Originally Posted by
tompaynter
What I've read in sources specifically dedicated to conditioning advocate for building an aerobic base. I can't recount the science, but the impression I got is that one's energy capacity could be likened to a hydroelectric dam and the reservoir behind it. Very short-burst power, in this analogy, would be the size of the spillgates and turbines--the maximum amount of water than can be dumped and converted to energy at once. The size of the reservoir, the total amount of water behind the dam, can also be improved through training. But the aerobic base corresponds to the size of the inflow into the reservoir--the amount of energy the body can consistently produce for a long time, by burning fat. You can't run a marathon based on the size of your spillgates or the amount of water in your reservoir; it's the size of the stream filling your reservoir that matters at that point. And that stream is best increased by longer, slower training. So longer, slower training is important even if one's sport requires repeated bursts of shorter duration, because the stream is what refills the reservoir between those bursts of effort. E.g., boxers do roadwork even though their sport is done in 3-minute rounds, within which are even shorter bursts of effort.
Is this all crap in your view?