You often hear athletes say; I’m now doing base training. But what exactly is base training? Why is it so important? How long should a base training period take? And is base training for a marathon runner any different from base training for a 1500m runner?
Let’s go through this step by step.
By the end of this blog, I want you to have a good understanding of what base training is, and how you can use it to become a better runner. Because this is key: if you understand what base training is and apply these principles to your training program, you set yourself up for a successful running journey.
Why? Because base training is the most essential part of training. Doing base training means that you’re laying a foundation. Compare it with building a house of two or three floors. Before working on the walls, the ceiling and the roof, you need to make a very strong foundation. Without that strong foundation the whole building will eventually collapse. But the stronger the foundation is, the more floors you can build on top of it. The higher you can get.
It’s the same for us runners. You can compare the walls and the roof with the race specific workouts. The foundation of the house, can be compared with base training. You first need a solid amount of base training, to make the race specific workouts most effective. If you would do only race specific workouts, you can’t get very high. You won’t be able to go to the second floor, without getting injured. The base training gives you that foundation, that enables you to handle the specific workouts without getting injured, and to respond well to those specific workouts (in terms of improvement). The stronger the foundation, the better a runner you can become.
What is base training?
There are different ideas about base training. I’ve heard athletes say they were doing base training, when all they did was two months of easy running. For me that is like making a foundation with only cement. You still need sand, water and ballast to create that strong foundation.
Sure, easy running is a very important part of base training, but there’s more than that.
For me, base training is like a chair with 4 legs:
1. Easy mileage (zone 1 and 2)
2. Threshold sessions (zone 3 to 4)
3. Strength
4. Speed
You want to pay attention to all four, but the amount of emphasize that you put on each depends on the runner and her/his main event. Let’s go through them one by one.
1. Easy mileage
A strong aerobic foundation is the most important asset of every runner. You build this up by doing easy runs, and moderate runs, of various lengths. Obviously, runners don’t just do easy mileage during their base training period. They do it year-round. And actually that counts for everything that you do during the base training period: you are never supposed to leave any of these things out for months. However, the base training period is when most runners should increase the amount of easy mileage that they do – the only exception are marathon runners, who generally make most mileage in the last 2-3 months before the marathon.
There are some who don’t believe in easy mileage (sometimes referred to as ‘junk mileage’), but I don’t think there is such a thing as junk mileage, except when you keep on running more while being exhausted. Generally speaking, the more easy mileage you can handle, the more mitochondria your body will produce, and the more efficient your aerobic system can get. Obviously, there is a max to what each one of us can handle. If you run 100km per week, and you start to feel exhausted, or get knee or Achilles complaints when you do more than that, then don’t do it! But if you cán handle it, then 120km per week gives you a stronger aerobic foundation than 100km per week. And 140km per week can make you even stronger. As far as science is concerned, there is no ceiling to this. And by the way; cycling / cross training also counts as aerobic mileage.
The base training period is also ideal for doing some moderate running. I’m talking about training in zone 2, or the lower end of zone 3 (assuming we work with 5 zones). The closer we get to an important race, the more we really want to nail the important workouts. This often means doing the easy runs easy, and the hard runs hard. This is also called polarized training. And as a site note; when I say doing the hard runs hard, that does NOT mean they should all be in zone 5. Doing hard runs hard means doing quality sessions at race pace and this can also be marathon or half marathon pace. I’ll write another blog about polarized training or the 80/20 method, because there is quite some confusion about that.
Back to the subject: when we get closer to our important race, we keep the easy runs easy, so that we are fresh for the harder workouts. But the base training period is when we can allow ourselves to push those easy runs just a little bit more. This is the period where we care much more about the overall training load and impact, than on hitting a very fast pace on our Tuesday track session. That means that when we feel good, we can do part of our easy run in zone 2. By doing that, we create a bigger aerobic stimulus.
2. Threshold sessions
I’m using the term threshold session in a broad way here. Every session in zone 3 or 4 can be called a threshold session. Even some sessions in zone 5 (at 10km race pace or faster) can be considered threshold sessions, when we take a short recovery in between and don’t push ourselves to the point of exhaustion.
