I went running (finally) this past Sunday. Okay, not quite running, more of a trot, as I was running with friends who aren’t quite as far into running as I am. We were all wearing VFFS, so I wasn’t the only one fielding the questions from folks on the trail.
I’m at a point now where I think I am recovering quickly enough from my Crossfit workouts that adding the CFE workouts won’t be too painful. The specter of overtraining is one that has been looming over me – in order to maintain my current momentum, I need to avoid wiping myself out.
And I need to get back to running on a regular basis. I know that I’m not really improving my running without practicing the skills. It’s now been a week and a half since I took the Pose clinic, and I really haven’t utilized the skills or drills more than twice. The good thing is that the warm-ups at the gym this week all start with a 600ish meter run. That will let me practice some of my footwork. The run this Sunday was more of a trot, and the cadence we were moving at was slow enough that I really wasn’t keeping good form. But I can’t complain, I’ve been the out of shape one on runs, and it was fun to encourage my friends to keep going and to talk about technique and goals.
Speaking of goals, this week my micro-goal will be to get back into running on Wednesday mornings, and practicing my Pose footwork drills at least once a day for 15-30 minutes. And to get back to writing everyday.
More soon.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
My Running Journal 041210
Today is a non running day. I think that I am going to spend a few minutes working on my jump rope technique, and maybe some of the skill building exercises that I learned yesterday in the POSE Technique class.
It turns out that the guy who taught the workshop yesterday Drew Miller, is also a Crossfit Endurance trainer as well as a POSE technique coach. He taught a great class, and it really helped solidify some ideas in my head about how things are supposed to work. It also became very clear that just reading about how to do something, and watching videos, does not substitute for good coaching. The workshop was small, a total of five of us. Two of the other guys were experienced mid to long distance runners and are training for the Eugene marathon - both of them knew about POSE, one of them the does Crossfit training, and the other one is starting to run in VFFs. The other guy, who had come up from Ashland, has been running in huaraches. The one woman in the group was not an experienced runner, which was probably good for her, since she didn't have to fight old habits, and was clearly able to focus on getting the pose right without having to contract old muscle memory.
We had a great conversation about Chi Running, the similarities between the two forms, and the bad blood between runners from all camps. I haven't encountered any negativity directly, but I'm not coaching people. Evidently there are loads of people who decide that if you aren't doing something their way, you must be doing it wrong ( I do this, but normally it is in response to other people's driving). And folks seem to be okay with criticizing other people's decisions, without knowing the other, "wrong" position. You see it in everything that has been systemized, and I guess running techniques are no different. Of course, the whole push behind the Pose technique and forefoot striding, along with minimalist shoes, is a threat to the current paradigm of running. Especially when you factor in how much money there is involved with shoes. Sarah, the woman at the clinic yesterday lamented a little over the fact that she had purchased a brand new set of nicely, heavily protective New Balance shoes based on the observation of what her foot did when she heel strikes.
The funny thing is that, and this keeps getting repeated to me in various forms, you cannot pronate or supinate your foot if you are utilizing the Pose technique. Your general center of mass is over your point of support, which happens to be your forefoot. If you aren't heel striking ahead of your hips, then there is no way that you can pronate or supinate your foot without really injuring yourself and doing it purposefully. I let Sarah know that I was in the same boat - I dropped a large amount of money on a pair of stability control shoes when I started ( those wonderful Brooks Addictions), and now they get used to transport me to the car on mornings when I head to Crossfit. Just to the car and the gym - I change over to my VFFs at the gym.
We went over tempo, body mechanics, uphill and downhill running, and skill drills. Drew videoed us running at the beginning of the class, middle, and end. And we all watched and picked apart our forms. I thought I had the forefoot stride down pretty well, at least as far as getting my foot to touch down directly below my center of mass, instead of ahead of it. Boy was I wrong. There were a host of other things that we kept an eye on, and by the end of the clinic I had improved a little bit.
