Jumps And Distance

[Crazy]

This is my second season of indoor track. I am primarily a high jumper, and I jumped 6'1 in my first season last year. However, I am also a pretty good distance runner, and I want to run the 800,1000,16 and deuce. Is there any way that I'll be able to improve as a distance runner and a high jumper, or will I have to choose one to stick with?

[Crossing the Country]

I am in the same spot as you 6'0" and a 17:00 5k
I know that you cannot accel at both because distance deals with slow twitch fibers and require a different muscle build than jumping which deals with fast twitch fibers. You can't work on one without hurting the other.
Me, I am picking jumping and mid distance because its more fun :p

[mrmiles]

...not necessarily mediocre at both. Physiology does dictate event specialty, but if you've got "mad ups" and good form in the high jump, make that your 'A' event and try mid-distance on for size.

If you're looking to delve into running more, start with 400's and 800's. This type of running involves a lot of speed and you can keep experimenting up. You'll be able to utilize your sprint/jump training and post pretty good mid-distance times. Have you posted any mid-distance times yet??

If you're serious about popping off a 2-mile, you'll maybe want to do it without changing your overall training too much. Maybe throw in a few longer rep workouts or a tempo run. Again, you won't be changing your entire game plan.

Motor unit recruitment in a nut shell:
Muscle fiber types: Type I, IIa and IIb.
Type I (highly aerobic) slow twitch.
Type IIa (shares glycolytic and aerobic).
Type IIb (highly glycolytic) fast twitch.
Sprinters of course have higher %'s of Type IIb and endurance athletes have higher %'s of Type I. To improve performance, coaches train athletes to recruit IIa's toward the appropriate event. Sprinters "recruit" type IIa to the glycolytic side whereas endurance athletes "recruit" them to the aerobic side. These fibers can be "trained" to endure specific demands of each type of event.

High jump - you'll use your Type IIa and IIb muslce fibers predominantly. Very low impact on Type I's.
Mid-distance - you'll use Type I, IIa, and possibly, depending on your speed, Type IIb's. This is why you should try 400/800 first.

I hope this helped and wasn't "too much."

[NVJumper13]

was just going to post something very similar to mrmiles post but i didn't have all the technical terms and whatnot. glad he beat me to it. i experienced this first hand last year. i was forced to train for the 800m so i could be on the 4X8 and i am a long/triple jumper. i noticed i was not improving much at all throughout the first half of the season. i convinced my coaches it was hurting my jumping and that i really wanted to go to state so i thought i should focus on just the jumping. they finally forced some freshmen to do it since our 4X8 sucked and i was the best jumper. i was still the alternate but didn't ever have to run. it took like 2-3 weeks after i quit distance training before i finally started improving again. after experiencing it first hand i will tell you that they doo indead hurt each other and you shouldn't trai both if you want to do really well.

[mrmiles]

Nice follow up NVJump. Coaches are always looking for kids to step into more events. Not all coaches have the understanding of the physiology and training principles.

Always look at what your strengths are and decide if you can make another event work for you. If you're a really good HJ'er, don't mess around. If you're just starting out, maybe be a little more flexible with what you try.

Unfortunately, some coaches only have two modes: distance and sprints. There are workouts for each area and then some!

Sprints and jumps go hand-in-hand, of course. Mid-distance/jumps is doable. Distance/jumps is not a great idea.

[Crazy]

Ok well:
My team is basically telling me to do High Jumping because I'm already established at that.
I have pretty good ups, and (I've been told) incredible form, which helps.
My coach really wants to help me excell because he says that going 6'1 in my first year is good.

The decision we came to is that I will be able to run in the 4x8, which is awesome.
Also, would a 1000 be okay, or is that pushing it?
I do mostly HJ workouts, however I run with the distance team during their speed and interval workouts (800's/fartlichs).
I think everything should be fine.

[Pete Brewer]

I think there is a different way to approach this. It is true that jumpers tend to be sprinters as well, and do very well off of sprint training. It is also true that jumper training helps sprinters, as plyometrics, depth jumps, bounding, hill running, et cetera all contribute to explosiveness in the leg muscles.

Most high school distances in track are not really distances. In the real world of distance running, even the 5K is on the short end. Most high school meets have only the 3200 or 3K as the top end of distance. The 1600 or mile or 1500 is usually the glamorous distance race anyway.

My experience as a coach has been that a well-conditioned 200 runner can do very well up to and including the 800, and that a well-conditioned 400 runner can do very well up to and including the 1600. If sprint training is approached with a solid cardio base, where the sprinter can run for 30 minutes nonstop at a good clip before starting serious sprint work, we have the combination of a strength and speed.

Where this all fits into high jumping is that the explosiveness is not diminished if the athlete does not do the mind-numbing plodding sort of training that many athletes find themselves in as "distance" runners but rather distance running as a function of longer speed. Case in point -- I had an athlete who had a very good range from 15:21 3 mile to 1:52 800. He also high jumped 6-0 as a fun thing to do in dual meets. He was and is primarily a distance runner but also trained with a very prominent speed component and maintained excellent quickness. He now excels at the 8K and 10K distance for college cross country.

Just as a seat-of-the-pants correlation, how many schools have one of the distance runners holding down a spot on the 4 x 400 relay? Does distance training really slow down an athlete's speed potential that much? Does it really cut into the high jump potential to that great of a degree? I think not.

Dieter Baumann made an excellent point about distance and speed. Someone asked him about that point, and he remarked that even 10K runners are not slow. His remark was along the lines of if you take a world-class 10K specialist who runs close to 27:30, that person is running less that 65 seconds a lap for 25 consecutive laps. Even more appropriately, that same person is averaging a smidgen over 16 seconds per 100 meters for 100 consecutive 100 meter intervals. This is not slow.

So, I do not think that distance training necessarily runs counter to high jump performance.

Peter Brewer
Castro Valley High School, CA

[aidan]

If he could run 1:52 in the 800m.. he was an amazing athlete, and 6 feet in high jump is nothing.

now, if you told me that he is only 5'8" tall, then maybe you have a point... but there aren't too many people that short who run 1:52, so I'm assuming hes taller..