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Hi, all. I have been diligently following the TBII base routine for ~6 weeks. The workouts are great -- I've been hitting 60 mins of rucking, running or biking on my E days, with a 90 min-120 min day thrown in every week or so. However, I am not noticing much progress toward a faster run time. I'm trying to keep my pulse rate in the 130 area, as I'm a 50yo male, and am finding that I need to walk roughly the same portion of my workouts that I did during the first week or two. I ran 3 miles for time the other day. My pace (12:00/mile) hasn't improved at all from prior to starting TB.

The strength piece of this is going well, which is no surprise. I've always been able to add reps or weight in the gym. But I really need to boost my aerobic capacity, which doesn't seem to be happening here. Any thoughts on modifications to explore?

I don't know your exact situation, but I would offer 2 things:

1. You said, "I've been hitting 60 mins of rucking, running or biking on my E days." I hate to say it, but to improve your run time, you have to run. There is no substitute. So while rucking and biking are great exercise, they're not a replacement for running.

2. You didn't specify where you started from a conditioning standpoint. Yes, you said that you're doing 12 minute miles, but some people can get off of the couch and run 12 minute miles and some can't. Where do you fall on that range? I ask because fitness is a marathon, not a sprint. And, yes, I , too, would hope that you would see improvement over a six week period, but perhaps you just need to keep at it for awhile to see real improvement. As KB likes to say, "Consistency trumps everything."

Thanks for the reply, Mikhou.

I have thought about going more in the direction of 100% running. I don't mind the running, so we'll see how that goes.

Regarding your second point, I was not a couch potato before I started TB, but my workouts were much more focused on strength, Tabata intervals and rock climbing than on endurance running. It's been at least 2-3 years since I've tried to run/bike/whatever for 60+ minutes.

TheGreenZebra wrote:Hi, all. I have been diligently following the TBII base routine for ~6 weeks. The workouts are great -- I've been hitting 60 mins of rucking, running or biking on my E days, with a 90 min-120 min day thrown in every week or so. However, I am not noticing much progress toward a faster run time. I'm trying to keep my pulse rate in the 130 area, as I'm a 50yo male, and am finding that I need to walk roughly the same portion of my workouts that I did during the first week or two. I ran 3 miles for time the other day. My pace (12:00/mile) hasn't improved at all from prior to starting TB.

The strength piece of this is going well, which is no surprise. I've always been able to add reps or weight in the gym. But I really need to boost my aerobic capacity, which doesn't seem to be happening here. Any thoughts on modifications to explore?

First, Base. Base isn't a running program. It's a GPP phase meant to build general endurance and work capacity. Long easy runs increase speed for some as a side effect, but that's not the objective. Using speed as a marker after doing a few weeks of slow easy running doesn't make any sense. Instead, can you run farther? Can you work or run longer with less fatigue? Is your resting heart rate lower? Base can be used as part of a running program. Running programs usually have several different components; a base phase, speed work, and sometimes race specificity. In order to be a better runner all of those things have to be addressed. Not just base, not just speed work. If you wanted to focus on running, then after Base use Continuation for speed work and specificity. Black for shorter distances, Green for longer races. It's a continuous process of cycling between all of the attributes that contribute to being a better runner.

Next, a few suggestions for you based on your post. Stop walking. Jog at an easy pace, use the talk test. Nowhere in TB2 does it say to walk, unless you have to because you're out of shape and can't jog continuously for the prescribed time.
If running is the goal to then run for most of your E sessions.
Add time. Doing anything for a few weeks isn't going to give you dramatic results. Especially if you're older/masters. Keep at it and reassess every 3 to 6 months or longer, not every few weeks. In TB2 it's written base is a warm-up phase for Continuation. Base is 8 weeks, Continuation is the remaining 44. You haven't even finished the warm-up yet.

To echo what has been said above this is just the warm up and base build to prepare you for your continuation protocol. Once you finish base build and run a block or two of whatever continuation you choose revisit this thread. I think base build will make some more sense. Good Luck with the training mate.

Six weeks of "base building" is exactly that - you're building a base from which you can build on from there.

Think of it as a house. If you're building a house you are going to spend time and patience on the foundation. If you screw up the foundation or skip it all together, well, it doesn't really matter how much time and effort you put into the actual house, it's not going to be what it could have been with a proper foundation. After a couple of weeks of building the foundation, all you've got is some concrete and it doesn't look anything like a house. But now you have the ability to build something special on it.

The same goes for running. At least, from my experience in coaching several endurance athletes. You need to do a lot of slow endurance work to build a solid foundation. Then, once your aerobic capacity has been built up for a while, you can start training speed. Running slow doesn't do much to help us run fast (i.e. you shouldn't expect to hit a new personal record in a 5k after only doing a bunch of endurance work). It is an important part of the puzzle, though.

Rather than testing your 5k time after six weeks of base building, judge your progress in another way. I encourage my athletes to judge their progress during a base building period either by their ability to run at a faster speed at an aerobic heart rate, or by their ability to run the same pace at a lower heart rate. For example, if they started a base building block running 12:00 miles at a heart rate of 130 bpm, I would like to see them running 11:30 miles at 130 bpm, or 12:00 miles at 123 bpm at the end of the six weeks.

After the base has been built, we would spend 4-6 weeks on speed work. And that's when the personal records happen.