Self Assessment for max performance.

A lot of things in running, much like life, are seemingly learned by trial and error. Those experiences mold our beliefs about what we are able to accomplish. For running, those experiences certainly are part of the process, but they take a lot of time and they mean going through bad races and injury just to learn more about ourselves. That got me to thinking, how do we take those experiences but couple it with some sort of self assessment to drastically shorten that learning curve? Where would we start? What would we look at? Lastly, how would we use it? These are all questions I personally would want answered for my athletes and the basis of the following self assessments that I would perform as a runner.

For New Runners:

If you are a new runner, you may be in a tough spot. Much of what you are learning right now is through trial and error and we simply don’t have a lot of data to pull anything of significance from. Really what we are doing here is twofold. One, to get an idea of what kind of potential you may have, or where your strengths/weaknesses might be. Second, lay the foundation of good training principles so that regardless of path you take, you have a good idea of what to expect.

Understanding your body type

* Ectomorph

* Narrow hips and shoulders

* Thin build

* Long limbs

* Mesomorph

* Wide shoulders

* Narrow waist

* Muscular build

* Endomorph

* Wide shoulders/waist

* Thick rib cage

* Shorter limbs

What does this mean? The reality is that for beginning runners, this may really only be assessing our starting point. A little of it might be stating the obvious, like it may simply point out that we are tall and skinny, or that we need to lose a little weight. However, if we get into it a little bit, then we can maybe start to sort out some things about ourselves that will indicate where our strengths and weaknesses my lie.

Basically, most of us are middle of the road when it comes to training and performance.

Most of us, roughly 70%, are well, average. We are probably a blend of two body types and with that we can expect a few things. For you, training should be balanced, because you will respond to everything. You can expect your race results to pretty much fall in line as the distance increases, as long as you trained appropriately for each event. You’ll respond at the textbook rate of 4-6 weeks at a training level. Basically, most of us are middle of the road when it comes to training and performance.

From a physiological standpoint, you are probably a pretty even blend of muscle fibers. Most people tend to have a 50/50 blend of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibers. This means that you’ll have a pretty average VO2max to start with too. So, nothing crazy here and the majority of people fall into this category.

Then you have your mesomorphic athletes that are strong, powerful, but on a light frame. You can think of your typical sprinter in this case. They will have a lot of fast twitch muscle fibers, but also a high starting VO2max. Sprint or short fast duration is going to be there favorite and obviously, their best training. Can this person run a marathon? Absolutely, as long as they modify their approach and realize that their expected performance will probably be slower than what a shorter performance might rather indicate. This population is small, about 15%.

The last thing a new runner needs is unrealistic expectations that allow frustration to creep in. This just leads to a general non enjoyment of the sport and most will ultimately leave the sport because of it.

Lastly, you have the true marathon body type. The skinny, long limbed, light framed ectomorph. They will really be the opposite of the mesomorph.