Naturalistic Training vs. Scientific Training

Here's the thing: I'm a geek. Geeks like numbers. Quantifiable data. Charts and graphs.

So it comes to no surprise that I track as much of my training as I can. How far I ran. What the temp was. What shoes I wore. Whether there was chafing in the crotch zone. How much my duke out weighs. My heart rate gets recorded every 5 seconds... as does my altitude.

I love the data.

The concept behind Scientific Training is that you collect data and constantly refine your approach by analyzing that data. It's an approach that most Americans seem to gravitate to. After presiding over decades of technological advance we seem to have an uncanny faith in all things geeky... all things scientific.

The concept behind Naturalistic training is that you just go out there and do it. By feel. Very Zen. The Kenyans are big into it. They argue that Americans, Europeans and Westerners get too caught up in split times and VO2Max numbers and strategy. Kenyans just free their minds and put one foot in front of the other... in rapid succession. Bill Rodgers writes in his book Marathon that he used to just go out and run. No particular pace. No goal. He went by feel. (Which happened to dictate some pretty fast runs in his case.)

It should come as no surprise that I generally err on the side of the scientific. I got a degree in physics believing that all things in the universe could be solved in nice pretty equations. (Only cost me $50K to learn that the world wasn't so nice and neat.)

But I'm starting to question my approach a little. Or refine it. Yeah, refine it.

Here's why: I train for triathlons which means that I have to practice three disciplines... swimming, biking and running. Of the three, I use a pure Naturalistic approach to swimming and then a blend with biking and running. And swimming is where I've seen the most improvement. In fact, in the last two races I've performed better compared to the rest of the field in the swim than I have on the bike or run.

And swimming is where I'm having some of my most fun workouts. They seem much less constrained. I don't feel like I'm as subject to my own charts and graphs. I just go out and swim. I work hard. But I don't beat myself up when I go a little slower on some days. Mainly because I don't know that I've gone slower.

On the running side (my most scientific discipline) I've gone from confidence and a scientific plan to injury and uncertaintity.

On the bike (a middle ground between naturalistic and scientific) I've seen great progress and fun.

So I think that I need to mellow out the scientific analysis of the runs a bit. Maybe lay off the heart rate. Get off the treadmill and its fancy LED displays. I need to just go out and run.

My pacing will likely improve. Instead of relying on a digital readout I'll sense speed by the sensation of moving over pavement and the sound of air rushing past my ears.