I also have them lifting weights and doing functional strength training with a focus on their unique physical needs. The prep period is a time when I have the athletes I coach hiking, taking aerobics classes, using aerobic machines at the gym or anything else they enjoy. You could do anything as long as it was fully aerobic, meaning low intensity.

The sessions did not have to be limited to swimming, biking and running. There was little or no structure to your training and you were doing, essentially, whatever you felt like in workouts. Prior to base 1 you were in the prep period and basically just getting back into the routine of working out again. Prepīut before we get into base training let’s discuss the prep period which proceeds it. Let’s take a look at the typical workouts for each of these three base periods. The training stress in each of these periods gradually increases so that by the end of base 3 you are much more generally fit than when you started base 1 and you are ready to begin training for the specific stresses of racing. So what should you do differently in base period workouts? The best way to answer this question is to divide the base period into three sub-periods of three to four weeks each – base 1, base 2 and base 3. These are all workouts intended to prepare you for the stresses of racing. There is a big difference between training to train and training to race and yet I see athletes in base doing the very same workouts they will be doing a few weeks before their first big event – anaerobic intervals, hill repeats, tempo and bricks.

In the build period you will be training with workouts that are very much like the stresses you will experience in racing. Build starts immediately after base ends about 12 weeks before your first A-priority race of the season. That means in base you are preparing the body for the greater stresses that will follow in the build period. This is the time of year when you train to train, not train to race. There seems to be a lot of confusion among athletes about the base period of training.

Sabre client base training