In the crosstraining era, some people (the author included) are overlooking the value of sport-specific training

There I was just a few weeks back at the base of Mount Diablo awaiting the start of a 10.8-mile time trial to the summit, a climb of 3,250 feet. I was in wave No. 4 with 400 or so other riders and behind the 1,000 or so who had gone off in waves 1 through 3. I was on a borrowed bike that I had ridden exactly one time before the event. In fact I had only ridden any bike about six times in the previous two months, and those rides were mostly flat, half hour spins with my son. So how could my expectation level be much more than to finish you ask? Good question, other than to say my pompous arrogance got in the way of my education and good judgement!
     
Being in pretty fair shape to run decent 5ks and having even better results when the courses got hilly, I figured I could easily take my light-framed body, put it on a good bike, add in my decent strength-to-weight ratio, throw in a high level of cardiovascular fitness system and then power my way up that mountain to a good finish. I wasn't naive enough to think I was going to win the race, but easily come in the top 10 percent of the
finishers and get the coveted sub-1 hour tee shirt.
    
Boy, was I ever wrong! Talk about getting humbled. I finished 300th with a time just under 1:05, and I worked my butt off just to finish where I did. The last quarter mile gets very steep to a grade of about 18 percent, and I swear it was everything I could do not to tip over ala Arte Johnson on the old "Laugh In" TV show. I suffered the whole way; I had the pedal to the proverbial metal and had little to show for it in the way of tee shirt or pride. So what happened to me?
     
It's simple really: You get good at what you practice. Though I was in good shape from cross training, I wasn't in good cycling condition. I just didn't have the horsepower in my legs to get me up that hill nearly as fast as I wanted to go. As an exercise and fitness professional, I train and teach the concept of specificity to all my teams and clients. I just didn't want to think it applied to me too! Wrong again! As I think back to last year's New York City Marathon. I remember the hype surrounding a fairly decent endurance athlete and how he might fare in his first marathon effort. Perhaps you too have heard of Lance Armstrong, the 7-time winner of the Tour de France, a guy with a VO2 off the charts and a career as a professional triathlete dating back to his teens. He finished in a very respectable sub 3 hours (2:59+), but nowhere near as fast as many expected him to go.He had painful shin splints and described the run as one of the toughest things he had ever done.

So I guess I'm in pretty good company when it comes to being specifically trained for an event(or lack thereof).
     
My son, the 8-year-old runner and soccer player, must throw in sprint work to retain his soccer speed, even though he's in great distance running shape. My wife, the 50-year-old champion race walker, must throw in running drills to excel in road races, even though both sports are on her feet and require endurance, speed, and cardiovascular ability. All of us, in fact, must practice our sport or activity to fine tune the neuromuscular pathways and fine motor skills to be our best. Crosstraining is great to stay fit, stay injury free, stay flexible,and stay strong. But to be your best at an activity, any activity, practice makes perfect. Or at least leads you down the path to whatever your ultimate potential in any activity might be.

As older athletes, we lose speed, strength, flexibility, quickness, and power if we don't work on retaining the skillset of our youth. With a diligent training program and ample time for recovery, rest, massage and stretching, you can be your best and live up to your potential at every age. If you want to be a fast runner, you must train to run fast in your practices at least once a week. If you want to lift heavy weights or throw a discus far or hit a baseball or row a boat to the best of your ability, you must train for these sports specifically.

The crosstraining will make you fit and healthy, but you must still work on the skills you want to master. Remember practice makes perfect-even for those of us with big egos and high hopes. Next year, I'm going to pedal faster up that mountain because I'm actually going to ride my bike before the race!