Beside the specific skill drills and coaching that I got from the clinic, we also discussed effective training - this goes back to my thoughts on what it means to run as fast as you can. Drew reinforced my opinion in that it makes no sense to train poorly - if your basic skill set is deficient, and you have a bad running form, then you aren't helping yourself if you push yourself to run faster without taking the time to really improve your basic skills. You are a better runner if you have and can maintain good form throughout the course of your run. If you can't maintain a good form in a training run, then you are running farther than your skill, and aren't really benefitting from the exercise.
We also got some fun toys - a metronome and an EZ run belt. I'll discuss the belt in a future post, but it seems like it will be a very helpful training tool. The metronome is a much nicer one than I have been using, primarily because it is louder and has a belt clip.
Tomorrow I am going to go out and give my new found running skills a test. And hopefully I'll find other people who are POSE runners in Portland that would like to get together for group training and critique. Because Drew Miller is the only Pose certified trainer in Oregon.
It turns out that the guy who taught the workshop yesterday Drew Miller, is also a Crossfit Endurance trainer as well as a POSE technique coach. He taught a great class, and it really helped solidify some ideas in my head about how things are supposed to work. It also became very clear that just reading about how to do something, and watching videos, does not substitute for good coaching. The workshop was small, a total of five of us. Two of the other guys were experienced mid to long distance runners and are training for the Eugene marathon - both of them knew about POSE, one of them the does Crossfit training, and the other one is starting to run in VFFs. The other guy, who had come up from Ashland, has been running in huaraches. The one woman in the group was not an experienced runner, which was probably good for her, since she didn't have to fight old habits, and was clearly able to focus on getting the pose right without having to contract old muscle memory.
We had a great conversation about Chi Running, the similarities between the two forms, and the bad blood between runners from all camps. I haven't encountered any negativity directly, but I'm not coaching people. Evidently there are loads of people who decide that if you aren't doing something their way, you must be doing it wrong ( I do this, but normally it is in response to other people's driving). And folks seem to be okay with criticizing other people's decisions, without knowing the other, "wrong" position. You see it in everything that has been systemized, and I guess running techniques are no different. Of course, the whole push behind the Pose technique and forefoot striding, along with minimalist shoes, is a threat to the current paradigm of running. Especially when you factor in how much money there is involved with shoes. Sarah, the woman at the clinic yesterday lamented a little over the fact that she had purchased a brand new set of nicely, heavily protective New Balance shoes based on the observation of what her foot did when she heel strikes.
The funny thing is that, and this keeps getting repeated to me in various forms, you cannot pronate or supinate your foot if you are utilizing the Pose technique. Your general center of mass is over your point of support, which happens to be your forefoot. If you aren't heel striking ahead of your hips, then there is no way that you can pronate or supinate your foot without really injuring yourself and doing it purposefully. I let Sarah know that I was in the same boat - I dropped a large amount of money on a pair of stability control shoes when I started ( those wonderful Brooks Addictions), and now they get used to transport me to the car on mornings when I head to Crossfit. Just to the car and the gym - I change over to my VFFs at the gym.
We went over tempo, body mechanics, uphill and downhill running, and skill drills. Drew videoed us running at the beginning of the class, middle, and end. And we all watched and picked apart our forms. I thought I had the forefoot stride down pretty well, at least as far as getting my foot to touch down directly below my center of mass, instead of ahead of it. Boy was I wrong. There were a host of other things that we kept an eye on, and by the end of the clinic I had improved a little bit.
Beside the specific skill drills and coaching that I got from the clinic, we also discussed effective training - this goes back to my thoughts on what it means to run as fast as you can. Drew reinforced my opinion in that it makes no sense to train poorly - if your basic skill set is deficient, and you have a bad running form, then you aren't helping yourself if you push yourself to run faster without taking the time to really improve your basic skills. You are a better runner if you have and can maintain good form throughout the course of your run. If you can't maintain a good form in a training run, then you are running farther than your skill, and aren't really benefitting from the exercise.
