Training for Increased Endurance

Aerobic Muscle Fibers Anaerobic Muscle Fibers

The Team Mudge Way
Predominant Energy fat sugar (glycogen)
Vaughan Landrum at [email protected]
From
(Main Sources: The Maffetone Method, Dr. Phil Maffetone; Triathlete’s Training
Amount of Available large small
Bible, Joe Friel)
Energy
This primer is intended for those who would like to start a physical training
Blood Vessels many few
program, particularly with endurance sports such as cycling in mind. I hope to
convince you that not only is being “in training” a fun thing to say whenever
Physical Activity long duration at low to short duration at high effort
possible, but it is easy to do. I also hope to convince you that increasing your
moderate effort (sprinting)
endurance with your initial training program is the first step in addressing many
(endurance)
other fitness and health concerns, such as: hill-climbing ability, sustaining speed on
the flats, inability to keep up with “the group”, or losing weight and keeping it off.
We’ll start with a few definitions, then talk about creating an individual training
plan.

Aerobic vs. Anaerobic: A Useful Analogy

Health and Fitness Picture your available fat energy as a large vat with a small tap (your aerobic
Health – A state in which all the body’s parts, including the muscles, nerves, bones, capacity), and your available sugar energy as a small vat with a large tap (your
hormones, organs, and glands are in balance. Health may decline with age, but anaerobic capacity). Assume both vats are refilled with energy at a fairly low but
proper care can counteract the effects of aging. constant rate (your diet). Lastly, note that when your body needs energy, it
Fitness – The ability to be physically active, generally sport-specific. sensibly taps the large fat vat first, and takes energy from the sugar vat only when
it needs energy more quickly than the large vat can supply it.
Fitness does not necessarily reflect health. And being healthy may not make you a
But suppose that the tap on the fat vat releases only a trickle of energy, not
fitter athlete. It is possible, and common, for people to be fit but unhealthy, actually
enough to cover daily activities, much less exercise. This is a realistic assumption
sacrificing health for increased fitness. Examples are injuries caused from for most people. So the body is tapping the sugar vat for energy even at low
overtraining or muscular imbalance, trying to lose weight too quickly, or abuse of activity levels. When energy demands rise, the body starts drawing energy from
supplements and drugs. the small sugar vat faster than it can be refilled. Since the sugar tap is large and
the vat is small, it is easy to drain the vat dry, at which point the body complains
Your goal is to balance health and fitness, becoming as healthy and as fit as and stops working (low blood sugar or Bonking in cycling lingo) until the sugar
possible considering your potential, schedule, and desires. vat has a chance to refill. Even if the sugar vat does not go dry, it is subject to
wild swings in level throughout the day as it is drawn down and replenished.
Meanwhile, the fat tap is wide open, but may be trickling so slowly that its refill
rate exceeds its tap rate and so excess fat spills out of the vat and accumulates
Aerobic and Anaerobic elsewhere (in your hips, thighs, belly and blood vessels).
Aerobic – The body’s ability to obtain more energy through increased fat burning.
Anaerobic – The increased use of sugar for energy, and diminished fat burning. Fortunately, with proper exercise you have the ability to increase the size of both
taps. But now we see that the benefits are not equal. It makes sense to spend far
Think of your aerobic system as more than just lungs and oxygen. It encompasses more time developing the fat tap than the sugar. Yet most people spend more
exercise time on the sugar tap than the fat, by default or design, through not
the cardiovascular, nervous, and the muscular systems. In humans aerobic and
specifically training their aerobic system.
anaerobic muscle fibers together make up each skeletal muscle with the majority
being aerobic fibers. Thus, each muscle is capable of burning both fat and sugar,
depending on what it is asked to do:
Looking at the different capabilities of the aerobic and anaerobic systems, it is commit to being “in training” to improve endurance and build an aerobic base. You
