Build Your Base

From Running Times online…

Prepare for Success with Early Season Workouts

Building base strength isn't just about logging easy miles

By Jon Clemens

As featured in the Web Only issue of Running Times Magazine

There is no doubt that the early stages of your season are crucial with respect to building strength and setting yourself up for success. By selecting your goal race (date and distance), you are defining your season, which can be between 10–14 weeks long, with your goal race occurring at the end. The first six weeks should be focused on building your base fitness to the lower levels of peak performance — I’m talking about working on your lactate threshold, or LT, a perplexing scientific word for the point just before your body goes “anaerobic” (when you start producing more CO2 and consuming less O2).  When you’re beginning your season, it behooves you to know and plan workouts around your LT. If you’re like most and don’t have access to a lab, there are simple methods that should get you close enough to your LT so that you’re doing work at appropriate levels.

Read on here.