Many times throughout the days of a running-runner that runs, they're on occasion asked this simple question. What type of a runner are you? Prepare yourself for a sit, if you ever ask that question to a runner! To the non-runner observer, what is the difference? Well, a runner in themselves can be quite a storyteller at times.



First I want to begin by process of elimination the kinds of runners we won't talk about. To begin with we have the trail-runner. There is nothing any better than to go for a four to six-mile run through winding trails and forest on a cool breezy morning at the crack of dawn while many are still at their last hour of dreams.

Crossing over the stream and going up a rocky bank at the waters edge. A great work-out for your leg muscles because through trails and hills you will actually be calling on the many different muscle groups of your legs. You will call for those demands in a race.

You can always tell in a race who has been doing their hill work and who has not. Not good for a runner who lives in a town where the terrain is all flat. Then she goes out of town to another city on race day and the course turns out to be some of the steepest hills, the worst you have ever been on!

I think we've talked enough about trail-runners. Now we come to track-runners. Now I have nothing against track-runners but, to me there is nothing any more boring than to keep going around and around on the same piece of ground!

Using the track as a must. If you are going to be a long-distance-runner you will have to go to the track to do your repeats. I never said I didn't go to the track. I just don't like the track. If you want to win races you have to develop a love/hate relationship for the track.

The track is where you learn your paces. The track is where will perfect and hone-in on your speed. If I wasn't running a race that weekend I would go to the track on Sunday's. Sunday's was my track day. I've done ¼ mile repeats all the way up to 3-mile repeats. It all depends on what type of race you're preparing for.

I used ¼'s for 2-mile races and 3-mile repeats for the marathons. The repeats need to be done a little faster than your racing pace. This is the whole point! You're introducing your body to the demands of your race pace, but you are breaking it up into segments.

On race day that's where you put it all together.If you are a 5k runner and you're running race pace average might be a 6:30 minute pace, then divide that time by four. In between the repeats my rest period would be the same time as my lap pace would be. I'll mention it again because it is important. Lap pace a 1:15, then your rest 1:15, lap 1:15 then rest period. 1:15. etc., etc. There you go once more; your repeat laps would be one-minute and fifteen second repeats.

That comes out to about what kind of times you need to run in order win races in your age group. Check your Sunday papers to get an idea of what kind of times you need to run in your age groups. I'll throw in a warning here, this information is my formulas that I trained by, that worked for me.

Probably most front-runners would tell you my formulas don't work. Well they worked for me. I tried the book method. When I tried the book method I always found myself coming up short on race day which turned me into a hot-runner!

We have eliminated trail-runners and cross-country-runners. I put them into the same bag. We have eliminated track-runners. The next two runner groups we will eliminate are the extreme-runners and the ultra-distance-runners.

Now you may call these different groups different than what I did. But you get the jest of the idea! Finally we've gotten to our group of runners, the long-distance-runners. Believe it or not, a one mile-runner is called a long-distance-runner in this group of road-runners.

Kenyan-runners, world-class runners, elite-runners and of coarse the Olympics-runners are totally in a class of their own!

Unmentionables the women-runners, the nude-runners and the dog-runners we can't forget none of them for they are just as important too!

I'm not the one who wrote the book of classifying different types of runners. I just abide by them like the other runners. I must mention one last thing for you. There is some lap over in cross-training that's from the tri-athletes. to you!

One last point back to track-runners.They do run track races up to 3-miles. I suppose those are for runners who like to run long-distance, but not on the roads. They like to run on the soft surface of a track.

Is this all clear as mud? Now, please don't come after me if I'm a little wrong on the track stuff, because I never raced on tracks myself other than my Sunday work-outs.

I did give you fair warning in the beginning of this say, that you may not want to ask a runner what type of a runner are you. Remember, you might need to prepare yourself for a sit if you ask that question! I'm the 101 year old marathon runner who was a buffalo-runner at one time too!