If you have been following our periodized training program or this website for any time, you are probably coming off a rest period at the end of  your training year (e.g. the Adaptation Phase ) and you are chomping at the bit to get ready to start your serious paddling again.

It is at about this time of year that many paddlers find their thought demons telling them “Molokai (or whatever your A-priority race is) is only 7 months away – you need to get started on your training.”  Paddlers do “video loops” in their head envisioning themselves coming into a race unprepared. As a result many athletes start killing it in their training on January 1 and pretty much botch their entire race season because they are tired an spent by June 1.

This year set a new year’s resolution and prevent yourself from botching your race season in January. This year make a new years resolution to base train like you mean it.

A 2:58 minute primer on Base Training

We go into depth about why base training is important in The Riding Bumps book. If you do not have the book, please allow Olympic running coach Bobby McGee do the honors.

As he says in the video ““So don’t worry, go slow & you’ll get the same benefits (& more, because you’ll train for longer) as your ego driven buddies who always want to push the pace.”

Going easy is difficult

Over the last 20 years  coaching endurance athletes we learned that in addition to death and taxes one gurantee is that most of the athletes we work with will (initially) mess up their base training. Although it seems like a simple concept, going slow is difficult for many athletes. Here are a few causes:

1.     Your friends are your worst enemies: Endurance training with friends is fun. The problem is that well meaning friends do not always have your best interests in mind. Too many times we have seen friends give advice such as “It is January, your race is 4 months away, why are you going on such a long paddle?” or “dude come with us  – one day of racing won’t kill your season.” The “helpful” comments go on and on. The problem is that if you want to do base training right, you need to stick to your plan and ignore friends like these for the next 8 weeks.

2.     Base training is counterintuitive: Your race is 8 months away. For most athletes it does not make sense to do big miles this early in the season. Logic will tell you that you should build toward your race. Logic is wrong. Long slow miles early in the season with shorter and more intense miles as you approach race day is a proven technique for success.

3.     You don’t have enough friends: There is a saying that goes something along the lines of “great endurance athletes are either really intelligent or really stupid.” We take this saying to mean that really dumb people don’t realize that paddling along going slow for hours on end is mind numbing. Conversely, really intelligent people can solve the worlds problem, or think about physics, or whatever when they are paddling and entertain themselves so they do not notice the long training hours. The rest of us, the people with average intelligence, go completely nuts during base training. It really helps to have a training partner when you are base training so you dont lose your mind out there paddling alone.

4.     Slow is quantifiable and you are afraid of numbers: Inexperienced athletes believe that anything that does not leave them panting during their workout is slow. The reality is that slow is probably slower than you think. Slow means you can talk during your workouts. If you think you are going to slow you are probably doing it right. There is, however, no reason to even think about whether you are going too fast or too slow – get a heart rate monitor and do not go above zone 2. Now your intensity is dialed in. If you don’t have a heart rate monitor you need to ask yourself why.

5.     Effective base training is a time commitment. Going slow means going long. Going long takes time. There is no way around it.  Depending on your race goals and experience you are going to need to be in the water for hours on end. Going slow for 45 minutes just wont bring about the aerobic adaptations you get out of long slow miles. Going hard for 45 minutes is not base training.

Allow yourself cheat “10%” on your base training.

From time to time you need to give in to your desire to do something else other than go long and slow. Go for a surf once a week. Put in a few short intervals during a workout once a week. If you have a short race in the middle of your base training go for it. A little bit of intensity here and there will not ruin your race season. Our recommendation is to keep it to less than 10% of your training load. In San Diego we have a weekly pre-season interval session through the winter that serves this purpose (hint: we post these workouts every week to our Facebook and Twitter feeds.)

Bottom line : base training is a counterintuitive time commitment that is mentally and physically challenging to pull off. Do not let your otherwise well meaning friends get in the way of your success. This year make a new year’s resolution to take 8 weeks and base train like you mean it.