We also got some fun toys - a metronome and an EZ run belt. I'll discuss the belt in a future post, but it seems like it will be a very helpful training tool. The metronome is a much nicer one than I have been using, primarily because it is louder and has a belt clip.
Tomorrow I am going to go out and give my new found running skills a test. And hopefully I'll find other people who are POSE runners in Portland that would like to get together for group training and critique. Because Drew Miller is the only Pose certified trainer in Oregon.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
My running journal, 040810
The Tabata training protocol is pretty cool. Wednesday's workout ended with us doing Tabata sit-ups. Four minute abs!
The Tabata protocol is pretty simple. The workout spans all of four minutes, and consists of eight sets of 20 seconds of all out effort, followed by 10 seconds of rest, then 20 seconds all out, etc. Four minutes. Easy, right? Well, it is and it isn't. The first set you feel like you have all the time in the world, and then as the sets progress, the rest times seem shorter and shorter, while the work time stretches out, and the work gets harder. My sets broke down to 17, 14, 13, 11, 9,9,9,9. That last one was hard to get - it took me three seconds to get that last sit-up in. There wasn't any pain in the sets, just a decided lack of response from my abdominal muscles to respond as fast I wanted them to. The study usually used to show the effectiveness of the Tabata protocol indicates that it is potentially as aerobically effective as a 45 minute step aerobics class. I'd like to see more studies before I completely accept that, but i have a feeling it is at least approaching the truth.
Now that I know how a Tabata set works, as far as timing, I really need to work them into my training set. And to avoid overtraining, I'm only supposed to do a major muscle group Tabata set once or twice a month. I think that I am going to start usig my early Saturday mornings for track work. I have already blocked out that time for CFE workouts.
It turns out that I don't need to buy a new watch after all. I started playing with my Forerunner 305, and it has an interval function. And I can set it up for timed intervals and/or distance intervals. Which will be good, as it is hard to figure out how far 200 meters are on the street - I guess i could chart a route and break it down, block by block, but the last thing that I want to try and do while sprinting is to keep an eye on street signs or mailbox numbers. Easier just to have a GPS watch beep to tell you when you have reached your set distance. We'll see if I am smart enough to figure out the basic programming needed to do this.
Interval training hear I come!
The Tabata protocol is pretty simple. The workout spans all of four minutes, and consists of eight sets of 20 seconds of all out effort, followed by 10 seconds of rest, then 20 seconds all out, etc. Four minutes. Easy, right? Well, it is and it isn't. The first set you feel like you have all the time in the world, and then as the sets progress, the rest times seem shorter and shorter, while the work time stretches out, and the work gets harder. My sets broke down to 17, 14, 13, 11, 9,9,9,9. That last one was hard to get - it took me three seconds to get that last sit-up in. There wasn't any pain in the sets, just a decided lack of response from my abdominal muscles to respond as fast I wanted them to. The study usually used to show the effectiveness of the Tabata protocol indicates that it is potentially as aerobically effective as a 45 minute step aerobics class. I'd like to see more studies before I completely accept that, but i have a feeling it is at least approaching the truth.
Now that I know how a Tabata set works, as far as timing, I really need to work them into my training set. And to avoid overtraining, I'm only supposed to do a major muscle group Tabata set once or twice a month. I think that I am going to start usig my early Saturday mornings for track work. I have already blocked out that time for CFE workouts.
It turns out that I don't need to buy a new watch after all. I started playing with my Forerunner 305, and it has an interval function. And I can set it up for timed intervals and/or distance intervals. Which will be good, as it is hard to figure out how far 200 meters are on the street - I guess i could chart a route and break it down, block by block, but the last thing that I want to try and do while sprinting is to keep an eye on street signs or mailbox numbers. Easier just to have a GPS watch beep to tell you when you have reached your set distance. We'll see if I am smart enough to figure out the basic programming needed to do this.
