NOVEMBER 22nd - 28th

It's been an off week. I've been sick in a low grade way for about a week, and managed to eek out one workout. Rowing intervals do not cure the common cold.
My time was not entirely wasted though, I spent a lot of the week planning, reading and thinking about training and the direction in which my physical activity is headed. I don't ever want to be weak. The years of my life have added up to a deep fear in me of being weak, mentally or physically. I used to think being big equated to being strong, but being manhandled by 135lb college level wrestlers during my fighting days taught me a lesson. I want to run in the mountains with ease. I want to be strong; really strong. Most runners I have known and met are pretty weak. Some even fragile. It's obvious to me that too much oxidative training does nothing for your well being. What's too much though? I'm confident that a balance can be found, and battle lines have been drawn in this arena for a while, most notably by Crossfit Endurance. In my experience, relegating your training to anaerobic endurance alone can absolutely take you to and through an event, but recovery seems to lag behind. I experienced this with my first 24 hour run. I did alright during the run, but it took over two weeks to recover. I began at that point to go long in my training more often, like a supplement. I added longer duration slower paced runs two to three times a month. My recovery after the next event was noticeably faster. Then I swung to the other end of the spectrum. I started running more and more. Races went well but I got weak, at least to my standards. Balance.
I think having great relative strength, work capacity and aerobic endurance can all be had at the same time, and I think it's possible to a great degree for them to not limit each other. I'm going to run a 100 mile mountain race sometime next year. I'm not sure which one yet. I'll be taking the first steps with the following program.
Ah, well I can't seem to publish the document, so if you would like to see it, just send me your email and I will send it to you as an attachment.