Whether you’re a seasoned marathoner or just starting your first 5K, you’ve probably heard about the importance of base training.
Base training is a “build phase” in which you gradually increase your weekly mileage or training volume and your body makes the necessary adaptations to tolerate the demands of a running training plan.
Picture it as the foundation of a skyscraper. Without a solid base, the structure is weak and can come crashing down. We don’t want our bodies to lack the structure and strength they need to train well and stay healthy for our half marathon, marathon, or whichever distance we choose to train for.
Therefore, we’ve got to do the base training phase, as boring as it may be!
In this guide, we will explore why base training is such a crucial part of your running journey and show you all of the benefits it brings. Lace-up your shoes, and let’s start building a stronger, faster, and more resilient you!
What Is Base Training?
Base training is the foundation of any well-devised training plan for runners (or any type of athlete for that matter).
In the base phase, you gradually expand your aerobic capacity, running your miles at an easy, “conversation” pace.
For any structure to be strong, durable, and stand on its own, its foundation must be the first thing to be built. A weak foundation will lead to a fragile structure that could eventually break down.
If a runner’s foundation is built properly and completes this first phase of training, they can continue to advance and improve their performance efficiently and begin more race-specific work.
If a runner moves too fast and doesn’t take the time to build that solid base, the risks of either plateauing or breaking are more probable.
What Are The Benefits Of Aerobic Base Training For Endurance Athletes?
The main objective of base training is to develop your aerobic potential to its max,1Lydiard, A. (1978). Running the Lydiard Way. Prairie Striders Library Collection. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/prairiestriders_pubs/358/ making all physical adaptations necessary to prepare you for the next training stage. You must lay down a solid foundation of aerobic fitness before adding any high-intensity speedwork, such as sprints, fartleks, interval training, or tempo runs, to your training cycle.
A base training program:
#1: Lowers The Risk Of Injury
Running is a high-impact sport, and without proper preparation, the body risks being unable to handle that impact. With an appropriate base plan (running and strength training), the body can adapt to the impact by strengthening muscles, bones,2Goolsby, M. A., & Boniquit, N. (2016). Bone Health in Athletes. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, 9(2), 108–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/1941738116677732 and joints.
Because base training running is done at an easy pace, the body can recover faster from each run instead of experiencing extreme fatigue and running on shot legs.
This will weaken you more and increase your chances of experiencing overuse injuries such as shin splints, runner’s knee, stress fractures, or overtraining.
#2: Increases Glycogen Stores and Fat Burning Capacity
After running for a prolonged period, your body becomes depleted of its glycogen stores. It needs to resort to burning fat for energy. Running for long bouts at an easy pace will wake this energy system up and get it raring to go.
In addition to working the “fat-burning” zone, the body also becomes better at storing glycogen,3Galloway, J. (n.d.). Galloway’s Book on Running. http://gotomybooknotes.com/images/running/Galloway.pdf, so the body handles this “deficit” better and better each time.
#3: Increases Cardiovascular Endurance
The more low-intensity work your body does, the more capillaries around the cells it produces,4Gute, D., Laughlin, M. H., & Amann, J. F. (1994). Regional Changes in Capillary Supply in Skeletal Muscle of Interval-Sprint and Low-Intensity, Endurance-Trained Rats. Microcirculation, 1(3), 183–193. https://doi.org/10.3109/10739689409148273 allowing it to move more blood and, ultimately, more oxygen to your muscles.
Another amazing adaptation our body makes while working in our base training zone is with our mitochondria.
Don’t you remember high school biology class? Mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell! By multiplying the number of mitochondria5Sahlin, K., Mogensen, M., Bagger, M., Fernström, M., & Pedersen, P. K. (2007). The potential for mitochondrial fat oxidation in human skeletal muscle influences whole body fat oxidation during low-intensity exercise. American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, 292(1), E223–E230. https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpendo.00266.2006 we have and increasing their size and strength, the more energy we will produce and use during our running.
#4: Improves Your Mental Toughness
A good block of base training improves your body not only physically but also helps your mind. When we begin running, even short, easy runs feel like an incredible feat. Our body needs to adapt to this challenge, but so does our brain.
Going out day after day, at your conversation pace, will make each run feel more accessible than the last. You’ll see, you won’t always be wishing you were at your last mile, but you’ll actually enjoy every last one.
It will become second nature; you’ll just keep going and going. After your mind and body are comfortable with your weeks of base training, you can begin to stress them with new adaptations, such as speedwork.
After hearing all of these incredible benefits, don’t you want to build that base? These adaptations your body will undergo will prepare you well for the specific race workouts and speed work you will see later in your training plan.
Here are some tips to help you get through this training phase.
Top Tips for base training
#1: Always Stay At Conversation Pace
Ensure you are running at a pace where you can constantly carry on a conversation with someone else.
