The exact reasoning behind my response. Your knees and low back are already taking a beating from throwing and lifting. Jogging is just plain dumb. I'm all for GPP and basic aerobic conditioning but do it smart. Sled-dragging, cycling, rowing, Jacobs ladder, anything but pounding your joints in an activity that has no meaningful carryover to throwing.

Do you feel that this has improved your performance in the Highland Games?

 

I can't really tell as I started jogging too late in the season to see a difference while competing (August).

 

I did see notable differences in my blood pressure and RHR.. and throwing (practices) didn't seem to take as much out of me despite training for the same length of time.

 

Alex wrote an Ebook on hybrid training that has some solid information about energy pathways and how to program endurance work into strength specific training without taxing recovery, rather instead aiding recovery. It boils down to choosing when to do your distance easy runs vs distance hard runs and adding jogging in with conditioning cicruits.

 

For instance, he never programmed volume work for me. I would do max rep stuff every now and then but it wasn't a week after week sets of 8s and 10s because this uses energy pathways that a 30-40 minute jog would use. Instead, doing speedwork and heavy-ish singles/triples and such it doesn't interfere with the jogging.

 

While the 1/2 mile repeats were probably the most miserable out of all of them, I found them the most enjoyable. They made my knees feel great, made me feel athletic and the blood rushing throughout my legs really helped me recover. I even got to the point where a 30+ minute jog at an easy pace (12:00/mile) was rather relaxing.

 

 

Unless you are strictly doing it for health reasons.

 

it does, however, give me more efficient practices in the form of being less winded so I can focus more on positions. It gives me more efficient weight training sessions as I am more recovered going into the weight room, despite no change in volume. I also had way more energy at the Tucson games (November) by the end of the day than I usually would have. Shrug.

 

I prefer the health benefits over the throwing benefits personally.

 

 

 

In my career, I've not seen jogging help my throwing. In college, I had a coach who thought it was a good idea to jog 45 minutes two or more times a week. Sure, I could do it and it wasn't much of a struggle, but my throws suffered for it (you should see the progression of my college days). 

I can see and understand the recovery and health aspect, but you're playing with fire for the throws. For cardio and GPP, I'd rather work in sprints or short bouts of other things. Aside from the caber, we are only traveling, at the most, nine feet with a full recovery between throws.