Interval training hear I come!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
My Running Journal, 040710
I slept in today instead of going out and running. I'm allowing myself to do this, as I am trying to ramp up my activity level while not overdoing it. Zero gain, or negative gain, is something that I want to avoid. I was tired all day yesterday, and the workout last night at the gym was harder than it should have been for me. The negative gain train has three cars, and one of those is a lack of rest. So I'm trying to let myself go about this in as natural a process as possible.
Based on some of the articles by the Crossfit Endurance gurus that I have read, ideally I shouldn't be training sport specific more than a few hours a week. So between the five hours of Crossfit that I am putting in per week, I can probably add a little over five more hours of workout time before I start to really stress myself out. Beside getting to a healthy weight and overall health, I am training to run in a marathon this year, and that is to build a base on which I plan to build up to participating in an Ironman level triathlon by the time I am 40 years old, if not sooner. I have to keep that in mind, that this step in the process is part of a greater and greater process.
I am trying to find out what the ideal level of aerobic training is. In order to be a good endurance athlete, one must have a strong aerobic base. What this boiled down to is that, at the end of the run, I should be able to bounce back, heart rate and respiration wise, within a few minutes. Sunday's run demonstrated to me that I have the aerobic conditioning sufficient to run an 11min/mile pace for at least 5 miles. I'm trying to answer a question in my head about what it means to have a strong aerobic base, and how you measure it without fancy lab equipment.
Reading about interval training has given me a little peek into this. Part of the interval training process is a rest period in between periods of exertion - part of this is to allow for aerobic recovery - breathing, oxygen, etc. One of the things that I can keep an eye on is how fast my heart rate returns to an aerobic baseline from an anaerobic level. Your max heart rate is supposed to be 220 minus your age, which means my max heart rate is around 186 bpm. For an intense interval training session, my heart rate should come up to about 170 bpm which would be about 90% of my max - and ideally, (if I am reading some of this stuff right) by the time my rest interval is over, my heart rate should have recovered back to the aerobic threshold, which for me should be around 70% of my max, or 130 bpm. So, does that mean that a solid aerobic base means that my heart rate is about 130 bpm at the end of a long distance run? Say, after a 10k? Or is it that my pulse rate gets up to 130 and stays there for the majority of the run? Some more reading is in order. I definitely feel the need for a heart rate monitor on my next run to see what is going on.
This Sunday I am taking a Pose running class. Time to start developing that skill set. I find it interesting to read back to some of my earlier posts about using chi-running skills to go faster. I'm trying to find the balance between that and what I am picking up about Pose technique.
Tonight we are doing some intense work at Crossfit. The last component of the workout is going to be Tabata situps. Which means several rounds of 20 second max output, followed by 10 seconds rest, for 8 rounds. So I may not run tomorrow morning, even if I manage to wake up early enough.
Based on some of the articles by the Crossfit Endurance gurus that I have read, ideally I shouldn't be training sport specific more than a few hours a week. So between the five hours of Crossfit that I am putting in per week, I can probably add a little over five more hours of workout time before I start to really stress myself out. Beside getting to a healthy weight and overall health, I am training to run in a marathon this year, and that is to build a base on which I plan to build up to participating in an Ironman level triathlon by the time I am 40 years old, if not sooner. I have to keep that in mind, that this step in the process is part of a greater and greater process.
I am trying to find out what the ideal level of aerobic training is. In order to be a good endurance athlete, one must have a strong aerobic base. What this boiled down to is that, at the end of the run, I should be able to bounce back, heart rate and respiration wise, within a few minutes. Sunday's run demonstrated to me that I have the aerobic conditioning sufficient to run an 11min/mile pace for at least 5 miles. I'm trying to answer a question in my head about what it means to have a strong aerobic base, and how you measure it without fancy lab equipment.
