Because baseline workouts are so demanding, it becomes (at least for me) incredibly difficult to repeat them too regularly. But because they are so effective, it becomes pretty silly not to use them as much as possible. The trick for me has been to structure my weekly efforts such that most of my week's workouts are actually Baseline workouts, but they are either in different disciplines or of a different character so that my mind and body aren't always being tested in the same way.

For example, the mental and physical demands of running my 'pylon' time trial involve dealing with heaps of dread and self doubt leading up to the effort, a need to continually assess my condition and push on the downhills, a horrible sense of slowness and suffering on the first uphill, a brief catharsis at the pylon turnaround, followed by the need to muster my will to push rather than relax into the the return downhill, and then a bowel churning, step counting, epic climb up the final hill. It only takes 11 minutes (well, next time I do it I'll be hoping it takes less than 10:57), but it is a HARD 11 minutes. I, for one, don't have the mental tenacity to take on this challenge more than once every couple of weeks. But I can happily muster the mental gymnastics to succeed at some intervals on the track later a few days later, or better yet, a bike or a swim.

Of course I also realize that 'cross-training'--while I'm a huge fan of it because my actual goal relates around more 'general, do anything' fitness--takes precious running time away from an already insanely limited One Hour a Week schedule. As a result, the variability in this program will focus primarily on alleviating the mental and physical demand of running-only Baseline Workouts.