The Tortoise and the Hare

Fast twitch, slow twitch. Most athletes know what those terms mean. Our striated muscles, those under our voluntary control, are not uniform. They consist of two types of muscle fibers. As the name implies, fast twitch muscle fibers contract rapidly while slow twitch contract slowly. Fast twitch are associated with athletes in sports that require explosive effort and speed, like sprinters. Slow twitch are seen more long distance and endurance athletes.




I’m definitely a slow twitch type. I can go for long periods but I don’t go fast. Pretty much in everything I do, I am “the caboose”. I try to soothe my battered ego by imagining that I am burning just as many calories and getting the same training effect as those going faster than me. Unfortunately, that’s not true, as even a brief moments reflection will make clear. The fact is that burning calories is more than a matter of time doing something. You can burn calories sitting on a sofa watching TV. Other factors, like type of activity, effort, and your weight come into play. Running, for example burns approximately 4 times as many calories as walking. Running fast burns more calories than running slow. Even so, running and walking remain two of the best forms of exercise because everyone knows how to do them, they require no special equipment beyond a good pair of shoes- even those aren’t necessarily required as you can run barefoot, and some elite runners do.



Many people feel that if they can’t be a hare, they don’t want to be a tortoise either. This is unfortunate as our obesity rates in this country attest. Everyone has to start somewhere and the main thing is to get moving. A recent Orlando Sentinel article told of Marcus McCleery who weighed nearly 400 lb. He had atrial fibrillation, a condition of the heart where the smaller chambers beat erratically and without coordination so that they don’t pump blood into the chambers, the ventricles, that pump blood out to the body. This results in such things as fatigue, lack of energy, shortness of breath with even minimal activity.



McCleery’s atrial fibrillation was fixed with a simple procedure but it is what he did next that makes the story worth telling. He resolved to move at least 15 minutes a day. From this simple step, he went on to lose nearly 200 lb, became a triathlete, and now teaches people that they can do the same. It began with those 15 minutes per day. He could have stayed on the couch after his heart was fixed and the procedure would have been a technical success and a total failure otherwise. Check his website: www.move15minutesaday.com.



Fast twitch or slow twitch. Run, walk, bike, or swim. It doesn’t matter. What matters is doing something most days of the week.



Florida Ironman Training Log:

It was a good week. I managed to complete each workout scheduled for me, and felt pretty good doing it. The Saturday bike ride was longer than expected and really wore me out. I’ll have to pay more attention to sticking with the plan.



Week’s Training Summary:

Mon, 2/4- Swim at the Y: 875 yds at 2:15/100 yds, total time 19:38

Bike on trainer 30 min w 3 X 30 sec at 95 rpm in the middle

Tues, 2/5- none

Wed, 2/6- run ~35 min with 6 X 1 min at 8:30 min/mi pace w 2 min recovery at 9 min/mi, 5 min cool down.

Thur, 2/7- Swim at the Y: 2000 yds at 2:05 min/100 yds, total time 41:28 min.

Fri, 2/8- Run 7 miles at average 8:42 min/mi.

Sat, 2/9- Bike 52.24 mi at ave 15.1 mph, total time 3:27:52

Sun, 2/10- rest day, stretched.