I think I get it now

I mentioned that my conversation with Nate Loyal had flipped a switch in my head regarding training; well, the light finally came on. I think I finally get it, base period is everything. I have heard that phrase and read it more times than I care to say. In all my rookieness, I always chalked up base period as “a really boring stretch of time where you ride slow and just log miles to get your legs used to it”. Little did I know that there was a very important biological process going on during this time period. To quote Joe Friel “In some ways the initial Base period of the year is the most important in the athlete’s season.”

Cycling really is a thinking (wo)man’s sport. You have to plan, observe and keep it together mentally during an event. It requires a great deal of patience to do this game right. Base period is ALL ABOUT PATIENCE. This is not a natural virtue that I possess. The way I tend to do things is balls to the wall intensity every time out the gate. It is a very spirited but immature way to approach cycling. My approach this year to a base period was after about a week of slow riding, I thought “Well I feel good enough, I am just going to start pushing it”. That right there is the immaturity showing through. An experienced cyclist would say “I am feeling great, that must mean that things are starting to get in gear. I am going to STICK WITH THE PLAN”. This is the step I skipped. Sticking with the plan is so very important.

I will try not to cover stuff in detail that other people already know about by reading articles or books on the subject. I will just try to summarize it enough for those who don’t know. Building a base is all about stressing your aerobic (oxygen and fat burning) system enough that it responds by growing stronger and more resistant to stress. For example, my max HR is 180 BPM, that puts my ANaerobic threshold right around 165. To adequately stress my aerobic system, I want do all of my base miles in the range of about 145 bpm, and not any higher. I want to do this kind of riding for a couple months without pushing it up a big climb or a fast group ride. What this does is force my aerobic threshold to increase. That translates to an ability for my body to execute a harder effort while still remaining in the aerobic range, and reserve going ANaerobic for really hard efforts up a climb or in a time trial. The goal of the base period is to push your aerobic threshold as high as possible so that when you are in a race, you can spend most of the time in the more efficient aerobic range. If you fail to properly build a base, it results in your body going ANaerobic a lot faster.

Aerobic vs ANaerobic HR is not the only thing that a base period affects. It also affects your body’s ability to properly build up to a sustainable strong effort. Joe Friel describes it as a pyramid. The bigger you build the ground floor of the pyramid, the higher you can build that pyramid. In my case (this year) I didn’t build the ground floor very big. What this results in is the following:
I ride a week and feel mildly good, certainly good enough that I decide the next week I am going to push really hard. The following week, I push really hard and on my Saturday group ride I kick ass and ride with the big boys. The following week, I do my normal rides but I feel really crappy; and I decide the next week I will take it easy. The next week, I do just that, I take it easy. Then the cycle repeats. This can be described as hitting mini peaks. Those peaks are on those weeks when I feel really good and kick serious ass on my group ride. The week after is on the downturn of my fitness. These mini-peaks are a direct result of having virtually no aerobic base. My body cannot sustain peak fitness for very long. I am forced to take it easy. For big pro bike racers like Lance Armstrong, the base period is so effective that when they peak for events like the Tour De France, that peak lasts for almost a month, and it is at a higher level than I will ever experience.
Here is a diagram to help you understand the pyramid concept. For reference, I included a scale diagram of my base period pyramid:

This information is all old news to experienced athletes, but to someone with such limited knowledge as I have, this is the biggest revelation ever. The light has come on, the ship has arrived, gold has been struck. The only problem is, we are right in the middle of the season and I don’t really know how to go about solving the problem. However, I am stoked to recognize what is going on and have some knowledge with which to change it.

My hope with posting this is two fold:
1. That this explanation has flipped the switch for someone else in my situation. After all, cycling knowledge is all about paying it forward.
2. That those who already knew this aren’t annoyed and thumbing their noses while reading it, and maybe they would share this post with people who are in a situation similar to my own. Thanks guys!