If you’re a serious endurance athlete (long-distance runner, cyclist, rower, skier, ice skater, etc.) you have come across information related to aerobic base training. In most of these sports the coaches want you to develop the aerobic base at the beginning of the off-season before starting on more intense training before and during the competitive season competition.
To build the aerobic base it is typically recommended that you do long slow distance running. This has been standard practice for many years. The effectiveness of this practice however, has not been substantiated especially for the high-level athlete.
Also not addressed is how much aerobic base training you need or even if you require greater aerobic base training. But then, in order to correctly respond to either of these questions, you have to know the athlete’s level of aerobic capabilities but also the level of his sports skill mastery and level of fitness.
Endurance athletes usually see great improvement in their times when first getting started and in the early teenage years. However, in the late teens and early 20s many endurance athletes remain on the same level from year to year. They show very little if any improvement in their times in their respective events. This indicates that the training did not bring about any significant changes in their technical or physiological capabilities.
As a result, the training for such athletes should be differentiated from the training that was done in previous years. This is substantiated in theory as well as in practice. The training of a low or novice level athlete should be very different from that of an intermediate level athlete which should also be different from a high-level performer.
A high-level athlete doing the same training intended for a lower level athlete will not show any improvement in his performance and may even show decreases. A low or novice level athlete doing the training of a high-level athlete will likewise not show any improvement and it may even lead to injury and poorer performances.
It has also been found that high-level athletes, once they have established a strong aerobic base, do not need to train for greater improvement in the aerobic base. At this time their training should be focused more on the anaerobic systems and the extreme limits of the aerobic system leading into the aerobic/anaerobic and anaerobic systems.
Doing more training for a greater aerobic base when performing on the higher leves usually leads to a lack of progress, especially in regard to improving speed in running, skating, cycling, etc. The need at this time is to develop greater speed endurance which is not attainable with slow long distance training
In general, your level of aerobic abilities begins to level off as you become more proficient in your event. It does not decrease; you still do some training for increases but the increases are smaller every year. The need for greater threshold and anaerobic training however, increases greatly as the training for greater aerobic abilities decreases.
Thus, as you move up on your level of performance you should no longer employ a great deal of long slow distance training. Instead you should use faster running closer to the aerobic/anaerobic threshold. Doing this will improve your performance significantly more than would be possible by doing more aerobic base training.
As a bonus you will also be burning more of your fat stores and making your run more efficient. Keep in mind that breakdown of fats gives you four times the energy per unit of breakdown as does carbohydrates.
For more information on development of your aerobic base in running and improving your running in general, read Explosive Running and The Revolutionary 1 x 20 RM Strength Training Program.