Blown Base

by Gordo Byrn

With the year wrapping up and winter rolling in for many of our readers, I thought I’d share my three most memorable base-training errors.

1. Keeping It Rolling
Successfully tapping our potential requires the smart application of multiple seasons of effort. The more success you enjoyed in 2012, the deeper your recovery needs to be for 2013.

When I was racing elite, I would load myself with back-to-back seasons by swapping hemispheres each spring and fall. This was an excellent technique for rapidly loading myself with training. If you live in Texas, California or Florida (or Australia, Spain or Hong Kong) then you’d be able to follow a similar pattern without needing to travel.

With the back-to-back seasons, I found that I would completely fall apart every third year. Coming off of those extended breaks, I had some very successful breakthrough performances. Learning from my experience, I advise my athletes to avoid going more than 18 months without a deep rejuvenation block. You’ll find more about using this two-year season approach on a recent IM Talk podcast.

2. Too Hard Too Early
Justin is fond of saying that we don’t go hard, we go fast. However, when I start my fast work too early, it sure is hard! That’s mistake No. 2 -- tapping into my anaerobic and threshold endurance far too early in the year.

If your winter program feels hard then you’re unlikely to be setting yourself up for success in your larger life.

3. The Early Build
A lot went right in my elite career and I was fortunately to enjoy many excellent results. One of my best results was finishing second overall at Ironman New Zealand in 2005. I was coming off a life-best performance and decided to keep-it-rolling across the winter. Staying active wasn’t my mistake. My error was seeking to replicate a summer build block that led into my race.

If you decide to target an early season race then remember that training needs to be appropriate for the time of year, as well as your race goals. My inability to see this point or heed the advice of my coaching mentors led to a five month break, which effectively ended my elite career.

All of the above errors had a root cause of being greedy with my race fitness. Being much older, and a little bit wiser, I’m patient with the speed that my body returns to form. Across the winter, I focus on being really healthy, rather than really speedy. I also focus on success in the wider playing field of life.

As a working athlete, winter is my “on-season” for family and work-related projects. October through March is my most productive and creative block in my non-athletic life. This is the time where I create the framework, and support, that will let me crank my training way up (!) in the summer.

I hope you have a great 2013 and thanks for reading the site this past year.

Gordo is the founder of Endurance Corner. You can find his personal blog here.