What do you do in winter as a runner ? Sit on the couch and let those extra Christmas pounds settle ? Maybe not...
Now that it is winter,
you are looking at your agenda.
You take a running race calendar and find some great races you wish to participate in in the coming year.
I always find it quite exciting to plan my races, think about my goals and daydream about tremendous personal records I will set in the upcoming running year.
But now comes the 1 million dollar question. What do you do before your official 12 or 18 week running schedule starts ? Sit on the couch and let those Christmas pounds settle ? Maybe not.
No, the best thing to do between now and then is establish your aerobic base.
Why is establishing your aerobic base important ?
Your aerobic base is the foundation of all your running. On this foundation you built your anaerobic speed later in the running season by doing speedy workouts. But now your focus has to be on establishing that all important base.
You can be a quick runner. But if your aerobic base is not properly developed, you are quick for only a short distance.
Establishing or improving your base, will help you later in the running season to stay quick for a much longer period of time.
Each race longer than a few hundred metres is mainly an aerobic event, depending on your strong aerobic base, your stamina, so much more than on your speed.
How do you establish a good base ?
Simply go out and run easy.
Slow rather than fast.
As much as you can. But not so much that you cannot run tomorrow anymore.
If possible twice a day.
Do that your whole winter and you build a great aerobic base which will help you set some personal records in spring and summer.
Only easy running ? That sounds boring !
Only easy running might get you a little bored after a while.
My ways to avoid this are:
- Allow myself one tempo run each week (but not go faster than tempo pace)
- Vary my pace. Easy running does not have to be only one pace. Run at any pace between ultra slow and close to tempo speed.
By the time your real race preparation starts your aerobic base will be well developed and you will be ready for the faster, harder workouts.
Ready to make your daydreams come to reality ? Make this a running year to remember !
