Maslow for Runners: Base Training for Running’s Essential Needs

When you think about base training for running, you probably picture long, steady miles and lots of easy runs. But here’s the thing—your “base” is about so much more than mileage. Just like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs reminds us that humans can’t thrive without food, shelter, and safety first, runners can’t hit their big goals without the right foundation in place. Sleep, recovery, fueling, and consistency are the building blocks that keep you moving forward. Once those are solid, you can start stacking on volume, speed, and all the fun stuff that takes you closer to your peak potential.

Base Training for Running, But Make it Maslow

As I mentioned recently, I’m headed back into the classroom next week! To reinstate my certification in South Carolina, I had to retake exams, including the Principles of Learning and Teaching Praxis. As I reviewed psychology theories, I revisited Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (the pyramid of human needs ranging from food and shelter at the base to self-actualization at the top). That made me wonder: What would a hierarchy of needs look like for runners?

Just like Maslow’s model, and similar to base training for running, a runner’s pyramid builds from the ground up. Each level provides the stability needed to support the one above it. At the top lies a runner’s version of self-actualization: reaching your full potential. Let’s explore this step by step.

Level 1: Foundations

At the base of the pyramid are your habits—consistency, recovery, sleep, fueling, and nutrition. Without these, none of the higher-level training strategies have a foundation to stand on. Where the typical plan of base training for running starts with building an aerobic base with easier miles, this one starts with self-care. 

Redefining Consistency

Consistency doesn’t mean perfection. It’s not about following a training plan to the letter without ever missing a workout. Instead, it’s about showing up regularly, adapting when needed, and staying engaged over time.

This starts with finding your minimum effective dose, the smallest amount of training that still moves you forward. From there, you can layer on more when the time is right. By staying within your limits and avoiding the “all or nothing” cycle, you make progress sustainable.

As James Clear puts it:

“In theory, consistency is about being disciplined, determined, and unwavering. In practice, consistency is about being adaptable.

Don’t have much time? Scale it down.

Don’t have much energy? Do the easy version.

Find different ways to show up depending on the circumstances.

Let your habits change shape to meet the demands of the day [or season you are in].

Adaptability is the way of consistency.”

Consistency is not the opposite of hard work—it’s about adjusting to different days and seasons while continuing to show up.

True adaptability comes from understanding two things:

• The “why” behind your training plan. When you know what the training is designed to achieve, you can adjust the form while preserving its function.
• The language of your body. Learning how to interpret signals of fatigue, stress, or readiness allows you to adjust wisely instead of pushing blindly.

This is a major focus in the Women’s Running Academy Intensive. Over 12 weeks, we dive deep into why a plan is structured the way it is and how to adapt it so that your training becomes a living document, flexible, functional, and sustainable, so that you can become the expert in your own body and take full ownership over your own training.

Recovery, Sleep, and Fueling

Alongside consistency, recovery and life balance matter. High stress, poor sleep, or inadequate recovery all affect your ability to adapt to training. Simply put, calories are energy. Fueling well gives your body the resources it needs to train, adapt, and recover. Energy in = capacity to grow stronger.

Level 2: Volume Management and Easy Running

Once your foundation is set, the next step is volume management, finding that sweet spot of training, pushing your edge just enough to make progress while finally escaping the cycle of injury and burn out. Progress happens when you apply just enough stress to stimulate adaptation, then recover before applying the next dose. Too little stress, and you stagnate. Too much, and you fall into the injury and burnout cycle.

Why Easy Runs Must Stay Easy

A big part of volume management is keeping most of your running truly easy. Easy runs are not “filler miles.” They have specific physiological benefits, supporting aerobic capacity and building endurance without overwhelming your body.

By keeping easy runs easy, you preserve energy and capacity for targeted harder sessions. 

Level 3: Purposeful Pacing and Run-Supportive Strength Training

These harder sessions—intervals, tempo runs, and other structured workouts—become the purposeful tools that fine-tune your performance.

Think of it this way:

• Easy runs (Zone 1–2) build your aerobic base.
• VO₂ max workouts (track-style intervals) develop power.
• Threshold or tempo workouts improve muscular efficiency and resilience.

Polarizing your training, keeping most runs easy and a few hard, creates a full spectrum of adaptations. 

In the Women’s Running Academy Intensive, we apply my 3 Key Run formula with easy, tempo and track style workouts, dosed specifically to meet your body where you are so that you can intentionally build volume while also improving your metabolic efficiency, and prioritizing development of a solid strength training foundation.

From there strength training is the backbone of stability, power, efficiency, and resilience. Many common running pains, whether in the IT band, knees, hips, or even the pelvic floor, stem from underlying strength deficiencies.

On top of all that, as a female runner, especially Millennial and Gen X, you know that you need to start integrating more strength training to support your bone, metabolic, and hormone health as you age but you want to do it in a way that actually feels good in your body and doesn’t interfere with your running, preferably in a way that supports it!

A good strength training program isn’t just about getting stronger. It’s about building:

• Coordination across multiple joints
• Stiffness where you need it
• Energy transfer efficiency through your kinetic chain

This is what bridges the gap to the top of the pyramid—where biomechanics and fine-tuning come into play.

Level 4: Fine-Tuning Through Biomechanics and Breathwork

At this stage, we move beyond the basics and into the details of running economy. Inside the Women’s Running Academy Intensive, we'll look at some basic running biomechanics to help you understand the demands of running and work through a set of targeted self-assessments to help you fully understand the needs of your body to meet those demands.

​Over time we’ll hone in on the specific strategies your body needs so that you can train efficiently - no wasted effort.

Using my 5 Skills Framework and your new understanding of the needs of your body and how it’s all connected we’ll practice the skills needed to run efficiently.

You’ll learn to not just absorb ground reaction forces but to store them as elastic energy to propel you forward while staying strong and stable with every step!

This is also where we introduce purposeful practices to build stress resilience. The goal is not to never feel stress (remember we are stressing our body on purpose with training) but to be able to move freely between an excited/stress state back on to promote rest and recovery (creativity and connection). This is what it means to be fully alive!

That adaptability is where training and life truly come together. It’s not just about becoming a better runner—it’s about becoming more resilient and more fully alive.

What You’ll Gain in the Women’s Running Academy Intensive

Over twelve weeks, you’ll build from the base of the pyramid upward. You will:

• You learn your body's language so you can truly listen and find that sweet spot between consistency and adaptability.
• Deepen your understanding of your own body so that you become expert in it and can take full ownership over your own training
• Learn what it really means to train mobility so that you can move more efficiently and feel fluid with every run.
• Connect your movements - shoulder, hips, all the way down to your feet - so that you can get out of the cycle of treating one injury only to create another.
• Progressively build strength to meet the demands of running so that you can continue to safely add volume and intensity to your running without constantly having to manage pains that pop up.
• Run purposeful miles with purposeful pacing into your week using my “3 Key Runs” so that you are intentionally building volume while also improving your metabolic efficiency, and prioritizing development of a solid strength training foundation.
• Improve your running economy through improving your biomechanical efficiency (the strength work), improving your metabolic efficiency (the purposeful pacing in your running), and your oxygen efficiency (the breathwork).
• Become your own best advocate, the expert in your own body, and the boss of your training and goals.
• Have the support you need to show up for yourself and your goals.

This intensive is only offered once a year each fall.

Learn more about the next round here.

Next on Your Reading List:

Slow Down to Speed Up: Why Base Training for Runners is Fundamental

Running Performance is Built from the Ground Up with Strength Training

Strengthen Knees for Running: Why You Should Include Co-Contractions for An Efficient Stride