People are not houses. Thus, there is no need to build a "base" in training.

The title is legitimately hilarious.

Fitness guru wrote:

Good training for a distance runner focuses on the development of anaerobic threshold. Everything else is supplementary.

So just start with tempo on day one and repeat? Kim mortensen trained under that system, so I guess it could work

Distance running is about sustaining a fast pace for a long time. In other words, being able to run fast aerobically (all races 1500m and above are at least 75% aerobic, 90%+ at 5k, 98% at Half Marathon). You do that by training yourself to run long. You'll get about 90% of the way there on purely long runs and 1hr steady state runs with strides a few days a week. That is what 'base' training is: to get you 90% of the way to peak fitness with a big aerobic engine and a very low chance of injury. Then 10-12 weeks of speed and VO2 Max stuff to peak. Then there won't be any more gains from that type of work until you build a bigger aerobic engine.

Do some reading by almost any reputable running coach/author.

Or you can show us by by being the first to coach someone to a World Championship medal your way.

ChangeUrNameToFitnessMoron wrote:

That is what 'base' training is: to get you 90% of the way to peak fitness with a big aerobic engine and a very low chance of injury. Then 10-12 weeks of speed and VO2 Max stuff to peak.

That's completely illogical though. If you "peak" during VO2max etc, then what are you building during the offseason? You regress to far below that peak during the next "base," so how does it account for most of your aerobic fitness?

I think most coaches use it just because it's tradition. And it's tradition just because the earth's axis is tilted - you can't do effective fast training during the winter. Yes, it does keep you in shape, and prepare you for the rigors of harder training when it's warmer, but I doubt that has anything to do with the aerobic engine, more with running economy, body structure, bone remodeling and other adaptations. It doesn't make sense to expect the aerobic energy system to adapt more when it is less stressed than it does when it's more stressed. Particularly during warm weather when blood volume naturally increases.

Well rephrased stock topic, OP.

'Aerobic engine' or Aerobic Capcity is really just a combination of basic health and fitness. Just because lots of coache and authors write what you have above, it doesn't mean they understand it. They just repeat each others mistakes.

You are confusing Aerobic Capacity with efficiency. Two different things.

10/10

Fitness guru wrote:

People are not houses. Thus, there is no need to build a "base" in training.

Good point.

People are also not mountains. Thus, there is no need to "peak".

Rater of good posts wrote:

10/10

I interpret that to mean that you have started 10 of the 10 threads on this same subjects lately.

It's enough now.

Mountain Climber wrote:

Fitness guru wrote:

People are not houses. Thus, there is no need to build a "base" in training.

Good point.

People are also not mountains. Thus, there is no need to "peak".

Wow, never thought about it this way.

Note that people are also not railroads. Thus, there is no need to "train".

Choo Choo Charlie wrote:

Mountain Climber wrote:

Good point.

People are also not mountains. Thus, there is no need to "peak".

Wow, never thought about it this way.

Note that people are also not railroads. Thus, there is no need to "train".

But people are people, so why should it be

You and I should get along so awfully?

Read again what I said about base training. It is not jogging around as slow as possible. It is doing a lot of 1hr moderate pace runs and long runs (sometimes picking up the 2nd half or last few miles) and some strides to maintain your raw speed. This teaches your body to sustain fast paces, but keeps you in the aerobic zone so you can still recover fairly quickly and therefore stack up a lot of work work at these high aerobic paces.

VO2Max and sprint training require a lot of recovery so your Aerobic training suffers. Of course there are benefits to this training, but there are also limits. Primarily the limit is your Anaerobic Threshold, which is almost exclusively trained by sustained high level aerobic running. Therefore you need base training. This is why many coaches only do VO2Max/Sprint training for a few months.

Please cite the people you have coached, your own results, or a list of current world class distance runners that show a 'no base' approach is better.

Fitness guru wrote:

Good training for a distance runner focuses on the development of anaerobic threshold. Everything else is supplementary.

Legitimately nice troll job.

For those of you who want an actual explanation of why base training is important, look up its relation to your cells' ability to produce energy.

RunHarwell wrote:

Fitness guru wrote:

Good training for a distance runner focuses on the development of anaerobic threshold. Everything else is supplementary.

Legitimately nice troll job.

For those of you who want an actual explanation of why base training is important, look up its relation to your cells' ability to produce energy.

I prefer a bad troll to an ex phys idiot.

Choo Choo Charlie wrote:

Mountain Climber wrote:

Good point.

People are also not mountains. Thus, there is no need to "peak".

Wow, never thought about it this way.

Note that people are also not railroads. Thus, there is no need to "train".

I love these boards

People are not music, so there is no need for tempo.

So I can't believe it got this many bites.... anyways, thought you should know houses have foundations, not bases.

A better analogy is that runners are not baseball players, and thus do not need to do "base running". Har. Hardy har har.

kinda suprised wrote:

So I can't believe it got this many bites.... anyways, thought you should know houses have foundations, not bases.

A better analogy is that runners are not baseball players, and thus do not need to do "base running". Har. Hardy har har.

Don't say 'anyways'. It makes you sound like an idiot.

But people need to do speed development year-round (plyometrics), so they need to do "base jumping".

coach d wrote:

But people need to do speed development year-round (plyometrics), so they need to do "base jumping".

When coach d tries to make a joke you know the thread has jumped the shark.