Aerobic base

Former Member
Former Member
Reading the Eddie Reese article in the SFF thread and the importance of an aerobic base I was led to wonder, how do you establish and maintain an aerobic base, and how do you know when to go from building the aerobic base to working on non-aerobic training? Do you split your season or do you work on all aspects all the time? I know it's a big question but...
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    I know it's a big question but... It wouldn't be that big of a question if we could first define what Base means. Or what aerobic Base means. I do know what it means in the world of Cycling as this topic has been beaten to death over the last 3 to 4 years; that is, following the release of Coggan's PMC (Performance Management Chart) model. If I take the same definition and apply it to swimming, then Base refers to your chronic work capacity. As simple as that really. The overall weekly workload you can handle is referred to as the Base. It used to be, in cycling, that the Base would be quantified in term of the volume you could perform. Andrew Coggan, Ph.D changed this by proposing a modified version of Banister's Trimp system. Basicially, it involves quantifying your Base in term of Volume*Intensity. To the best of my knowledge, the only scientist to have ever proposed a similar model applied to swimming is Dr.Phil Skiba. His Swim Score allows you to quantify the magnitude of your base using a Duration*intensity equation. Now, swim coaches being swim coaches, it could take ages before they become aware about the existence of these models. But that is another topic. For the time being, I would propose that the Base simply means your actual Chronic Work Capacity. Intensity put aside, it simply refers to the weekly volume you can sustain before getting over trained or injured etc..... The composition of your Base can include any sort of work (from low level endurance to anaerobic capacity sets). That is the first domain of discussion that Cyclists could sort out rapidly few years back. In other words, the Base is not exclusively made of low level endurance swimming. My swim Base at this time allows me to commit to workouts that don't exceed 3000m. Typical volume being more around 2000-2500. I can do 4 of them in a week. So given the composition of my Base (which is unknown since the swimming world couldn't care less about quantifying it at this time), my Weekly Chronic Training Load (or Work Capacity) is set to around 9-10k per week. I can not jump from this, to 20k per week without negative consequences. Ref (PMC) home.trainingpeaks.com/.../what-is-the-performance-management-chart.aspx Ref (Skiba Swim Score) www.physfarm.com/swimscore.pdf
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    I know it's a big question but... It wouldn't be that big of a question if we could first define what Base means. Or what aerobic Base means. I do know what it means in the world of Cycling as this topic has been beaten to death over the last 3 to 4 years; that is, following the release of Coggan's PMC (Performance Management Chart) model. If I take the same definition and apply it to swimming, then Base refers to your chronic work capacity. As simple as that really. The overall weekly workload you can handle is referred to as the Base. It used to be, in cycling, that the Base would be quantified in term of the volume you could perform. Andrew Coggan, Ph.D changed this by proposing a modified version of Banister's Trimp system. Basicially, it involves quantifying your Base in term of Volume*Intensity. To the best of my knowledge, the only scientist to have ever proposed a similar model applied to swimming is Dr.Phil Skiba. His Swim Score allows you to quantify the magnitude of your base using a Duration*intensity equation. Now, swim coaches being swim coaches, it could take ages before they become aware about the existence of these models. But that is another topic. For the time being, I would propose that the Base simply means your actual Chronic Work Capacity. Intensity put aside, it simply refers to the weekly volume you can sustain before getting over trained or injured etc..... The composition of your Base can include any sort of work (from low level endurance to anaerobic capacity sets). That is the first domain of discussion that Cyclists could sort out rapidly few years back. In other words, the Base is not exclusively made of low level endurance swimming. My swim Base at this time allows me to commit to workouts that don't exceed 3000m. Typical volume being more around 2000-2500. I can do 4 of them in a week. So given the composition of my Base (which is unknown since the swimming world couldn't care less about quantifying it at this time), my Weekly Chronic Training Load (or Work Capacity) is set to around 9-10k per week. I can not jump from this, to 20k per week without negative consequences. Ref (PMC) home.trainingpeaks.com/.../what-is-the-performance-management-chart.aspx Ref (Skiba Swim Score) www.physfarm.com/swimscore.pdf
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