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September 07, 2005
The closer you get
The closer I get to a really hard workout, the more I want to do something else. From far away, a hard workout looks like a great idea. Aerobic capacity, muscle recruitment, running economy, all of it will improve dramatically as I recover.
Before I set out, the body's signals seem louder than normal: shins and hamstrings tight, back tired, alignment not right, shoe wear has the ankles at unfortunate angles, stomach feels bloated, shoulders tense and anxious. When I get into running, even my heart and lungs feedback stress. My inner voice echoes tiredness. The conscious mind doubts even from its comfortable position.
Quickly after peak speed is reached the whole body is awash in stop signals. That's what top performance feels like. Awful.
You cannot hold top performance very long. But if you do not get injured and you allow your body time to recover, your body and your mind may get better at pushing to higher limits, up to a point. (Note: If you manage to ignore the body for very long, you'll probably just get injured/overtrained and your performance will decline.)
As Tim Noakes observed by studying runners throughout the recorded history of running, those who train and race hard for years eventually suffer from whatever it is, partly muscle damage, that causes their performance to decline. According to Noakes the decline seems to relate less to aging than to some sort of limit in the body's ability to recover. This suggests to me that more gradual improvement, time to relax from training, and more variety might be the keys to higher performance over the long term.
Posted by Mark at September 7, 2005 07:46 AM