clearly most efficient for the human body to develop its aerobic system. It would must have faith that this is the best way to tackle other concerns, such as weight
burn mostly fat for day-to-day activities and moderate exercise, and reserve its control, lack of speed, or hill-climbing ability.
limited anaerobic energy stores for when they are really needed. Weight control
would be easier since fat is burned not stored, and daily energy levels would be
high, since the body can tap the relatively inexhaustible supply of energy stored as Activity, Exercise, and Training
fat. Sounds great. Activity – The natural physical activity that is part of everyday life.
Exercise - Separate activity, purposely performed. Artificial activity.
But here’s the rub: the aerobic system needs regular doses of moderate activity to Training – The program of exercise, organized or fragmented, or absent,
develop and maintain itself. In the absence of a strong aerobic capacity, the body intended to improve health and fitness.
relies on its anaerobic system even for day-to-day, low to moderate energy needs.
Fat will be stored instead of burned. Insulin may become important in regulating Training = Workout + Rest.
large swings in blood and liver sugars. Fatigue and lack of energy are always This equation emphasizes that gains are made during recovery. Exercise is stress.
possible, since even everyday tasks can exhaust the limited sugar supplies. The body’s natural response is to reinforce the systems that were stressed, to better
withstand similar stress in the future. This is, of course, the reason why regular
But it’s more insidious than that. Most people who exercise regularly are still not exercise works. But it is worth emphasizing that exercise is in itself stressful to
building their aerobic capacity because exercise at higher intensities reinforces the your body, and unless you allow enough recovery time, you will not receive the full
anaerobic system. Muscles get further developed for their anaerobic properties, and benefit of your training. Over time, your performance will plateau, and your fitness
get better at burning sugars. The body may be very fit for certain sports, and be may actually decline. Overtraining is the common term for this condition.
strong, fast and powerful. But weight control problems, recurring injuries, and
fatigue may still be present. This condition is particularly evident when the body is Thus, the proper role of exercise is to apply enough stress to the body in each
asked to “go long”. The body responds by exhausting its small supply of sugars, workout to foster incremental gains in the recovery period, without risking injury or
upon which performance declines markedly. overtraining over the course of the training program. It so happens that different
systems need different amounts of recovery time. Intuitively we know that it will
It is not unreasonable to assume that people with undeveloped aerobic capacity may take longer to recover from a weight lifting session than from a one-hour walk.
get 90% of their energy from sugars and only 10% from fat during moderate Using our new terminology, we can say that workouts that target the aerobic
exercise. But proper training (described later) over as little as three months may system require much less recovery time than do those that target the anaerobic
improve the functioning of the aerobic system such that it now gets 50% of its system. This is why experts say: never perform strength training on back-to-back
energy from fat burning and only 50% from sugars at the same exercise intensity. days, schedule a rest day after a race or long workout, take a day off when you feel
fatigued, etc.
Yet more reasons to train aerobically:
• Aerobic fibers resist injury. This leads to another truism: If you want to increase your training volume (i.e.
• Aerobically efficient athletes stay hydrated longer. hours/week or hours/year), it is most efficient to add aerobic workouts to your
• Aerobic muscle fibers burn fat. program. In general, workouts done at an aerobic pace can be repeated on
• Increased aerobic function improves circulation and the entire cardiovascular consecutive days. Anaerobic workouts (hard rides, spin class, intervals, weight
system. lifting) need at least one, and sometimes more days of recovery
• Antioxidant activity occurs in aerobic muscles.
• High aerobic function prevents overtraining.
• People with developed aerobic systems say that training is more fun and
sustainable over the long term.