I can come up with hundreds of examples of sessions that you can do during the base training period, but here are a few:
tempo run: between 6km and 25km at a steady and slightly uncomfortable pace
longer intervals, such as 6 x 5 min, 5 x 6 min, 4 x 8 min, 5 x 1600m, 4 x 3km and so on. These are done with a recovery of 1-2 min of easy jogging in between the intervals. Try to run them at threshold pace, which means you should be able to say sentences of 4-5 words. Breathing wise, I normally advice my runners to breath ‘two steps in, two steps out’. Once you go to ‘one step in, one step out’, your breathing goes over the threshold and you’re pushing too hard.
Intervals of different lengths, such as 10-8-6-4-2 min (recovery of 2 min easy jogging) at an increasing speed, or 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 min with a recovery of 1-2 min easy jogging.
fartleks with short intervals, such as 20 - 30 x 1/1 (for more examples of fartleks, check out my blog about the fartlek here)
Track sessions such as 5 x 1600m (1 min rest), or 20 x 400m (40 sec rest)
For me, these types of workouts are an essential part of the base training period as well. As I mentioned before, I don’t believe in many months of just easy running. Building up a strong aerobic foundation is done through easy running and quality aerobic workouts. You need both! Science tells us that we need the easy mileage to create many mitochondria in our muscles, and we need the harder sessions to make those mitochondria work efficiently. Apart from that, training is also a way of teaching our minds to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You don’t do that with easy running.
You may want to ask me: “Coach Hugo, what is the difference between the workouts that we do during the base period and the workouts that we do the rest of the year?” The answer is: it depends on your main event (whether you are a 5K runner or a half marathon runner), but not that much. The main difference is in how long, hard and specific we make the sessions.
For example, during the base training period, we may do some 400m intervals at our 5000m race pace, with a very short recovery of 30-40 seconds. That way we don’t build up much lactate / tiredness but we still do something at race pace. During the specific training period, we do 800 – 1600m intervals at the same pace, and with a (much) longer recovery. That’s of course a lot harder, and both our heart rate and lactate levels will get higher.
However, for a half marathon runner, there is not so much difference. We can think of lots of workouts that are perfect for the base training period, that can also fit in the specific period of a half marathon runner. During the specific phase we just make it a tad harder. Running 6 x 2km or 4 x 3km at half marathon pace, with a ‘recovery’ of 1km at a moderate pace is a type of workout that fits in the specific half marathon phase, and that is actually a little hard for the base training period. But doing 5 x 2km (at a pace that feels like we could do 6 x 2km, if we did our best) is a perfect base training session. So the difference is in the nuance.
3. Strength
Every runners needs enough strength. This helps us to run lots of mileage without getting injured, and it also helps us to have a better running form, and create more speed. Many elite runners spend a significant portion of their training, working on their strength. This does not mean spending hours and hours in the gym, but it does mean doing 2 or 3 strength sessions per week, targeting specific muscle groups in order to strengthen them.
Strength training can be done in different ways:
lifting weights
doing strength exercises using body weight only
running uphill
running in sand (not my favorite, but it can be done)
As a runner, it’s important to have a strong enough core (abdominal muscles and back muscles) so that we can keep an upright position while running, and we don’t swing our body from left to right. There are also indications that having a strong core, can help propel ourselves forward when running, by using our core muscles as an elastic band that saves and releases energy.
Secondly, we need strong hamstring and glutes as well, because these muscles help us hit the ground hard, and make powerful strides. I call these muscles our ‘running powerhouse’.
Then there are also the other leg muscles, such as the quadriceps, the soleus and the gastrocnemius (the last two are the calf muscles). They are all extremely important. And the stronger they are, the better they can handle the demands that we place on them.
