Alameda Runners – Get After It!

This is the first of a short series on base training.

Base training means a lot of things to different athletes.  For advanced athletes, base training focuses on strength and fuel burning.  For a large majority of our readers, base training is for building up strength and endurance to accomplish an event.  It seems the half marathon is the most popular event for base training.  My first base training was for a triathlon some 15 to 20 years ago

A lot of you are people who started out just like I did.  I saw a triathlon that I wanted to do and I trained for it.  I had no idea what I was doing but I sure tried hard.  I did not finish my first attempt at that triathlon and I trained for a whole year to go back and finish that thing.

My next goal was an international distance triathlon a whole year later.  My only goal was to finish that triathlon.  It took me two years to build up a base where I could finish that triathlon in less than 4 hours.  It took every bit of energy that I had to finish at all.

Back then, I had to do it with will power and advanced triathlon magazines.  Now, we have the internet and key word searches.  Base training is nothing more than strength and endurance.

Physical strength is the ability of someones muscles to exert force on physical objects.  For example, a cyclist exerts force over the pedals of a bicycle while a runner exerts force on the ground causing the body to lift.  Endurance is the ability to exert that force.  The more you can repeat the exertion of a force, the more endurance you have.

Base training is all about building up your strength and endurance.  For most of us, base training means go out and do something.  Take it easy while doing it.  If you are planning on doing your first half marathon, get out and do walk-run combinations.  If you are planning on doing your second half marathon, start doing long slow runs.

More on base training to come.