So, maybe you've been following along in my explanation of what a periodized schedule is, or maybe you just jumped in with me. Either way, in this particular video, we're going to talk about what the build phase is in a run training schedule.
So, the build phase is really where we get to start doing some of the more exciting things that we do as a runner. We went to base, we did all those miles, we put in all that time, we really built up our aerobic capacity. And here we are, it's now time to start doing some speed work. We're going to start doing some fartleks, we're going to start doing tempo work, we're going to eventually, move on to the track, maybe do some faster stuff. This is the nice part where we really start to hone in some of those race skills that we're going to have. Even through the build phase, you may have some races, but they can't be your A race.
As your A race, you're going to taper, cut back and be in peak fitness for that. But in the build phase, your goal is to increase speed, increase power, and build on that aerobic base that you did in the base building phase. So, here, we also do another thing with our strength training. If you're doing strength training that starts to get cut back a little bit too and we start going into more sports specific exercises. So, in the case of I always keep this handy, Joe Friel’s Triathlete’s Training Bible since I do triathlon nowadays. Joe talks about the different kinds of weight things that you do. You also start to work on your limiters, which is a phrase he uses. I'm not sure if it's exclusive to him. I doubt it.
But I talked about that in some other videos as well. What's your limiter? My strong point is endurance. My limiter is power, meaning if we go do 400-meter repeats, and we're of similar strength, you're probably going to beat me because I'm not great at power. So, this is where during the phases of your training you begin to work on those limiters. So, in my case, that means getting to the track and doing what I'm bad at 200s, 400s, really working on boosting up my power so that my race speed can be better when I get to there.
So, that's kind of the basics of what the build phase is for. If you want to know what happens during the taper and race phase when you’re getting ready for your A race, not just training races to kind of tune up; that video should be coming up here shortly. So, stay with me, learn more about the taper and race phase.