BOSS, the ultimate cross-training, part 2 (physical)

The fatigue was of a deeper kind, at the end of that BOSS 7-Day Field Course, compared with the post-marathon fatigue. I didn't feel recovered enough to run until almost a week after returning from Utah. And, when I finally went out for a 4-mile test run, the legs felt decidedly strange. The physical effects of the BOSS course on my running lingered for several more weeks, especially on the weekend long runs.

I was not surprised. Though I've been training for marathons for some five years now and almost continuously (16-week training cycle x 3-4 marathons a year), I've not specifically trained for walking or hiking. My training plan does emphasize the core, and I've been diligent about that. But, I've not paid much attention to cross-training, despite knowing its importance and benefits. Much has been written about cross-training. Here are two of the many articles: Cross-training and The best cross-training for runners; and one specifically on walking and hiking. Although my overall fitness from marathon training was more than sufficient for the BOSS course, that one-week of intense hiking entailed a use of the leg muscles that was definitely not familiar.

Amby Burfoot wrote a 2005 article comparing the calories burned between running and walking (updated in 2012), based on two academic papers in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, respectively. The main result of the studies was that running (at 9-10 min/mi) burns more calories than does walking (at 18-20 min/mi), for the same distance, which seems fairly obvious to me. What's not obvious and more interesting was Burfoot's test of something he'd read (not in those two papers)--that fast walking burns more calories than does running at the same speed. What he found was that running is harder at paces slower than 12 min/mi (5 mph), and walking is harder at faster paces. Burfoot didn't really have an explanation. My guess is it's related to the higher efficiency of running in covering distance vs. higher energy cost of the vertical component of the running stride, and 12 min/mi is the pace at which the two factors are roughly in balance. The results of these studies, all obtained using treadmills, probably would also apply to running on level roads.

On trails, however, results could be different. For example, in the 2014 Copper Mountain trail half marathon, I found it actually easier to slowly run than to walk up some of the slope sections of the course (mostly up and down and across the ski slopes of Copper Mountain, CO). My pace for those sections was slower than 12 min/mi. During BOSS week, we spent one rainy night down in one of

Ski slopes of Copper Mountain, CO.

the many canyons of southern Utah; in the morning, flash flooding became a real concern. We got up early, had a quick breakfast, packed up, and headed straight up and out of the canyon. That hike was the toughest one of the course, in part because we're moving at a faster pace than what would have been, had the previous night been a starry one. The pace was still slower than 12 min/mi; but, I don't think any of the students, at the time, could imagine running--even slowly--up that switchback trail, with seemingly endless apparent tops of the canyon. The trail was steeper, though, than the one at Copper Mountain. Plus, we're carrying blanket packs and other gear.

View from top of a canyon in southern Utah, during BOSS 7-Day Field Course

Those apparent tops were actually quite helpful in the ascent out of the canyon; they broke down the hike into shorter segments, each of which was then more manageable. This is similar to the common strategy in marathons of breaking down the 26 miles into 10K's, 5M's, 5K's, the next mile, the next traffic light, or the next runner ("fishing"!)--basically, WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) applied to running (see Running WBS, Intestinal runs, and Running WBS (2)). I'll come back to this mental aspect of running a marathon or hiking out of a canyon later. But, ultimately, it's just putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how much they are complaining.

My marathon training was good preparation for the BOSS course, and the BOSS course was good cross-training for marathons--or, for finding out that I need to spend more time on cross-training! Christopher McDougall's new book, Natural Born Heroes, is a story of Greek heroes, Cretan resistance during WWII, parkour, natural training/method/movement, hero's holy trinity, and a higher purpose. A higher purpose of, e.g., running a marathon or hiking the canyons of southern Utah. Cross-training, writ large, permeates the story, as it permeates a BOSS course.

What makes BOSS the ultimate cross-training is that it's not just physical; it's also mental and spiritual (which I'll get to in parts 3 and 4, respectively, of this post).