Thus, for a given investment in a regular exercise program, most people will derive
the greatest benefit in health and fitness by first improving their aerobic systems, or
building an aerobic base, as the pro’s say. And absent the large doses of moderate
daily activity of our ancestors the best way to improve your aerobic system is to
labored, and you know you can’t maintain the pace for long, such that in a matter of
minutes you will have to back off.
Training Zones
But what does “training aerobically”, or “at an aerobic pace”, really mean? Current
theory divides exercise intensity into zones of effort: Heart Rate Monitoring
Percent of If training in the proper zones is so important, how do we know which zone we are
Zone Perceived Exertion Benefits Training in? Modern training methods lean heavily on heart rate monitoring, attaching a
Volume range of heart rates to each zone. In reality, this is a good approximation but not the
only method. Once one has become accustomed to using a heart rate monitor, the
1 Very,Very Light Rest may be better for 0-20 conscientious athlete should compare heart rate with other methods, such as
Recovery novices Perceived Exertion and personal experience, to confirm that he is training in the
proper Zone.
2 Very Light to Fairly Builds aerobic base. 50-70
Extensive Light. Should be the most To start aerobic training, without a previous training background, try Dr.
Endurance Conversational common training zone Maffetone’s 180 formula:
or
Aerobic 180 – age = Maximum Aerobic heart rate
-10 if recovering from major illness
3 Somewhat Hard. Generally avoided: too 0-10 -5 if not exercised before, exercised irregularly, has ongoing
Intensive Short talks hard to promote aerobics, injuries, or overtrained
Endurance not hard enough to work As is if exercising regularly (4 times weekly) for up to two years
muscles without problems
+5 if competitive athlete training for more than two years without
4 Hard. At Lactate Threshold. 10-20 problems, and have made progress in competition
Threshold Breathing becomes Trains fast-twitch
or labored. muscles, promotes lactate Use a zone of 10 beats below up to your maximum aerobic rate. This will seem
Muscular Maintain for minutes, toleration and clearing too low for most people. It should feel conversational, as if you could almost do the
Endurance not hours Improves “race pace” same workout over again once you complete it. The key is to have faith that
exercising at this pace over time will force your body to adapt, increase its aerobic
5 Very Hard Excess time in this zone is 0 - 10 abilities, and over time you will have to go faster to maintain the same level of
Anaerobic Not sustainable - a leading cause of effort (as measured by heart rate).
Endurance Intervals are common overtraining
There are other ways to calculate a training heart rate. In general, the 180 Formula
6 Very, Very Hard Minimal benefit, possible 0-5 jibes with others that are designed to increase endurance by training in the upper
Power injury end of your Zone 2 - Extensive Endurance. Be cautious of the standard “220 – age
2+ days of recovery = maximum heart rate, exercise at 85% of this for cardio” dogma at gyms and on
machines. This may be in the dreaded intensive-endurance zone (zone 3 in the
Experts agree that the majority of training time, especially early in the year, and for previous table).
people new to training, should be spent in the extensive endurance, or aerobic zone.
Once an aerobic base has been developed, work in and around the lactate threshold
(LT; the point at which the body begins accumulating lactate) is proving to be most
beneficial for improving general performance in competitive events. Interested
readers should review Mr. Friel’s books for insight into the details involved in LT
training. For our purposes, think of LT as the point at which breathing becomes
Maximum Aerobic Function (MAF) Test
A standardized test to track your training progress/regression. This should be done Stretching - Stretching before an aerobic workout may not be necessary. It may be
once or twice a month. After a recovery day, at the same general time of day, do a better to bike or run slowly for the first part of your workout as your warm-up than
good warm-up (at least 10 minutes, building up to Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate), to spend time stretching cold muscles. If you desire increased flexibility (and who
then perform a controlled, uniform workout at your Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate, doesn’t), it may be better to focus on this as it’s own goal, and add a flexibility-
and record the results. oriented workout to your regimen.

Running: On the same running track, warm up, then time one or more Heart Rate Monitor – Get one, and use it. There is no better way to know if you
miles at your Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate. Record results in your log. are training properly. It is also critical for the MAF tests.

