Don't lose your base

The injury prevention tip nobody talks about

What does it take to not get injured?

The answer might include all kinds of catchy and trendy details. But the real answer, the one most athletes need to hear, lies in something much simpler: stacking up consistent, smart training across a year or a season. Showing up and doing the work adds up and delivers you to your next pursuit ready to rock. Making the work happen is not always easy to do, but it takes the complication out of trying to “prevent injury.”

As a physical therapist who works with endurance athletes, I am often tasked with identifying why someone ended up hurt. Sometimes it is a freak accident and nothing could have been done differently. More often, though, the story is predictable. An athlete takes time away, maybe for work, family, or life stress, and lets their base fitness erode. You are not wrong for prioritizing the important things in life at that moment. But when motivation returns, they assume they can pick up where they left off. That sudden mismatch between training load and current capacity is when the wheels come off.

The good news is that you can avoid that cycle by making a small promise to yourself, remembering that endurance sports are a lifestyle, not an on again off again pursuit. This will allow you to maintain enough base fitness to stay healthy and ready for the next build.

This week, we talk about how that may look and what “base” training really is.

Keeping your base

Before we get into how you can maintain your fitness during busy seasons or when sport is not the top priority, let’s clear the air about what the goal of a maintenance period really is.

• It does not mean you never take a step back or allow yourself a lower period of training.

• It does not mean you have to be locked into race-specific preparation all year long.

• It does not mean you must have unrelenting motivation to train every single day.

In fact, you can think of this time as hitting your minimums. This will ease the transition to a more intense period of focus for a race in your future plans. Let’s next have a look at what this base-keeping training might look like.

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What is base?

Does it mean piling on big volume? Only doing easy miles? Endless long endurance sessions?

There are many definitions of base training, but the most effective use of your time is going to be with focusing on foundational skills.

I like to look at this from three angles:

• Raw strength

• Speed/coordination

• Aerobic development

An athlete who keeps these three areas firing maintains athleticism and endurance. You would be surprised at how quickly you can start to pick up sustained intervals or race pace sessions when these skills are not left to detrain too deeply. Your base is far more than how long you can endure.

Your base helps define your durability which is a loaded topic with some essential components and covered more in depth in the article series below:

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How you can structure

Using the three categories from above, you can begin to target what matters most.

Raw Strength

This is the chassis that supports everything else. You do not need heavy lifting cycles year-round, but the maintenance period is the perfect chance to revisit the weight room with more focus. During the race season, you may drop intensity and volume way down to stay fresh for key sessions. Now, with less emphasis on racing, you can boost your strength in the short term to set yourself up for the next build.

The basics matter most: squats or split squats, deadlifts or hip hinges, push-ups or presses, rows or pull-ups, plus core stability. Keep the load challenging and enjoy a different kind of fatigue than you get from endurance training. Two sessions per week — maybe three if time allows — are plenty to create a stimulus.

Speed and Coordination

This is about keeping your neuromuscular system sharp. Even in low-volume times, sprinkle in strides on the run, short fast pickups on the bike, or stroke drills and sprints in the pool. These little doses remind your body how to move quickly and efficiently. Coordination fades faster than endurance, so these “reminders” make it much easier to bounce back when it is time for focused training again.

Aerobic Development

No matter your sport, you need to keep the candle burning in the endurance department. For a triathlete, long breaks from swimming or biking may leave you feeling unfit but usually are not major injury risks when you rebuild. Running, on the other hand, is less forgiving. Long breaks almost always make the return harder on bones, tendons, and muscles.

What you do depends on your goals and time.

For a triathlete, that might mean slightly lower swim and bike volume while keeping three to four shorter runs in your weekly routine. You will not be at peak mileage, but your body will thank you when it is time to build again.

For a run-only athlete, a three to four run-per-week structure paired with extra strength work is a solid approach. No need for searing track intervals, but sprinkling in skill work like hill reps or strides helps the chassis stay familiar with the higher forces that pass through the knees, Achilles, and other tissues.

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A time to relax

Injury prevention is less about chasing the perfect exercise or routine and more about protecting your foundation. By keeping a semblance of base fitness alive year-round through

• Strength to support the chassis

• Speed and coordination to keep the system sharp

• Aerobic work to keep the engine running

you give yourself a buffer against setbacks.

You do not need to approach this with anxiety, clutching to the peak form you achieved for your A race this year. Besides, you cannot hold that form all year long. Life will always ebb and flow, and breaks from heavy training are inevitable. Let it be and relax.

The key is holding on to your minimums so that you will never have to start from zero. That is where progress gets derailed and your consistency is what makes the transition back to focused training smoother, safer, and ultimately more rewarding.

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