Reading about interval training has given me a little peek into this. Part of the interval training process is a rest period in between periods of exertion - part of this is to allow for aerobic recovery - breathing, oxygen, etc. One of the things that I can keep an eye on is how fast my heart rate returns to an aerobic baseline from an anaerobic level. Your max heart rate is supposed to be 220 minus your age, which means my max heart rate is around 186 bpm. For an intense interval training session, my heart rate should come up to about 170 bpm which would be about 90% of my max - and ideally, (if I am reading some of this stuff right) by the time my rest interval is over, my heart rate should have recovered back to the aerobic threshold, which for me should be around 70% of my max, or 130 bpm. So, does that mean that a solid aerobic base means that my heart rate is about 130 bpm at the end of a long distance run? Say, after a 10k? Or is it that my pulse rate gets up to 130 and stays there for the majority of the run? Some more reading is in order. I definitely feel the need for a heart rate monitor on my next run to see what is going on.
This Sunday I am taking a Pose running class. Time to start developing that skill set. I find it interesting to read back to some of my earlier posts about using chi-running skills to go faster. I'm trying to find the balance between that and what I am picking up about Pose technique.
Tonight we are doing some intense work at Crossfit. The last component of the workout is going to be Tabata situps. Which means several rounds of 20 second max output, followed by 10 seconds rest, for 8 rounds. So I may not run tomorrow morning, even if I manage to wake up early enough.
Monday, April 5, 2010
My Running Journal, 040510
Yesterday I ran a five mile trail run in my new VFF KSO treks. The Treks are the heaviest version that Vibram offers, having kangaroo leather uppers, a pretty aggressively lugged outsold component, and a thin EVA midsole. Contrast this with the classic, which has a lightweight fabric upper, no midsole, and a siped rubber sole. The midsole on the treks was added to protect against the stuff that you inadvertently run over while on a trail or off road. And they do feel different than the classic or the sprints. I still felt the gravel, stones and other stuff on the trail yesterday, but there was a slight sense of insulation from all of it. I think the biggest difference with the treks is not so much the midsole, but the aggressive tread. I can see the tread helping in conditions where the siped rubber would just slide along, like over a thin layer of mud, or wet vegetation. The siped rubber works really well on surfaces like wet concrete, asphalt, or the deck of a boat - but in my experience they are less than ideal in situations where there is wet vegetation/algae, or any amount of mud. I know that my Sprints didn't work very well to keep my footing on wet lava rocks in Hawaii, or over wet logs and muddy trails here in Oregon.
The run itself was nice. My iPhone lost GPS signal at a couple points, so it only mapped a run 4.61 miles in length, but I am sure that I ran closer to 5, in about 56 minutes. And that included stopping in a portapotty for a leak, the 30 seconds or so of walking right at the start to get my waist pack on and tightened, and a few seconds around the 2 mile marker where I adjusted my tights. I was running at a nice, easy pace, as I haven't really been running as much. I originally was just going to run 3 miles, again, since I haven't been keeping up the pace of training runs. But I got to the mile and a half marker, and realized I had plenty of gas left in my tank. I decided to run to the 2 mile marker and see how I was doing there. 2 miles came, and I kept going. I decided to turn around at the 2.5 marker, as I didn't want to overdo it. I was definitely feeling a little fatigued towards the end, but I'm not sure if that was physical discomfort or just being slightly bored.
I tried to keep smiling during the whole run, and thinking about fun stuff. Most of the first mile sucked, but I settled into a decent pace and felt pretty good for the rest of the run. Smiling, and trotting along. I had the metronome to 80 bpm, and only tried to not fall to a pace any slower than that, instead of trying to strictly stay at that pace.
