I've decided to describe what i'm trying to achieve with the acronym
MBF which stands for Maintainable Base Fitness. MBF describes the
maximum fitness an individual can achieve using a training schedule that
is maintainable indefinitely. No periodization. No offseason. No
peaks and valleys. Any MBF is bound to be pretty low volume - most
people keeping track of their training over a period of years would find
that even something considered very low volume (in the ultra endurance
world) such as 6 hours a week is not sustainable in the long term.
Traditional IM training? forget about it.
The idea of what MBF means is of course open to variation and
interpretation. Different people might look at developing an MBF for
a period of a single year, several years, or be aiming at a decades
long approach, which I am the most interested in exploring. My journey
started some years ago with three hours of weekly training. But over
time i found that even three hours produced psychological stress in my
life that i don't want to sustain indefinitely. When i reduced the load
to two hours it still led to some minor mental and motivational
issues. So now i've settled in to one hour a week and so far so good.
Of course i have big ambitions, and part of what it means for
something to be maintainable for me is that it must enable me to
challenge those ambitions occasionally. In other words, it's still
gotta get me through that IronMan, that four day adventure race, and
allow me to feel age group competitive (which for me is finishing
roughly in the top third) in pretty much any event.
I know many people read this and think that i'm crazy and should
settle for less, or perhaps more correctly, that reality will force me
to do so. But i don't want to, and apparently, at least based upon what
i've been able to accomplish on 3 or 2 hours a week, reality must be
sleeping on the job.
But the question remains as to whether my MBF on only one hour a week will actually
be sufficient given my ambitions. i'm pretty confident though, and not
without reason - i feel as fit, or nearly so, as when i was putting in
three times as much time, and succeeding at really big things.
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