Anaerobic or aerobic power?

When I was a little kid in primary school, I never liked running. I never wanted to follow my mum and dad to the Subang lake to go jogging because I was afraid it was a place only for pros and I was conscious that people might laugh at me. I was always an active kid, but I took part in telematch sports more like running in the gunny sack, or 3 legged race. I was queen of the monkey bars in the playground, and I've always loved hula hoops. In Standard 4 (Age 10), I became a rhythmic gymnast after my mum saw the bigger girls dancing with pretty leotards in school. And when I first started, I was pretty good at it. =) Then as the choreographed routines got more complex and harder to remember, I didn't do so well any more...haha...but I still loved it. I still think rhythmic gymnastics is the most beautiful sport.

At age 13 I took part in a jogathon. It was 7 km and I had signed up with a bunch of my friends for fun. I came home with a prize. That was the beginning of my long distance running career. I guess I had the right genes for it because I never took it seriously enough to train hard for it, but I always manage to clinch some sort of prize. Also not many girls my age took part in runs so I had a very good chance. And as I grew older, the more I ran the better I got. From my running, I went into triathlons, and duathlons, and marathons. So that was cool. =) By the time I was in uni, I have already been in the long distance running scene for about a decade.

So aerobic power has been my forte for the past >10 years. No matter what happened in my life, I always had my cardio endurance. And then Work happened. Boot camp is all about sprints, drills, grunts. High intensity interval training with minimal rest periods in between. Training people who are less fit than me, I run at a much slower pace. And long working hours meant I am more often than not too lazy to train. To make sure I still work up a sweat every now and then, I resort to short 30 minute work outs at home, which, you can probably guess, consists of more high intensity interval training. SOOO...as proven by my dismal performance this morning (4.8 km run in 31 minutes), I think I am slowly turning from an aerobic to an anaerobic athlete! Now I understand why a lot of my fellow marathoners have now turned into Crossfitters and what not. Endurance training just takes too much effort sometimes. haha...

It's not a bad thing to be. Anaerobic power is an amazing trait, but I think I'm more comfortable being an endurance runner. So, I hope I don't lose it. I keep telling myself I need to train up, but I know it's gonna take a great deal of will power to get my game into high gear and start clocking in those miles. Oh, let there be faith!