Excerpts from Wednesday’s NY Times article, “Want to Go Faster? You Need a Trainer” with my comments:
“It’s not that talent is irrelevant. Truly talented athletes can be better without training than many average people can be with training.”
Athletic “talent”, or innate ability, is not just irrelevant — it doesn’t appear to exist. Talented athletes tend to be the ones who spent the most time practicing properly throughout their lives.
“And no matter how good the coaching or the training program, injuries are all but inevitable.
‘The moment I say I want to put a number on my chest, that’s when I start saying I accept the risk of injury,’ Dr. Foster said. ‘It’s a decision people make and I think it’s a good one. But you’ve got to accept it. Training is not totally innocuous.’”
Injuries are all but inevitable during sporting competition, but NOT during training. And injuries are definitely NOT inevitable if the sport is a monostructural activity — running, cycling, rowing, etc. Proper physiological technique results in a lower incidence of injury. And general physical preparedness, rather than only sport specialization, appears to lower the incidence still.
“You can cross-train — do other sports that get your heart rate up — to regulate how your heart pumps. But to improve your muscles’ ability to use that blood, you have to train by doing that sport.
“If you are training to run, you need to run,” Dr. Roberts said. “If you are training to inline skate, you need to inline skate.”
Dr. Roberts needs to talk to CrossFitter Greg Amundson, who ran 80 miles in 24 hours earlier this year, having run two miles — combined — in the previous thirty days.
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