Base Training in 2021

 So we are now three months into 2021 and what a year it has been at least for exercise. Yes, we are still on lock down in many areas (in Nova Scotia we are quite lucky that our lockdowns are minimal) but staying fit is still something we can aim for. 

One thing I opted to do this year was really focus on a good quality base training season. With no events to taper for, I was able to just hunker down and put the time on feet in, with the aim of building a really strong base of aerobic fitness. 

While I say three months, in reality, we need to go back a little further into December with my goal of achieving a 100+ km week of running during the BLT Runner Xmas Marathon Challenge. From there, I took an easy day of just hiking on January 1st and then began training hard.

While I say training hard, I really mean training smart and pushing my body slowly to adapt to a much bigger than normal work load. This meant being very cautious with things like running hard. While I still did some tempo work and the occasional time trial, for the most part, my efforts were "easy."

Running certainly made up a huge portion of this base training (25% of distance and 41% of time) with almost 840km of running in. In general I run around 60-80 km a week. This is the biggest producer of training stress for me as well, being a full body activity. Stress is a good thing when it is planned for and you allow for recovery.  This accounted for 61 hours of workout time.

While cycling on the indoor trainer was the exercise I undertook with the greatest distance covered (or really didn't cover if you count not moving forward) at over 2100 km, it was only slightly more than the time I put in running. I cycled for 64 hours in the first three months. While this certainly added a lot to my training stress, when measured using metrics from my Garmin watch, it was actually half as stressful on my body. But this is good. This meant I could really push the effort level on the bike much harder and get some top end aerobic work in while minimizing the physical damage to my muscles. 

I do suggest cycling to runners as a great way to occupy days off. As well, I have been pushing the distance a lot more than normal on the bike due to a virtual fundraiser ride around the coast of Nova Scotia called Route541. 

All my other activities together account for 23 hours of workout time.  Speed skating was a big part of it. I really enjoy getting out and doing some fast laps, even if my skill level on the ice isn't that great. It is a fun alternate form of exercise for me and really works new muscle groups. That is a good thing.

And for once we had enough snow that I was able to get out for multiple snowshoe adventures.  Trust me, moving quickly on snowshoes is a great push for the aerobic system. Add in poles and you get back to that full body work out, but with low impact.  

And speaking of full body, I have managed to just start to add back some jump rope as well. Whew!

Now, I won't say that I didn't also put in a  few fast efforts to test the legs. It is always good to do a little bit of speed to change up which muscles are working hard. You just have to be really mindful during a hard base training session. So I would do a fast 5K or tempo run on Saturdays as part of my effort to get a parkrun in and or race in a virtual series hosted by VDot2. While these are races, the concept is actually set up for coaches to be able to use these as fun tester workouts for athletes. 

I even managed a few runs to pace some friends, and got one to his new PB in the 5K. 

So, while I am glad to have done this big base training period, I am also happy to be tapering down a bit and focusing on some speedier goals to come in late May. This means stepping back the cycling particularly so that I have more rest time. 

I have a couple of Ambassadorships to chat about, but that is for another post.