low?
  • You should definitely raise the level to get you running, Chris.

    re. mileage. My 60-70mpw comment was IF you were used to doing 30-40mpw. The point being that the lower intensity enables a higher mileage and is the easiest way to raise the mileage higher still.
  • Pammie*Pammie* ✭✭✭
    Thanks geester- if you don't mind you can email that info

    Have returned from gym where i ran at 145 bpm for 40 mins took a while to get up to that mark 10 or 15 minutes can't remember exactly (should have written it down) but kept at that rate it was only when in the last 15 minutes it went up to 151 beats per minute but the treadmill either slows down/gradient lowers till heart beat falls below 145. Good workout though

  • I was in the gym today too.

    It is easier to keep my heart rate constant on the tready. I managed an average of 8kph and kept in my zone 70% of the time.

    I am thinking of doing an hour on sunday to try and keep my long run habit up. I might have to walk a bit tho.

    Hildy I'm having the mega munchies too.

    This week I'll be doing 32km, nearly a marathon :-)
  • Hello, base builders!
    Bit behind in life right now - e-mails owed to some of you - bear with me..!
    Did 8 miles this am. middle 6 @6:25-6:40 pace all at 145bpm. Dead chuffed - getting faster all the time. Off to do a jog and some drills in the park tonight.
    Also realised I am now at about 70mpw! As I work off time and not miles, I hadn't even realised. Bit more tired the last few nights, but otherwise I barely noticed! 100mpw here I come...
  • I find the tready is really great for it JJ - haven't tried outdoors yet - the tready works so well :o)

    My books came today, including the lore of running, so I'm settling down to some reading :)
  • Enjoy FR - what a fantastic book!

    I'm eagerly awaiting Amazon delivering my Lydiard and Blackadder goes Forth (6 lesson plans to me)!
  • Isn't Lydiard out of date though, o ris there a revised book?

  • It was written in 1978, but to me that doesn't make it any more out of date then say, `Darkness on the Edge of Town' by Bruce Springsteen (the same year).
  • You don't think 25 years of sports science makes a difference then?
  • Science schmience.

    They just churn out the same stuff repackaged anyway.

    What do we really know about running we didn't know in 1978?
  • 25yrs of Sports Science is the difference between 2:07 and 2:05 for the marathon - for most of us it simply tells us WHY what worked did work!
    Lydiard was a true scientist - went out and experimented and tested his theories and found out what worked - now we know why...
  • Well I'd kinda like to read about the why as well!
  • Hi did another 30 mins, getting easier now. Still have the mega munchies.

    Off to do some yoga.
  • Pammie*Pammie* ✭✭✭
    did my final 40 mins today at steady pace race on sunday then base training cometh.

    i still get hungry too bought a little stretching band thingy hope to do more stretching something i know i should do more of
  • Hi All,

    Really interesting thread. Just wondering if this method would help me or if a waste of time. I jog/run more to help keep in shape for karate than anything else but have been doing it sporadically for about 5 years with varying degrees of commintment. I sometimes miss a week or two, average about 8 miles a week (2, 3.5, 2.5 as example) and never do more that about 12 miles. I have done a 10k in 54 mins last year which I did train for a little and a 8.5 hour fun run in 1 hr 16 so I average about 9 mins miles when pushing it in race. If I were to concentrate more on the running I would prefer to improve over the mile or 5k as I havent got time to do loads of miles but could possibly put in 30 mins a day 5 times a day with the odd 45 minuter. The other 2 days I do karate which is very anaerobic. Would there be a conflict? I am trying to kid myself that the karate would be enough anaerobic exercise? I had injury in April (knee) and halved mileage and I think 10k now would take me an hour.
    Basically I just want to get better - no 'real' improvement in 5 years. I have tried this base training for the last week and am running at about 5.2 mph on the treadmill which is slow. I feel that I may be 'losing' any fitness that I have? I sweat a lot when doing this base training so I guess it is burning calories. Only other thing to take into account is that if I try and run 'fast' I seem to get injured easily (heel/ankle).
    Sorry for the long winded thread but could anyone ensure me that this is the right way to go for me? I read an article once that said running slow just teaches you to run slow and that you use different gait and muscles when you run fast?

    Steve
  • Whoops 5 times a week not day :-)

    Steve
  • Stevey, running slow only teaches you to run slow if that's all you do. The whole point about base training is that it is laying a base to add in speedwork later as you build towards a specific goal.

    Yes, put more miles in and your 5k time will improve greatly. Then if you want to get better than that add in speedwork for even faster times.

    Don't know about using base training as a specific tool for 1 mile to 5k training though.
  • Well, Just read this entire thread from start to finish! I'm now off out to try it out! I'm sure I'll report back afterwards with loads of questions.
  • Did 30 mins today and at first thought my heart rate monitor was on the blink. It took me a while to get up to my 'zone' and had to push a little to keep my heart rate up. I wasn't til about 25 mins that I started to go over my rate.

    I think I'm improving :-)

    an hour for me tomorrow.
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