Base Is Boring

Next week my two weeks 'off' come to an end and base training starts. Three months of zone 2 running, long slow Sundays building up to three hours, and a whole winter sat on the Zwift Ride, all to get me ready for the six 70.3s I have stupidly entered next year. I already know it's going to be a grind.

Don't get me wrong, I love training. There's nothing I like more than a long plan and months of turning up to do the work, but base is different. It's boring, and at times really disheartening, plodding along for hours at a pace that doesn't feel like real work and never getting anywhere near the pain cave I secretly turn up for.

I see many people on my Strava running in the grey zone all winter. Too fast to help, not fast enough to get faster. That was me a few years ago. Thinking I was doing the right thing but actually working against myself. All it got me was tired, injured and frustrated, and slowing down, as daft as it felt at the time, is the reason I'm faster now than I have been in years.

The annoying thing is that this boring bit is what everything else gets built on. I'm building a base to expand on later, and not doing it properly leaves unsolid foundations. There is no hack for it, the work just has to be done.

Motivation is the key to all of it, and mine comes in waves. It's so easy to let it slide, as missing a workout here and there doesn't appear to matter. It does in the long run though, and there's nobody standing over me on a dark night making me get on Zwift or go out and run in the rain.

I know all of this, but that doesn't mean I won't moan about it. I just have to get on and get it done, and when I do moan my wife will say the same thing she always does, you paid for this.