Every winter the same advice circulates on forums and in club WhatsApp groups: just ride easy for three months, build your base, do not touch any intensity until spring. And every year, riders follow that advice, spend January through March plodding along at a moderate effort, and arrive at the first race of the season wondering why they feel flat.
The traditional base training model was built for professionals who could ride 25 or 30 hours a week. At that volume, easy riding alone provides enough stimulus. But if you are working a full-time job, raising a family, and squeezing in 8 to 12 hours on the bike — that model does not translate. You cannot afford to leave intensity out for months.
When I spoke to Professor Stephen Seiler about this, he was clear: even among elite endurance athletes, intensity never fully disappears during base phases. The ratio changes — it shifts toward 90/10 or 85/15 instead of the typical 80/20 — but there is always some work above threshold. The idea that you should ride exclusively easy for three months is a misinterpretation of how polarised training actually works in practice.
So what does a modern base block look like? For a rider training 10 hours a week, I would structure it around five or six sessions. Four of those are Zone 2 — proper Zone 2, where you can hold a conversation comfortably, where your breathing is relaxed and your legs feel like they could go all day. One session is a VO2max effort: something like four to five intervals of three to four minutes at 90 to 100 percent of your five-minute max power. And one session sits in the tempo or sweet spot range — sustained efforts of 15 to 20 minutes just below threshold.
That blend builds your aerobic plumbing — the mitochondrial density, the fat oxidation, the capillary network — while also maintaining the top-end neuromuscular pathways you will need when racing starts. You are not choosing between base and intensity. You are doing both, with the emphasis firmly on the aerobic side.
The recovery piece is the one most riders miss during base training. The sessions feel easy individually, so you stack them without thinking about cumulative fatigue. Watch your resting heart rate. Pay attention to sleep quality. If either starts drifting, you need more rest — not more volume.
Build smart this winter. The riders who arrive in spring ready to race are not the ones who rode the most easy miles. They are the ones who built structure around their base.
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