Biking: On a standard, flatish, non-trafficy, bike course (good luck finding Cross Train – The best aerobic workout for cycling is to ride at a comfortable spin
this) of 20 to 40 minutes, warm up, then ride at Maximum Aerobic Heart cadence within your aerobic zone for 20 minutes or more at a time. This requires a
Rate and record your total time for the course. relatively flat, non-trafficy route. Hills, traffic, weather and seasonal changes
conspire against this, especially in the Bay Area. Good additions to road riding are
Indoor: Using a cardio machine (ideally the same machine, in good walking, running, swimming, and gym workouts on treadmills and stationary
condition), after warm-up, workout at Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate for a cycles.
set period of time, for example 10 or 20 minutes. Record the appropriate
measure (e.g. total miles). Don’t Get Sidetracked – Your goal should be to build an aerobic base through
consistent, monitored, efficient aerobic workouts. Don’t rationalize that a weekly
Proper training will cause the MAF times to improve from month to month. Worse group ride will satisfy your endurance training. Weekend group rides are generally
times may indicate problems such as overtraining, or a need to refocus training on too long, too variable, and not ridden at your own optimal pace to count as good
endurance. Inconsistent conditions of MAF tests can swamp the meaningfulness of aerobic builders. They are very important, but must be supplemented with focused
the test, including: not performing it when rested and fully hydrated, weather work at your individual aerobic level.
differences, equipment differences at the gym, and traffic. So be sure that the test
method you choose is as uniform and repeatable as possible. Keep a Log – Make a goal. Set a plan. Then record your progress. If you are
properly developing your aerobic base, you will see it in your log within a month or
two. There is no better motivation than keeping and using your log.
Aerobic Workout Basics
The vast majority of workout time in the first year or two of training should be Don’t Cry Over Missed Workouts – People often worry that if they don’t get the
devoted to developing an aerobic base. Most workouts should be focused on 10 hours in Week X that they scheduled, that they have to make up for it. If you
maintaining aerobic levels of effort. Here are some general guidelines: find yourself continually undershooting your plan, then your plan needs changing to
make it more realistic, and your workouts need changing to make them easier to do
Time not Distance – To improve endurance, aerobic workouts must be based on and to enjoy.
time. Since workouts are performed at the same relative level of effort, if they are
based only on distance, they will get shorter and shorter as fitness improves.
Other Workouts
Endurance Workouts Can be Short – Don’t think that long workouts are Most people should first concentrate on building their aerobic base. But other types
necessary to build endurance. If you have the time for long workouts during the of workouts are useful, and fun, as long as they are viewed as secondary. For
week that’s great. But 30 to 60 minute workouts are highly effective, and you may example, spin classes build anaerobic endurance and muscular endurance, as well
be able to fit more of them in your week. Don’t yield to the temptation to work as improving pedaling dynamics. Group rides add a mix of training for aerobic
harder because it’s “only 45 minutes”. endurance (spinning in your comfort zone), anaerobic endurance (spinning faster
than your comfort zone), muscular endurance (enduring lactate buildup), force
Warm-up, Warm-down– Count these as part of the workout. For example, a 60- (climb hills seated), power (climb short hills fast), and occasionally speed (the
minute aerobic workout may include a 15-minute warm-up, 30 minutes at target sprint to the finish). Older athletes may benefit from weight training, since muscle
heart rate, and a 15-minute gradual warm-down. mass declines faster than aerobic capacity as we age.
4. Review Your Goals Regularly. Write your goals in your workout log.
Regularly assess whether you are working toward your goals, or have been
Planning sidetracked by someone else’s program, or the magazine workout of the month.
Planning is what turns regular exercise into a “training program”. Many people Stay focused. You should feel that every workout plays a known role in
exercise regularly and never bother to make or follow a training plan, feeling that it achieving your goals.
is too complicated, that they are not “competitive types”, that formal plans are
better left to professional trainers, or that they have a set routine that “works” for Equipment
them and why change it. Others jump from program to program, never finding the This may seem elementary, but serves as a good reality check for your program.
“right one”. Many of us even fight recurring injury, or accept diminished For example, if you envision staying in racing shape for cycling throughout the
