That is a cat you CANNOT skin without a LOT of low-level and high-level aerobic running ...
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Balance and moderation probably ARE good principles for general health and longevity. Continual pounding and hammering at a moderate to high level can bring about future problems. But some people prefer to be excellent at one specific thing, and moderation won't get the job done there. Single-minded determination and pushing the limits (sometimes beyond the limits) - those are a couple of the hallmarks of distance runners. Something has to give. Will it be future health (an uncertainty anyway) or will it be becoming the best possible runner while the door is open? For the runner, the love of excelling in that one endeavour overrides the potential risks. Plenty of runners would keep piling up the miles and hammering the pace on a lot of it even if they knew without doubt it would chop a decade off their lives.
Why? Because a life in the here and now without doing what we've come to love and feel every day that we're wired to do, a life without achieving as much as possible, a life having to ask what might have been ... that life isn't worth living for some people.
Even knowing all along there were prices to pay in the present and other prices to pay later, I chose running long distances because the results (as well as the process itself) were so enjoyable and because both the addiction and the goals made even the most dreaded workouts and those days of "boy, running can really be a drag" or "I do NOT want to get up for this run" worth getting through.
Note to author: Better endurance for the general day-to-day living of the masses CAN be achieved in a short time (and with less overall stress than with hours of aerobic exercise) by using the "Wingate" protocols, but serious, top-end running is another story. That is a cat you CANNOT skin without a LOT of low-level and high-level aerobic running, plus a decent portion of that HIIT when it's the right time for it. And remember, the "serious running" cat - not the "general fitness with overall balance" cat - is the feline that a lot of us absolutely love skinning.
-- John Kellog