A Baseline Workout (BW) is a regularly repeated workout using an objective assessment metric. BWs serve four purposes, allowing you to:

1. track your progress
2. build realistic confidence
3. ensure regular workouts at a high level of intensity
4. know when you're ready to get back at it after a big effort

Typically any given BW is repeated every three or four weeks. A given four week training cycle may have several different BW, and each week will have at least one BW. Tracking your progress is simply a matter of recording the specifics of each BW--over time and as your fitness increases, your objective assessment metric will increase. For example if on week 1 you do cardio program X using a set cadence at resistance level 8 and remember being pretty flat out, then when you revisit the same workout on week 3 and find it slightly less challenging you have a good sense of progress. When you tackle it again on week 5, maybe you are attempt to bump up to level 9 for the last few minutes. Success here is a sure sign you're getting somewhere.

High intensity efforts are served well by confidence. When you're performing near your edge it can be very uncomfortable. When you are very uncomfortable your mind will begin trying to rationalize reasons for working less hard. One of these is the simple thought "I can't do it." Each time you perform a BW you will have some minimum, realistic, expectation of effort--this is your 'baseline'. You will have just completed the same workout within a few weeks and will have confidence in your ability to reach this minimum level of work, so your mind's attempt to derail your efforts will be less effective. And when you have a good day--feeling fast and strong, you don't just try to match your baseline performance, you exceed it.

By using an objective assessment metric and never repeating a BW at a lower value of that metric, you ensure regular sessions near your limit. Every time you up the metric, you'll essentially modify your baseline--subsequent repetitions of that same BW will need to match or exceed this modified baseline. Progress is guaranteed.

Eventually, of course, you'll want to put all that training into practice with an epic race or event of some sort that will wipe you out. Your original, unmodified BW workouts also play a role here. We'll discuss this role on the next page.