I'm definitely feeling some of it today, but nothing more that the usual aches in my ankles. I have a feeling that most of that pain is coming from either my fibula being in slightly the wrong place, or the talus, or both. It is a familiar pain, and the fix will be to see a chiropractor to have the bones put pack into correct alignment. Some of the pain is coming from my peroneal muscles, as massaging the muscles (the ones on the outside part of your lower leg, behind the fibula) alleviates some of the discomfort. I am trying to figure out what has caused it, as I haven't twisted my ankle. It could come from switching between the vibrams, the boots that I regularly wear, and other shoes.
Crossfit is definitely helping me to get into shape. I'm noticing that my muscle tone is greatly improving, and the fact that I felt good enough to run 5 miles and still feel good at the end of it means something. The workouts aren't getting any easier, but I can do pull ups again, and my ribs aren't bothering me.
I had an interesting conversation with one of the trainers the other day. We spoke about our experiences as runners, and her view was similar to what mine was when I started all of this. Now, she is a Crossfit trainer, collegiate level soccer player, and she hates running distances. Most Crossfitters dislike the idea of long, slow distances - i.e. Long term aerobic exercise. The idea is that you can get the same overall effect, in terms of health, by performing high intensity anaerobic exercises over a short period of time. Now, this is borne out by some studies, but there hasn't been much in the way of large scale comparative studies done regarding different training styles. And by "large scale," I mean participation in the thousands.
But her attitude surprised me. Within the general philosophy of Crossfit, there is the idea that no matter what the exercise is that confronts you, a Crossfit practitioner would be able to pull it off. The negativity towards LSDs I think is a response to the negativity that has come at people practicing Crossfit from traditional endurance trainers. Which I think is stupid. In order to be a well rounded active person, you need to be able to perform comfortably in both aerobic and anaerobic activities, and, in my opinion, should be able to transition from one to the other with ease. The founders of Crossfit are trying to establish a basic training paradigm that says that the definition of "fitness" not only encompasses overall physical health, but physical ability. From the evolutionary point of view, the most successful or "fittest" individual is the one able to adapt quickly and successfully to whatever environment they are in.
How does this tie into long distance runs, or endurance activities in general? The first event in the 2009 Crossfit games was a 7k combined road/trail/hill run. The course looked like a punisher, but the attitude of the majority of the participants towards the run, compared to some of the other events, was pretty interesting to see. Most of them claimed that they had never run more than a mile at a time, and that 7k was a long distance. Now, admittedly, the course look very, very difficult through some stretches, but it was only 7k. That is a warm up run for most endurance athletes. Admittedly, most endurance athletes wouldn't then be able to do an increasing weight deadlift over the course of ten minutes within 40 minutes of finishing a race. Which is the way that the games went.
It is the attitude that most of the people interviewed had, as well as my trainer. That long distance runs are hard, or bad, or unpleasant. Your mindset towards the work you have in front of you will dictate how you feel about at work. If you are at best neutral to it, then the perceived effort will be neutral. If you think it will suck, then it will suck. For my trainer, I was surprised by her attitude - she is a pretty high level soccer player, and from what I have observed at soccer games, she should be able to run super long distances with little perceived effort. If she is like any other competitive soccer player that I know, she is sprinting, at the least, the equivalent of two miles per game. That's a heck of alot harder than cruising along for five or so miles.
It's only as hard as you want it to be.
The run itself was nice. My iPhone lost GPS signal at a couple points, so it only mapped a run 4.61 miles in length, but I am sure that I ran closer to 5, in about 56 minutes. And that included stopping in a portapotty for a leak, the 30 seconds or so of walking right at the start to get my waist pack on and tightened, and a few seconds around the 2 mile marker where I adjusted my tights. I was running at a nice, easy pace, as I haven't really been running as much. I originally was just going to run 3 miles, again, since I haven't been keeping up the pace of training runs. But I got to the mile and a half marker, and realized I had plenty of gas left in my tank. I decided to run to the 2 mile marker and see how I was doing there. 2 miles came, and I kept going. I decided to turn around at the 2.5 marker, as I didn't want to overdo it. I was definitely feeling a little fatigued towards the end, but I'm not sure if that was physical discomfort or just being slightly bored.
