Transferability

As I've said in one of my earlier articles, I only really run when it comes up in my workouts. The only exception being when I decide to run around Belle Isle, and absolutely no distance running! Well, today at my morning Crossfit session the workout was a timed one mile run. Keep in mind this is at 6 in the morning, which caused me to break a promise I'd made to myself years ago after attempting it once: I would never wake up early to go running. Ever. Well, so much for that. It was the Workout of the Day, and love it or hate it, I had to do it, and do it well.

So I set a PR(personal record). 6:49! That's the fastest I've ever run the mile, and afterwards I felt fine.

This goes back to one of my points that you will hear me rant about if you talk to me about running, and I like to rant. Transferability. As I've said before, I don't run. There are things I'd rather do than running in my training time, so I lift kettlebells, barbells, myself, or really really heavy rocks. The kicker is in doing those things, the strength and power that they helped me develop transferred easily to being a better runner, i.e. a 2 minute reduction on my run time.

I guarantee that if I spent my time running instead of training the way I do, I would be completely useless at all of those other things. Running has limited to no transferability. Give me somebody who spends all of their training time running and none of it on strength training and I will be able to physically crush them and their weak, deconditioned backs. I train intelligently. I train to improve, everywhere. The RKC calls it the "what the hell effect." I've never focused my training on running, but I've definitely improved.

Transferability.

-James