Base Period Body Weight
During the Transition period after your last race season you probably gained some weight. That is expected. And it’s probably a good thing - depending on how much weight you gained. Trying to stay at your optimal race weight year round is not good for your health. It’s also not good for your psyche. Staying focused on maintaining race weight 12 months of the year, regardless of your training load, requires a monk-like lifestyle of continual sacrifice and near suffering.
So I hope you’ve enjoyed life a bit and gained some weight in the last few weeks. The Base period is the time to start trimming down any excess beyond your best training weight. Training weight is a bit heavier than race weight. Your training weight by the end of the Base period may be roughly three to five percent more than your race weight – the weight you will have on the day of your first A-priority race. The higher workload of the Build period should be enough to gradually bring your training weight down to your racing weight by race day.
The extra calories you are burning as you move into the Base period may be enough to help you accomplish this initial weight loss. If not then you need to become more aware of your eating habits and modify them appropriately. Keeping a food log is a proven way of doing this.
Athletes who have been through this weight-loss process before generally know what they need to do to shed the extra flab. What I have found works best with the athletes I’ve coached is to greatly reduce their intake of starch and sugar replacing these foods with non-starchy fruits and vegetables. Examples of starchy foods are pastries, cereal, bagels, bread, corn, rice and potatoes. Limit your intake of such foods to the first 30 minutes following your long aerobic endurance and higher-intensity muscular endurance workouts. This will compromise your recovery a bit, but it’s better to do that now than in the last few weeks before your A race when recovery is becoming increasingly important to race performance.
Labels: base, race weight, training weight, weight loss
posted by Joe Friel @ 5:42 AM
13 Comments
13 Comments:
Would you say that "Optimal Race Weight" is arrived at via trial and error? How light is too light and is there an optimal body fat or lean muscle mass percentage to shoot for?
I'm currently reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes. Any suggestions on where to find sample daily menus for periods other than Build (which is provided in the book)?
Thanks.
kevin M--Yes, race weight is best arrived at from past experience. There is no number when it comes to weight or body comp that is best for all. Very individualized matter.
Matt B--haven't looked these over in detail yet but may be what you need. http://home.trainingpeaks.com/training-and-nutrition-plans.aspx?c=229429
Matt B--Another option. Amy Kubal is my TrainingBible Coaching Paleo nutritionist. She would be glad to design a nutrition program for you. She may be reached at akubal@trainingbble.com.
Joe, generally for amateur race outcome, isn't the bike weight practically irrelevant compared to the body fat percentage? (With the possible exception of races like l'etape)
anon--for climbing on a bike all weight is critical to high performance. 1 lb is roughly 1.5w on a climb.
I've been struggling with excess body fat for my past several seasons and have reducing that as one of my main goals; I know I am much more of a starch/sugar burner so I plan on trying to address that.
My main issue is trying to figure out what to have for breakfast that doesn't involve a starch. Especially in cold months I like oatmeal with fruit and often with a side of eggs, ham or other meat. Unfortunately I can't stomach cottage cheese and can only take so much yogurt before my stomach revolts - Any suggestions for breakfast ideas or resources I should look into?
Ben--You can eat for breakfast what you eat at any other meal. There is no reason we have to eat certain things for certain meals. Kelloggs has done a great job over the last 100 years of convincing us we should, for some unknown reason, eat special foods (esp their cereals) at b-fast.
ed--You ask some tough questions. It's always hard to answer questions about hypothetical people. It is certain that one will feel a bit tired when reducing body weight. The body doesn't like famine and so it slows the metabolic rate to conserve. That's why I suggest the base period is the time to get rid of most of the excess since in build training is too critical to risk poor quality sessions. The idea would be to keep the feelings of fatigue minor so as not to inhibit training very much. What that translates to in terms of numbers is not universal.
This is great stuff, thanks for sharing! I have found that the best sustainable solution for endurance athletes is simply building good habits around eating. 9 times out of 10, you already know what you should be eating, you simply havent' set conditions for success: you didn't buy the right food, you didn't bring the right food, etc. Do yourself a favor and clean out the pantry of all that bad food so you can't be tempted, then create one single day of good food...you can replicate breakfast and lunch most days without getting bored, and then eat a solid dinner. Best tip I ever got was to not eat after 7pm.
I have been going on this idea for the last month and I have a question regarding a 3-4 hour aerobic road ride(base training). Are you saying that I should only be eating meat, fruits and vegetables before a ride and only eat a pasta meal post ride? If so when I am on these rides I dont take gels and energy drinks. But eventually I bonk(1-2 hours into ride). I am assuming my body should be utilizing my fat stores as fuel but it doesnt feel that way. Plus I am pretty tired for a couple of days afterwards. Am I doing anything wrong or should my body eventually adapt to its new fuel source?
Thanks.
Scott--It's a much more complex issue than can easily be answered in a comment. The bootm line is that you should get some carb in immediately before, during and after a stressful workout (not necessary for low stress workouts). The rest of the day I suggest eating a diet rich in vegs, fruits and lean protein. I'd suggest reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes.
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