expectations rather than change our workout regimen. winter, do you have an indoor trainer or access to a gym on those dark, rainy days?
If not, are you prepared to perform other non-cycling workouts to maintain your
But you can convert your current health and fitness history into your own fitness? Proper clothing and accessories can extend the amount of time you have
customized training plan by following a simple structure: for training when it gets dark and rainy. Setting up a specific bike for commuting
can be a motivator. And the most important piece of equipment is your training
log. Your log should have your primary and secondary goals listed in a separate
• Set Goals
section (I like the back of the front cover), where they can be reviewed and changed
• Get the Right Equipment
as needed. You should keep a tally of your standard workout strategies, such as
• Build an Aerobic Base your training heart rates, results of MAF tests, and favorite workouts (I staple extra
• Monitor and Modify Your Plan pages in as needed).
Goal Setting Build an Aerobic Base
1. Set Primary Goals. First, consider what your primary goal is. It may be to For all the reasons previously described, building an aerobic base should be central
lose weight or body fat, get in better shape, or to be competitive in local races. to your training plan. It takes discipline to resist the temptation of turning an “easy”
While these are all actually related, it still helps to have a specific focus for workout into a “good, hard” workout even when you have targeted the workout as
your training. aerobic in your schedule. If you leave it to chance, the “old ways” will maintain
2. Make Goals Realistic and Challenging. Be honest in assessing whether your control, and will sabotage your training effort.
goal is achievable, and in what time frame. For example, say your goal is to
lose 100 pounds of excess weight and qualify for the Boston Marathon and you Monitor and Modify Your Plan
are new to running. This may be a fine long-term goal, but not for one season. You must regularly ask, “Am I getting what I want out of my training program?” If
You need to: the answer is “No”, you must change the plan. This may sound simple, but people
3. Set Secondary Goals. These should refine your primary goals, not expand rarely do it. Often, it’s because they don’t have goals that are measurable, and
them. These must also be realistic and achievable. For the above example, on don’t have tools with which to measure their progress. You, on the other hand,
the way to completing the Boston Marathon, maybe finishing a local Marathon have just set achievable, measurable, goals. And you have the MAF testing
by the end of the season is an appropriate secondary goal, or finding out if you methodology to help you. Properly applied, the MAF test will tell you if you are
even like running and can train for a season without injury. Competitive progressing. Equally important, if you are regressing, the tests can warn you before
athletes set seasonal goals (i.e. qualify for the Hawaii Ironman), and seasonal you have wasted a season, incurred overtraining, fatigue, or injury, or just need
objectives that support the seasonal goals (improve open water swim renewed focus.
technique, break 10 hours at full Ironman distance) in the same manner.
Scheduling 4. Set weekly goals –
While the novice and the professional differ in goals and complexity of training, Now that you have figured out how you want to spread out your training
they can follow the same steps in developing their training schedule: volume, it is time to map out weekly goals. Plug in known events, such as
Centuries or races, or travel. Each week should have a targeted level of effort
1. Determine how much time you have to train – and objective. For example, if you can devote one weekend day for a longer
Be realistic in determining how much time you can devote to training. You ride and 2 to 3 hours a week for other workouts, such as shorter rides, running,
must also compare your available time with your goals. For example, if you and gym workouts, your training plan may look like this:
want to train to complete the Death Ride (129 miles, 15,000+ feet of climbing,
10 hours of riding) but cannot fit longer than a 2-hour bike ride into your Simple Example: Assumes group rides are getting longer and longer (3 to 10 hrs)
weekly schedule, your goal may be unrealistic. Week Weekly Objective Planned Volume MAF Test?
1 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride Y
The time you allocate to training is your Training Volume, expressed in 2 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride
hours/week or hours/year. You can make a good guess at your current volume 3 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride
by adding up your regular activities. 4 Recovery 2 hrs aerobic + group ride Y
5 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride
