Sep 104 min read

Aerobic Base Building: 3 mistakes to avoid

Updated: Oct 25

The importance of building an aerobic base

The importance of building an aerobic base was first properly introduced by a revolutionary coach called Arthur Lydiard who mainly coached 800m and 1500m athletes. Lydiard had his athletes running over 100 miles a week which included a 22-mile long run. His runners dominated the track for years and Lydiard put all this success down to perfecting the aerobic base building. Lydiard's base training was revolutionary at the time.

Every day you spend building your aerobic base is a day you are increasing your anaerobic potential. However, the day you stop building your aerobic base is the day your potential for that season becomes limited.

This is why Lydiard would get his runners to spend a minimum of 12 weeks building an aerobic base, then have 4 weeks where he would still be building a base but would also include some hills as well, then 4 weeks of 5k training, then 4 weeks of 800m/1500m training and then 10 days to taper. This whole training schedule comes to about 6 months total, but Lydiard said the longer you can allow for building a base the better your results are going to be in the summer.

Many elite runners now spend all winter building an aerobic base!

Mistakes runners make when building an aerobic:

Not allowing enough time to build your aerobic base

I see it all the time, runners decide to focus on a 10k they have in 8 weeks for example, so they give themselves 3 to 5 weeks to build their aerobic base, however, this simply isn't enough. Your aerobic system takes a long time to develop it can take 10 years of high mileage to max out your aerobic capacity but you don't need more than 2 months to max out your anaerobic system. Your anaerobic system's potential is increased by building your aerobic base.

In Jakob Ingebrigsten's training program, he focuses mainly on developing his aerobic base throughout the whole of winter.

When you have built a solid base your body will have made the following adaptations:

Increased red blood cell count
Red blood cells can carry more oxygen
Your body will get more efficient with using oxygen
Your muscles will require less oxygen
Your lung capacity will increase

All of this takes time, but all of this increases your lactate threshold and increases your anaerobic potential which means you can do even more anaerobic work after your base is built.

Read: Aerobic vs Anaerobic Running.

Not varying your training paces

Many runners believe that building an aerobic base means just doing long slow jogging. However, you should train at loads of different aerobic paces to help push up your aerobic system.

You should be running a tempo run at least once a week to help improve your body's efficiency with oxygen at fast paces. This increases how fast your body can run aerobically.

You should include strides after your easy runs and before your warm-ups to improve your sprint speed and be sure you do not lose all your leg speed during your aerobic base building.

You can involve hill training in your base-building phase but it is important to be sure to have the focus on running with good form rather than trying to push really hard and be exhausted at the end of the session.

Running anaerobically during your aerobic base

This is an easy mistake to make. Whether you end up pushing a tempo too fast and getting anaerobic, or whether you have been running interval sessions that take you anaerobic.

Remember your anaerobic system does not take longer than 2 months to max out, if you go anaerobic during your aerobic base phase then you are limiting how much you can improve your aerobic system.

Use your miles wisely during your base phase.

If there is lactate acid in your legs then ask yourself- what is the purpose of this workout and how is it going to benefit my aerobic base? If you answer that question honestly then the answer is usually something like "I wanted to run fast because my ego won't let slower runners beat me" or "I just wanted to hit a hard workout to feel fast". However, if you stay disciplined then you can show how fast you can run on race day.

Now, there are times when you will run anaerobically and that is okay. I believe it is important to build your strength through hill training in the base phase and you will be anaerobic whilst running up the hills, this is okay because of the importance of increasing your strength during the base phase. Similarly, doing strength work specific to running in the gym will also be anaerobic, however, do not worry as this is all for the greater good.