I apologize in advance, but I ask: is the base phase really NECESSARY?

NOTHING is necessary.

Go for it. You might surprise yourself. Good luck.

:)

Time Constraints wrote:

Is the base phase really necessary?

Can one just enter right into interval/speedwork training without a base?

I guess so but those early sessions will be pretty darned short workouts.

Time Constraints wrote:

Is the base phase really necessary?

Can one just enter right into interval/speedwork training without a base?

This is actually a very good question, and worthy of an epic thread.

I don't believe in "the base phase" per se.

What if you do 5km warmup / cooldown jogs on speedwork? Isn't that "base" as well as warmup/cooldown?

As long as the "speed" is progressive, I think this works well. You might need to do 1x200m at Mile pace at first. Then 1x400m, then 3x200m, then 2x400m, then 5x200m....etc etc etc.....

Right?

Well the problem is your fitness isn't going to increase much by doing 1x200 @ mile pace. A better bet if you insist on going this way would be to do 10x400 repeatedly, starting out at 5k pace or so and working down to mile pace over the course of the season.

Thank you all.

It depends, do you have any goals?

Running at all, isn't necessary, let along base training or interval/speedwork training.

But if you want to maximize your running potential, and be the best you can be in races, perhaps the better question is if anyone has realized any form of success without base training, and how they did it.

But then again, simply saying "interval/speedwork" is ambiguous, as interval training can vary widely in purpose, depending on the intensity of the reps, the total volume, and the length and type of the recovery interval.

You should take the time to do what you want to do.

Don't most people claim (including Lydiard) that high schoolers spend too much time doing fast repeats and not enough base, and that is what really matters for sustained success? Even wejo says in his article about how he went from slow to 4th in the 10000m nationally that high schoolers are very good at banging out short intervals, but not base stuff.

You can have short term success from jumping right into intervals, but not long term success. Haile Gebreselassie claims he is such a good runner now because of the 10 years he spent running 10km there and back to school every day.

The Waterboy wrote:

Haile Gebreselassie claims he is such a good runner now because of the 10 years he spent running 10km there and back to school every day.

But the fact is that when he enters in his competitive career he didn’t no more base phases at all in what is supposed to be just runs.

He just goes for one kind of progressive-intensive training program that includes fast paces since the start of every periodisation phase.

With the exception of the marathon training where no special interval training is done, no need to, for all the other distances that Gebre did compete during his long career, he did intervals, speed training and fast runs all the way long with no such thing as base phase with just runs.

I paraphrase Canova who said something like aerobic development is important, but after 5 years (or so) is no longer as important. Once you build your house, then it's time to furnish it.

what i use to do was two fartleks a week for a change of pace and a tempo run, gave me my speed, but i still got my aerobic fitness in.

I think you need to be careful thinking this way. If you run for Canova for 5 years, then aerobic development may not be so important. If you run in the American system in grades 8 through 12 or even grade 9 through college, you certainly can do more aerobic development.

rekrunner wrote,

I paraphrase Canova who said something like aerobic development is important, but after 5 years (or so) is no longer as important. Once you build your house, then it's time to furnish it.

Do people on here think "base phase" means no fast running? That seems to be implied by quite a few posts.

I have about 30 years of base -- I think I don't need to be that careful any longer.

2OKPorinq wrote:

I think you need to be careful thinking this way. If you run for Canova for 5 years, then aerobic development may not be so important. If you run in the American system in grades 8 through 12 or even grade 9 through college, you certainly can do more aerobic development.

I think it is the most important for mental reasons if nothing else for high school runners..

I was an assistant for a coach who was always thinking in terms of quarters,...I'm gonna train my guys to run 80 second quarters for 5K and that's what 90% of all the workouts consisted of.

At the starting line I remember one kid looking far off down the course, shaking his head and saying to me "Whoa, 5K!!!! I dunno"

He had no doubts though about the first 400 meters.

The Waterboy wrote:

Don't most people claim (including Lydiard) that high schoolers spend too much time doing fast repeats and not enough base, and that is what really matters for sustained success? Even wejo says in his article about how he went from slow to 4th in the 10000m nationally that high schoolers are very good at banging out short intervals, but not base stuff.

I think that distance runners tend to get bogged down in base. Because it's where we live, we tend to want to do more and more and more distance.

Lopes and Mamede started running intervals already during winter right after their season breaks.

Just wanted to "ditto" the question asking people why they thought "base" meant "nothing fast."

I don't think I've ever seen a coach advocate just running slow, easy runs for weeks on end. Maybe one or two after a layoff, but every major "base" plan I can think of advocates good strong tempo runs, some at-your-whim fartlek, and strides with full recovery.

To answer the OP's question pragmatically, if most elite runners do a "base phase" (like the one I defined above, not just simply easy running for two months) then there's probably a reason for it.

rekrunner wrote:

I have about 30 years of base -- I think I don't need to be that careful any longer.

That's great, but it IS possible that someone with 30 years of running under their belt is still not aerobically developed. Depends on the workload they've been doing.

I'd agree with Craig as far as base not being 100% long slow distance. The goal is to tax the aerobic system and to develop capilary and mitochondria to help boost your aerobic capacity. Lydiard, Pfitzinger and Daniels all have base phases in their programs so if you are a distance runner it's probably a good idea to at least run the majority of your mileage at a good, strong aerobic pace. For some people that's 9 minute pace, for some it's 5:45.

In the book Born to Run there's mention of a stat where Joe Vigil says the average Kenyan distance runner has an 18,000 mile advantage as a teenager over the average teenager running in America. That's some serious base mileage right there.