Before you do anything...

Before you do anything leading up to eventing season, be sure to develop your Aerobic Fitness.

Well, this should be the primary focus of your program for the first 8 -12 weeks of training, and is often a phase of training that is glanced through by many athletes wanting to get to the "good stuff" (the intensity training).

Unfortunately, without an optimally developed level of Aerobic conditioning,  we are unable to fully realize our Speed and Power potential later on in the training progression.

The bottom line is: Start slow and long, and as you approach the big race, go faster, for a shorter time.

Obviously this is very simplified, but the concept is clear. We want to maximize the adaptations that occur as a result of Aerobic conditioning:

1. increases our ability to process fats as energy source
2. increased number of mitochondria
3. increased capillary density at the muscular level
4. increased Aerobic enzymes responsible for Oxygen metabolism
5. reduced heart rate
6. increased delivery and uptake of Oxygen by the muscle
7. strengthens bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons making them more resilient to injury.

These adaptations will lay the foundation for more intense work later on in the program - the old Pyramid analogy has been used for  year: A pyramid with a large base of support, can be built a lot taller than one with a small base od support.

This applies with Endurance training - spent time developing your Aerobic conditioning, and it will pay dividends when you begin to focus on the more Intensive training.

So how hard (or easy) should I be working to develop my base?

Developing Aerobic Ffitness can be a little more challenging than most think, because it actually requires you to go slower than you might think.

If you are working from predicted heart rate zones (220-age etc), you should be keeping your heart rate between 60% - 70% of maximum heart rate.

If you know your Anaerobic Threshold, then you should be looking at working between 82% - 88% of your Threshold heart rate.

Finally, if you do not have a heart rate monitor, and are using  scale of perceived exertion, you should be keeping between 11 and 13 (11 is classified as Light and 13 more of an effort).

What does an Aerobic training session look like?

These training sessions should be:

1. longer in duration (20 minutes to 6 hours)
2. be completed 1-4 times per week
3. completed on a fairly flat course, keeps heart rate / exertion down
4. should be continuous in nature- you do not want to be stopping and starting all the time.

More than 50% of your total training should be done in this range, it should feel easy, and you should not feel exhausted after completing the session, in fact, you should feel energized.

Remember - Low and Slow is the way to go!