On an 8 mile run the other day I got to thinking about training, and training through the lens of my own development. I rowed competitively in college for 4 years. While I was no stellar athlete, I still managed to progress over 4years to a point where I could compete at a fairly high collegiate level. While struggling along in the middle of the pack now, when I was rowing I had broken out of that pack (at least into the chase pack) or to compare, if I was running at the level I rowed at I wouldn't feel stupid racing in really short shorts and racing flats. But lets start at the beginning- I have never been quick, my shuttle run times were always pathetic during the President's Fitness in elementary and jr high school, I lacked acceleration and speed in sports I played-hockey, baseball, soccer. But as I began to shed weight and had a growth spurt (around 9th grade) I found I had some level of endurance, which was above what my peers had. I began Cycling and mt biking and found myself ahead of the pack when distance was involved. The recognition that I had this endurance came without a whole lot of training. I remember the running portion of the Fitness Test in 9th grade, there were two parts a 100 yard dash and a 1 mile run. In the 100 yard dash out of the 20-30 boys I clearly remember being in the bottom half. Feeling horrible about myself and my unathleticness, I moped over to the start of the mile and began to plod along. After two laps I began to pass most of the boys who had sprinted out ahead and finished fairly easily in the top group. I do remember that it was a "surprise" to myself and others how someone so slow in the dash could run so well (relative to the others) in the mile. I mention this because at this point I would consider it point 0. I had very little consistent aerobic training to explain the better performance at the mile, the only explanation is that I have a fairly good motor out of the box for endurance. I'm not claiming to be an aerobic monster or even have an average level of endurance, but I am saying is that it seems like my proportion of speed vs endurance is heavier on the latter. This whole thought process got me thinking about running vs rowing and how I managed to progress fairly rapidly in rowing. My mind began to wonder into training theories so here is what I was thinking about:
Two things combine to make you move over a distance:
Mechanics: I am taking about efficiency here. In rowing the energy consumed per stroke given a constant pace. In running I'm talking energy per stride at constant pace.
Motor: I am talking about all the exercise science mumbo jumbo here, VO2max, lactate threshold, slow twist/fast twitch etc etc, all of which I am rather ignorant. In reference to energy, I would consider this the max amount of energy your body could contribute to an effort.
Now each of us has a genetic disposition that determines the point zero ratio of the above for each sport we participate in.
I happen to think that in my case, the mechanics or rowing were simply better suited to my body than running and made better use of my strong motor.
Now I really don't know why I wrote all this down, it was simply my thoughts on a run.
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