I tried to keep smiling during the whole run, and thinking about fun stuff. Most of the first mile sucked, but I settled into a decent pace and felt pretty good for the rest of the run. Smiling, and trotting along. I had the metronome to 80 bpm, and only tried to not fall to a pace any slower than that, instead of trying to strictly stay at that pace.
I'm definitely feeling some of it today, but nothing more that the usual aches in my ankles. I have a feeling that most of that pain is coming from either my fibula being in slightly the wrong place, or the talus, or both. It is a familiar pain, and the fix will be to see a chiropractor to have the bones put pack into correct alignment. Some of the pain is coming from my peroneal muscles, as massaging the muscles (the ones on the outside part of your lower leg, behind the fibula) alleviates some of the discomfort. I am trying to figure out what has caused it, as I haven't twisted my ankle. It could come from switching between the vibrams, the boots that I regularly wear, and other shoes.
Crossfit is definitely helping me to get into shape. I'm noticing that my muscle tone is greatly improving, and the fact that I felt good enough to run 5 miles and still feel good at the end of it means something. The workouts aren't getting any easier, but I can do pull ups again, and my ribs aren't bothering me.
I had an interesting conversation with one of the trainers the other day. We spoke about our experiences as runners, and her view was similar to what mine was when I started all of this. Now, she is a Crossfit trainer, collegiate level soccer player, and she hates running distances. Most Crossfitters dislike the idea of long, slow distances - i.e. Long term aerobic exercise. The idea is that you can get the same overall effect, in terms of health, by performing high intensity anaerobic exercises over a short period of time. Now, this is borne out by some studies, but there hasn't been much in the way of large scale comparative studies done regarding different training styles. And by "large scale," I mean participation in the thousands.
But her attitude surprised me. Within the general philosophy of Crossfit, there is the idea that no matter what the exercise is that confronts you, a Crossfit practitioner would be able to pull it off. The negativity towards LSDs I think is a response to the negativity that has come at people practicing Crossfit from traditional endurance trainers. Which I think is stupid. In order to be a well rounded active person, you need to be able to perform comfortably in both aerobic and anaerobic activities, and, in my opinion, should be able to transition from one to the other with ease. The founders of Crossfit are trying to establish a basic training paradigm that says that the definition of "fitness" not only encompasses overall physical health, but physical ability. From the evolutionary point of view, the most successful or "fittest" individual is the one able to adapt quickly and successfully to whatever environment they are in.
How does this tie into long distance runs, or endurance activities in general? The first event in the 2009 Crossfit games was a 7k combined road/trail/hill run. The course looked like a punisher, but the attitude of the majority of the participants towards the run, compared to some of the other events, was pretty interesting to see. Most of them claimed that they had never run more than a mile at a time, and that 7k was a long distance. Now, admittedly, the course look very, very difficult through some stretches, but it was only 7k. That is a warm up run for most endurance athletes. Admittedly, most endurance athletes wouldn't then be able to do an increasing weight deadlift over the course of ten minutes within 40 minutes of finishing a race. Which is the way that the games went.
It is the attitude that most of the people interviewed had, as well as my trainer. That long distance runs are hard, or bad, or unpleasant. Your mindset towards the work you have in front of you will dictate how you feel about at work. If you are at best neutral to it, then the perceived effort will be neutral. If you think it will suck, then it will suck. For my trainer, I was surprised by her attitude - she is a pretty high level soccer player, and from what I have observed at soccer games, she should be able to run super long distances with little perceived effort. If she is like any other competitive soccer player that I know, she is sprinting, at the least, the equivalent of two miles per game. That's a heck of alot harder than cruising along for five or so miles.
It's only as hard as you want it to be.
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