base miles

Well done on your medals. Hope there are many more in store for you.

To come back to your question: In order for you to maintain your current level of fitness, you will need to maintain your current level of training - that’s a given. To improve your current level of fitness, you will need to up your training - again, that’s a given.
How do we measure the results of our training efforts? There are various ways, but not unlike the most other athletes out there, we compete. Now whether we compete at international level or dice our buddies at the local club fun ride, we all train because we want to improve.
Unfortunately the body cannot sustain continuous and perpetual intensive training. It needs time to recover and recuperate.

The base or foundation training phase is normally part of a structured or periodized training program. These programs are usually designed around specific goals or events during the season.
For example, if your main goal is to compete at the national championships, then you should structure or periodize your training program in such a way that you reach peak fitness and form at the time of the event.
It's true that many athletes start their base phase soon after reaching peak form, but it should be remembered that peak form is not an all year condition for the athlete. I think that it is a misconception that the main purpose of base training is to bring an athlete back into shape.
By strengthening an already solid foundation, you are raising the bar and preparing the body for it's next period of conditioning, pushing it even further and making it stronger than it was before.

For me it helps to think of the year as similar to a course profile graph! The winter period with base training is kind of a long moderately flat part of the race. Then as one works through the year and intensity strength etc increase the graph rises to several peaks which show high intensity training before coming down again when tapering for key events.

At the end of the year, the season winds down and base starts again, but this time at a higher "altitude" on the graph than the year before (if all goes well ;-).

If one tried to stay "in the mountains" for a longer period of time, say during a whole year, it's pretty easy to see how that would majorly increase stress on the body - probably leading to injury.

A bit unscientific perhaps, but that's the way I've been looking at it. I find I'm really enjoying my base trainnig at the moment. It's a chance to put in miles and have fun with the bike (not that the rest of the season isn't fun). I often mix things up a bit and use the opportunity to find some new ride routes, take my mountainbike out for a spin more often, cross train and generally have some fun.

Thanks for the info. I see what you're saying. Here's one other related thing that bugs me. Since our muscles are specific machines in the sense that how you train them is how they perform, how does someone like me (whose only interest is pure speed/power + a bit of endurance) spend time doing easy miles? Should the easy miles be done at high cadence so that at least the neurological system is remebering the cadence aspect of sprinting even when going easy? For match sprints I'd gladly give up a little bit of cardio for another 50W peak power. ANy ideas are appreciated.

Nice work there, congrats. Can I ask what your kilo times were?

I've asked many similar questions (as have others) on base miles, and the above responses summarize the issue nicely.

Aztec,
Since the times are embarassing to me, let me give context:
I only did two kilos in competition this year (I prefer the sprint). At the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio championships I ran a 1:14. That was 15 minutes after winning the sprint finals (after a whole day of racing in the sun). By some miracle, that time won it.
The other kilo was in Kenosha, Wisconsin at Master's National championships on a windy evening. That time I was fresh and ran a 1:12 to take 5th. On a better track and without a wind, I'm good for 1:10. Surprisingly in the US, that's quite competitive! I've seen international times and they're astounding. I have to wonder sometimes (as I did in this post) if I either lack talent or train incorrectly.

i coach a world class sprinter (200m, 1km). he does quite a lot of endurance work for the kilo (probably about the typical amount of a 2nd or 3rd cat road rider), lots of weight training, and lots of sprinting (!), and some VO2 max power work.

Approximately, 40% of the energy needed for a kilo is generated aerobically.

Ric

ricstern,
to reiterate one thing asked earlier, does this endurance work get done at a high cadence, or is it identical to a roadie's time on the bike?