The base training period is when we can lay a good foundation of strength. We don’t care too much yet about nailing the running workouts, so if we are sometimes a little tired from the strength training, that is fine. As long as we can still do a decent workout. So this is the time to invest in strength training. You will reap the benefits from that the rest of the year. Of course, you always have to maintain what you build up, so you should not stop strength training during the specific phase, but you can reduce it a bit.
4. Speed
Many athletes forget about this part during the base period. You don’t need to include tons of speed, but it’s good to do some of it. Working on speed can be done in a couple of ways:
doing strides (accelerations) after an easy run, or after warming up
hill sprints of 8 – 15 sec
doing all out sprints of 30 – 60m on a track (with a flying start)
doing 200-300m reps at 1500 – 3km race pace
Whatever is speed for you, depends on your event. A marathon runner working on her speed, may do intervals of 200-300m, while a 1500m runner working on his speed will have to aim for his maximum speed and that means doing very short sprints.
Working on speed does not have to interfere with the rest of your training. You can do 4-5 strides after an easy run, or as part of the easy run. You can do short hill sprints the day before a workout, without feeling any tiredness from that the following day.
Focus on the non-specifics
If you read my previous column, you know that I like working from non-specific to specific. Fellow coach Callum Jones made the following graph to make this clear:
By the way, Callum and I have a coaching website together. On this website, we have placed 240 weeks of free training programs (for 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon), which you can download. That is 120 weeks of base training and 120 weeks of specific training. Instead of giving you some examples here of how to make a base training program, I suggest you go to our website and check out the free programs. Click here to go directly to the free programs.
Back to the graph: first you need to estimate your race pace. That is the pace you are going to focus on during the race preparation. Say, you want to run a marathon at 5.00/km, that means the race preparation focuses mostly on doing intervals at 5.20 – 4.40 per km. You will sometimes run faster, and of course you will do easy runs as well, but the focus of your workouts is at race pace, plus a little slower and a little faster.
During the base training period, the focus is more on the extremes: running a lot faster than race pace, and a lot slower. As you can see in the graph, you actually do everything during the base period. You don’t work ONLY on the extremes, but the base period is the time of the year when you put more emphasize on running a lot faster and a lot slower than race pace. Those workouts that are done at (or close to) race pace, are supposed to be less demanding, than during the specific period.
This means that for the marathon runner, the focus during the base training period is more on zone 4-5, and less on zone 3 workouts. This is because a typical zone 3 workout, such as a 15-20km tempo run, or 4 x 20 min at marathon pace (with 1-2 min rest) is actually a specific marathon workout. And since the marathon runner does lots of that in the specific phase, the base period is meant for working on zone 4 sessions (such as 5 x 7 min at threshold), and zone 5 sessions (such as 8 x 1 km). I think by now you know me well enough that I don’t have to say this, but: you should never ignore anything. So the marathon runner should do some training in zone 3 all year round. Just a bit less of it during the base period.
The same counts for the half marathon runner. Since he/she will do lots of zone 4 sessions during the specific phase, the base period is the ideal time to do some sessions in zone 3, and zone 5. Thereby you create a good foundation of aerobic support and speed support.
The 1500 – 10km runners can use the base period to work both on zone 3 and zone 4. That is their aerobic support. It will give them a strong foundation upon which they can later build their zone 5 sessions. They should not do lots of stuff at race pace during the base period, just a bit of it. But on the other extreme end, they should work on their speed and their strength.
Longruns (both easy and moderate) are an important part of the base period as well, for almost all runners. Marathon runners probably do well to keep their longruns easy, since they should do harder longruns during the specific period.
How long should base training take?
Base training is the most important part of training. As long as you keep on improving, I actually think you can do this almost year round. However, if you’re having an important race, you may want to shift to more specific training in the last 4-8 weeks.
That shift from base training to more specific training should not be a very abrupt change. You just want to gradually make the training more specific. So it’s kind of hard to say when the base training ends and the specific training starts. There is a transition period.
When you’re a marathon runner, you may need 10-12 weeks of specific marathon training. However, a large part of the specific marathon training, is actually what other runners do as their base training, so in that case it’s fine to have a larger specific period.
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