About a month ago, I wrote about a short conversation I had with Coach Adam/A muse concerning Elites and why they’re able to keep improving from year to year.  I was trying to find sense and logic behind that long period of speed stagnation.  When he said they have a “massive aerobic foundation” it was a lightbulb moment and helped drive my mileage build.

Since that post, I’ve been haunted, or rather captivated, by the whole notion of development and growth.  I have this, possibly unfounded, inner conviction that despite my incredibly late start as a runner, I have just as much room to improve as the active child I might have been.

Because aerobically speaking, kids aren’t so different from adults.  We all have mitochondria, we all have capillary beds.  The ability to increase both does not shrivel up with age.  Yes, there are other things that impede our progress; joints get tired, tendons, muscles and bones may become more fragile, but those two basic building blocks for running development are there for the creating!

So some of my reading lately has been about children coming to the sport, how they’re coached and the changes they experience along the way (minus the whole puberty thing…don’t care).

I found an intense thread on LetsRun that made me realize the way you train a child runner applies just as much to late-starting adults.  A kid who might naturally be better at VO2max can develop that system successfully for about 2-3 years but then they’ll eventually stop improving and plateau (hello!).  Then there’s the kid you let develop more aerobically by building mileage over the years (because that’s how long it takes to fully develop your aerobic system…years) – that kid’ll take longer to reach his/her potential but it’ll be a lasting journey.  Additonally, if you train a kid the first way, as many of us late-starters train, you can always change course after they’ve stopped improving and begin working on creating a stronger aerobic foundation.  Sound familiar?

So for all us late-starters who might have stopped growing after the “freebies” of speedwork dry up (I’m talking standard newbie runner gains), it’s time to be that other kid, the one who takes a long-term approach to realizing their potential. Then we can play coach too, and remind that kid to be patient, that it might seem like nothing’s happening but that a breakthrough or two is on the way.

Now, I’m no coach and I’m no expert, all I do is read a lot, think a lot and enjoy a good experiment.  So I can’t tell you what type of gains this aerobic party will yield for me, when it’ll start to happen, or if it even will, it’s all just ideas at this point.  But I have read so many exciting stories from college kids to masters who’ve raised their mileage similarly with stunning results, that if I can have a tidbit of that, I’ll be thrilled.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, I will continue to channel my inner eight-grader and hope for the best.

Have a great holiday weekend folks!

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