2. Next, allocate your training volume across the season- 6 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride
Periodic training refers to varying volume over time to peak at a certain time 7 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride
of year, usually for the “race season”, or for a particularly important event. For 8 Recovery 2 hrs aerobic + group ride Y
example, using months as training blocks, train for three weeks, ramping up the 9 Base; Finish Met. Cent. 3 hrs aerobic + Metric Cent.
weekly hours, then use the fourth week as a recovery week. Then start a new 10 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride
block, with slightly higher training hours, etc. The general idea is that 11 Base; Finish Century 3 hrs aerobic + Century ride
increasing weekly volume steadily, then letting up just before a race produces a 12 Vacation Treat as Recovery
temporary fitness peak. This works best when you have lots of time to train. 13 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride Y
14 Base; Finish Century 3 hrs aerobic + Century ride
Periodic training blocks can be further defined for competitive types. For 15 Base 3 hrs aerobic + group ride
example, early in the season, the first three months are “Base”, focusing almost 16 Base 3hrs aerobic + group ride
exclusively on aerobic work. Then maybe a month or two of “Build”, focusing 17 Taper , Finish Death 3 hrs easy + Death Ride Y
on building muscular endurance, speed, and power, then a week of “Taper” Ride
before a race. This can get complicated for race geeks and triathlon wonks 18 Recovery 2hrs aerobic + group Ride
...etc
A sensible and simple alternative for people with limited training time (i.e.
most of us) is to train at a fairly constant volume, that being set by the time Use your log to plan your week in advance. Pencil in classes that you like to take.
you have available. As you build an aerobic base, your mileage may increase, For example, if you generally do a spin class on Thursdays, you will see that the
and you may add more intense workouts into the mix, but the total volume rest of your weekly workouts should be aerobic, since spin class is an intensive
(time) may not vary much. The concept of peaking is less important in this activity, and the group ride can not be counted on to provide a pure aerobic
scenario. workout. Conversely, if your weekly goal is 8 hours, and you know you will not be
doing a long 5-hour ride, you will know to put in extra workouts during the week to
3. Include sufficient recovery time – compensate.
If you never work out on consecutive days, or train at lower volumes (less than
3 or 4 hours a week), then you are probably already including enough recovery Once you have transferred your schedule to your training log, you are ready to go.
time. But once you get the training bug, and start upping the weekly volume, Now, when you work out, you will want to enter it into the log, because it will
you may want to exercise 5 or 6 days a week. If so, you may want to consider count toward your volume targets. A glance at your scheduled versus actual
a training block: 2 or 3 weeks at full training volume, then a recovery week of volumes over the past week or month will quickly tell you if changes are needed.
50 –75% of that volume in order to allow extra recovery time. And your regular MAF tests will show you how well you are building your aerobic
base. You will be taking control of the hundreds of hours you are probably already
spend exercising every year, and directing them towards meeting your goals.
Recommendations
I highly recommend Dr. Maffetone’s book as a common sense introduction to
training for the long term. For those who are interested in more detail and in
training competitively, Mr. Friel has also written The Cyclist’s Training Bible and
Cycling past 50.

Sample Training Log Page

Attached is a sample training log page. If you make it into double-sided copies on a
decent copy machine, you can stack the pages together, fold them down the middle,
and staple them to make a training log for however many weeks you wish, two
weeks per photocopy sheet. I use heavy card stock on the outside to form a cover.

The format is such that you can enter weekly goals at the top of the page, scheduled
workouts at the bottom, and as much detail as you wish in the daily rows. For
example, you may wish to use one column to track the time of each workout,
making it easy to sum total time for the week at the bottom; another for the type of
workout, and another for the distance and average speed. Since I train for triathlons
as well as Centuries I use the 3 narrow columns to tally run, bike and swim
workouts separately, and the notes to track how I felt, my heart monitor readings,
and notes for the next workout.

Happy Training!
WEEK: ___________________ GOAL: _______________________________

DAY NOTES
Time/Distance/Speed/Pace Time/Distance/Speed/Pace Time/Distance/Speed/Pace

Mo
Tu
We
Th
Fr
Sa
Su
Week
Total
Season
Total

SCHEDULED WORKOUTS
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun