Here is what a pro says about training below your AeT and what it is:

http://www.markallenonline.com/Base.asp

And to answer the second part of your question, is it hard? Hell ya. It is tough to keep the pace/HR down. Mostly mentally but if you work it as high frequency and volume of running you will see great benefits to your training. Remember freq is the key, then work up the volume but listen to the body foremost. Good luck!

Training at your max aerobic HR will teach your body to burn fat for fuel. That along with recruiting more slow twitch muscle fibers is the main physio benefit. At least as I understand it. What I've noticed is that even training at these lower heart rates really fatigues my legs. Especially running for more than 60-90 minutes. And yeah the mental side is tough too. Having little old ladies pass you is hard on the ego. My advise? Run in the dark so nobody can see you! :P

If the slow pace get's to you, try increasing your cadence. It will give you something to work on and will improve your efficiency and running economy. Try and get to 90 strides per min. it's tough!

What about hills? Especially on the bike. I live in a pretty hilly area and it is almost impossible to go more than a few miles in any direction without going up or down a good sized hill. So when I try to go for a base pace ride of any length it will involve numerous climbs. No matter what I find it hard to keep the HR down, even if I just spin up the hills in my biggest gear.

That's exactly right, Kiyllee, it is difficult to keep your HR down while increasing cadence. Try keeping your body very upright and do the "lead from your hips" trick, as if you had a rope around your waist pulling you forward. Also, really try and kick up your heals, which again helps shorten the stride and forces you to land directly above your feet. One more, almost try and scrape you feet backward after you land, it help eliminate any up/down bouncing and gives you more forward. When I combine these elements, I can usually settle down my HR but I still am stuck at around 85, so I'm still working on it, too :).

BBB is right on the bike and hills. Just sit up and ride nice and even and you should be able to settle your HR. If it's REALLY steep, you may not have the option, but for every uphill there is a downhill where you can allow you HR to recover and you should still average out for the ride a'ok. :) I often do intervals of 12 min at AeT follwoed by 2min of easy spinning, four sets. It's good to get your HR down for a short period and then bring it back up again.

That's going to be very dependent on what you are training for, when are your events, what is your current fitness level, ect. You really want to get an hour-1.5 hours per session on the bike or run in these zones to get some benefit and go a little longer on the weekends when you have more time, but again, that's just a geuss without knowing you.

Anyone out there have suggestions for building a good aerobic run base for us larger runners with little running background, crappy mechanics and a bad knee?
Going below a certain cadence (for me anyway) is a disaster. My form falls apart, I am beating my joints up but not really going anywhere and my heart rate doesn’t really stay down that much. I can walk, but then my heart rate goes too low. I have tried the run-walk-run-walk thing, but that gets frustrating. I am dedicating the winter months solely to improving my running, since building a bike base is pretty easy for me. I am doing around 25-28 miles per week spread over 4 days (M-W-F-Sa) with 1 day dedicated to speedwork and 1 day LSD. Right now I only race Sprint and Oly but want to add a Half next year (maybe a full IM once science perfects the bionic knee replacement).:D
Thanks, T

T- I used to be a larger runner, 6' at 215, and from my own experience I know that I used to run with my whole body-- everything moving, flailing, big strides and bouncing up and down alot. It seems to me that it took all that action just to keep me going forward; hard on the joints too because there was no controlled movement.

Last winter I worked on reducing all unecessary arm and torso movement, shorter and closer to the ground strides and eliminating that bouncy up and down movement. I did all of this with slow MRH runs, focusing only on mechanics and breathing. I put in about 12 weeks just working it out, slow gets to be kind of zen like after awhile, nothing but stride and breathing.

Anyway, not sure if any of this applies to you, just an observation from a used to be larger guy.

Sorry I hijacked your thread Cardinal.

No worries, I have no problem with whatever meandering route this thread takes, as I've noticed that no matter what way any post goes, it usually ends up with some useful information.

I actually have a follow up question. When working on base training and attempting to keep HR in aerobic zone, does that mean that it is not a good idea to engage in activities that would elevate your HR above the zone but not with any training goal in mind (i.e. basketball or the like)?

Thanks.

good to know BBB... thanks!

Guess I should actually start listening to the HRM instead of just wearing it... *sigh*

Well, actually, thinking about what BBB and TimKC have said... I think I'd still play bball or do whatever it was that I enjoyed anyways in base training... since this year a big part of the goal is keeping it fun. But it's also good to know the effects of that fun on goals. Everything in moderation*, right?

* except tris ;)

Yeah I'm more of a triathlete/runner that tries to lift weights. hehe

I actually live in LS. We got 8+ inches of snow yesterday!! Now sunny and 26*F. My sister lives in Phx and my folks have a winter home there too.