If you are using the perceived level of exertion chart, you should be between a 2 and 3. If you use heart rate zones, it is best to calculate them precisely and not just use formulas based on averages by age. This is if you either pulse below or above the average beats per minute.
To calculate your heart rate zones correctly, you can either go to a lab and perform a test in the presence of a cardiologist or, with permission from your doctor, do a max effort test yourself. If you are interested in doing this, look at the following article for more details.
#2: Adjust Your Pace Depending On The Terrain
Staying at an easy pace is more complicated than it sounds, especially if you are running on hilly roads or are a trail runner!
If you are a road runner and run your base training workouts on hilly terrain, you’ll have to adjust your pace accordingly. Your pace will need to slow when going uphill, and you’ll be able to go a bit faster on the downhills.
As for trail runners, you will definitely have to walk at times if you run in a hilly area.
Base training as a trail runner often includes a lot of hiking, at least on the trails where I train!
The constant uphills make for a challenging journey during a base run. When you feel your heart rate rising and your breath becoming labored, slow down and walk if you have to.
Remember, go at whatever pace you need to to stay in a very comfortable zone. Depending on your fitness level, the terrain, and even the weather, this will vary greatly and be quite a challenge.
#3: Forget About Pace
This is probably the hardest one for road runners. It’s common for us to constantly check our watches to ensure we are at the “right” pace or race pace according to our training that day. With base training, we forget about all of that.
Don’t think about your actual pace at all. Remember that base training is most commonly based on your perceived effort level. If you need to, hide the pace from sight and set up a watch face with just the time. The old-fashioned way, just a chronometer.
#4: Run With A Friend
Running accompanied during base training is a great way to pass the time and ensure you will be talking! Be sure to show up with plenty of stories to tell.
#5: Be Patient
Of course, we all want to get faster, and trodding along at what seems to be a turtle’s pace to us may not seem like progress is being made, but it is.
When base training, remaining patient is much easier said than done, but follow through with the whole process and don’t let others, or even yourself, let you stray from that path.
Enjoy it. How often do you get to run without worrying about how fast you’re going or how many 400-meter intervals at Vo2 Max or lactate threshold you have left? Be patient; you’ll be glad you took the time to do it right.
From a coaching standpoint, the difference between my athletes who actually followed my advice to stick to an easy pace during their base training phase and those who did not and ran hard anyway is evident.
The athletes that followed through, continue to reap the benefits of that “easy” work, such as a nice low heart rate at a swift pace.
How Many Weeks Of Base Training Should I do?
The bigger the goal, the stronger the foundation you will need, but typically, 4-12 weeks is an adequate amount of time for this build. Many factors come into play when setting up this timeline, such as experience, fitness level, and goals.
If you are an experienced runner and are constantly marathon training and racing, you may already have a solid base and can jump right into the good stuff.
If you are a beginner runner, you may base train the entire marathon cycle and not get into any speedwork yet.
Look for a training plan geared to your fitness level and specific training goal to determine how much base training will be the sweet spot for you.
When Should I Fit Base Training Into My Training Cycle?
Base training doesn’t have to be just for beginners and can be included in any training program depending on the running goal. “Going back to basics” is a great way to continue to grow and improve as a runner.
The best time to fit base training blocks in would be right after a big race or race season and after the appropriate recovery period has been taken. When you are rested and ready to go, you can begin your base training phase.
Base training should be your first priority if you are a beginner runner. Take advantage of the fact that you didn’t make the same mistake most of us do and skip this primordial training step.
What Is A Beginner Base Training Running Plan Example?
For a beginner runner who can run 20-30 minutes without stopping, the first couple of weeks of a running base-building plan could look like this.
Your total volume should not increase by more than 10% week by week, so the weekly increase will be gradual.
Beginner Base Training Running Plan
Training Week 1
Monday: Strength training session
Tuesday: 20-30 minutes easy run
Wednesday: Strength training session
Thursday: 20-30 minutes easy run
Friday: 45 minutes cross training easy or rest
Saturday: 40 minutes easy run (take walk breaks if necessary)
Sunday: Rest
Training Week 2
Monday: Strength training session
Tuesday: 22-33 minutes easy run
Wednesday: Strength training session
Thursday: 22-33 minutes easy run
Friday: 45 minutes cross training easy or rest
Saturday: 44 minutes easy (take walk breaks if necessary)
Sunday: Rest
As you can see, the workouts are not very interesting when starting this base training process. But enjoy this time, as it will get more complicated from here.
You should take a fitness test every 4-6 weeks to track your progress.
Some examples of tests you could take are the mile test, 3K test, or the 5K test.
Whichever fitness test you choose, be sure it’s the same for the entirety of the base training phase so the improvement is evident. Seeing how you have shredded down your time by working your aerobic base is very motivating.
Even though this is probably news you didn’t want to hear, base training is vital, so take the time to do it properly. You’ll thank me later!
If you want to train for your first 5K, check out our training plans here.
