Training for fitness or training for performance?
I used to think that training to perform at your best will also make you look and feel fit all the time. Well, this is not quite true. At the 2011 Intercollegiate National Cross Country Championships An extreme example to what I am going to talk about in this post can be found in the bodybuilders. The sport of bodybuilding has a really tough lifestyle. The athletes have to balloon in size most of the year and then trim down dramatically during competition. Most of the year they just look like really fat people. Do you have any idea what it takes in terms of nutrition, exercise and ability to combat with emotional swings in order to be a successful bodybuilder? It turns out that elite endurance athletes, who train and taper to compete in a way similar to bodybuilders, face similar challenges: they don't have to bulk up and then trim down to compete but instead, they have to build up and then go fast. They are not happy all the times and they certainly do not look fit and...