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aerobic base articles
14 articles on aerobic base, newest first. Every one is sourced and links to the calculator it applies to.
How Therese Johaug Trains (What a Comeback at 36 Actually Returns)
Johaug unretired at 36, took three silvers and a bronze at the 2025 Worlds, then stopped for good. What came back, and what did not, is the useful part.
How Kilian Jornet Trains (and Why He Counts Metres, Not Kilometres)
Kilian Jornet measures training in vertical gain, builds a 3 to 4 month easy base every year, and coaches himself by feel. The method and the 2026 season.
How Johannes Klæbo Trains (Cross-Country Skiing's Bottomless Engine)
Klæbo won all six events at the 2026 Winter Olympics in the most aerobic sport there is. The Norwegian model behind it, and your own I1 to I5 zones.
Zone 2 Heart Rate, Explained
What Zone 2 training is, why it builds your aerobic base, how to find your own Zone 2 heart rate with the talk test, LT1 or MAF, and how much of it to do.
How to Actually Train Zone 2 (and Not Waste It)
A practical guide to Zone 2 training: session length, weekly volume, how to stay in the zone, the gray-zone trap, and how to tell it's working.
Rowing UT2: What It Is and Why It Builds Your Engine
UT2 is rowing's easy aerobic base band. What it means, the heart rate and stroke rate to hold, how it fits the UT2–AN system, and how to row it well.
How Eliud Kipchoge Trains (and Why He's Still Out There at 41)
Kipchoge never runs a session flat out. The 80/50 week behind the greatest marathon career ever, and why it has him racing seven continents at 41.
How Marianne Vos Trains (and What Overtraining Cost Her)
Vos has won at the top of cycling for two decades. The most useful part of her career is the year she lost to overtraining, and what she changed afterwards.
How Elite Rowers Train (20 Hours a Week for a 6-Minute Race)
A 2k rowing race lasts six minutes, yet elite crews train 15 to 30 hours a week and spend around 80% of it easy. Why that works, and what to do on the erg.
How Primož Roglič Trains (the Ski Jumper Who Started Cycling at 22)
Roglič was a pro ski jumper who started cycling at 22, then won four Grand Tours. What the late switch teaches about starting a sport as an adult.
How Courtney Dauwalter Trains (No Coach, No Plan, No Heart-Rate Monitor)
The best ultrarunner alive trains by feel: no coach, no plan, no heart-rate data. Why it works for her, and what a heart-rate cap gives the rest of us.
How Mark Allen Trained (and Why He Ran Slower to Get Faster)
Six-time Ironman World Champion Mark Allen capped his heart rate with Maffetone's 180-formula and watched his pace at that heart rate transform. A formula you can run now.
How Katie Ledecky Trains (the Most Aerobic Athlete in the Pool)
Katie Ledecky races a pace, not an opponent, on huge aerobic volume held to precise splits. How she trains, and why swimmers set zones by stopwatch.
How Nadia Battocletti Trains (Olympic Silver off 90km a Week)
Battocletti has Olympic and world 10,000m silver on 80 to 90km a week, coached by her father. The low-volume, cross-country-built system behind it.