Groundwork Athletics Inc.

It’s funny how when you get fit and are training regularly how easy it is to fall into the trap of training at high intensities every session. While this seems to make sense it is not how you should do things. High intensity training has a place but just like anything else too much is detrimental. Are you suffering from nagging injuries (sore back, hamstring, IT band, shin splints…), getting sick more than once per year, waking up in the middle of the night, digestion problems (bloating, heart burn, gas…)? Do you know these are all symptoms of overtraining? Too much hard anaerobic training actually becomes detrimental to your health. There are many athletes (professional, amateur, recreational) who are really fit but unhealthy. They are often injured, sick, aren’t sleeping properly, have frequent stomach and intestinal issues. Isn’t exercise supposed to make you healthier? Yes it most definitely will, but like anything else exercise/training requires balance. For many highly active people aerobic base training is ignored. Sustained aerobic exercise at a heart rate of roughly 180 – age (no higher, but up to 10 beats lower) is extremely beneficial to all types of athletes. Obviously endurance athletes require more of this than a sprinter. Recreational athletes, fitness instructors/enthusiasts will all benefit greatly from more aerobic work. Developing your aerobic system improves your body’s ability to use fat as a fuel. Too many of us have an undertrained fat metabolism and rely too heavily on sugar (blood sugar, liver and muscle glycogen) as our main fuel source during exercise. When you decrease some of your anaerobic training sessions and substitute some aerobic work you will greatly improve your fitness. Your immune system is bolstered, you will shift to burning more fat as a fuel; you will become healthier overall. A healthier body is more resilient to injury and will perform at a higher level. With the proper amount of aerobic training you will recover better from hard workouts and in turn be able to work harder during hard training sessions and competition.

It can be difficult to trust that you are benefiting from the relatively ‘easy’ low heart rate training sessions, but take it from me you are. As someone who recently fell into the trap of too many intense training sessions, I can’t express enough how much better I’m feeling now that I’ve dialed things down a bit. Personally I’m working on a 2 month long aerobic base period. I’m not letting my heart rate get above 143. It’s been humbling going out for runs and getting passed… What is really exciting however, are the improvements I am seeing after only 2 weeks. I’m already running and riding faster at my lower heart rate. Who knew that training slower would make me faster, and that my nagging calf tightness would go away? The goal of any athlete should be to perform at higher speeds/intensities with less effort. The only way to get there is to include aerobic base work as part of your training plan. Optimal performance comes from a balanced approach and understanding how to train effectively both for your aerobic and anaerobic workouts. Just because you can train hard every session doesn’t mean you should.

Jon Bula, MSc, endurance athlete enthusiast…