Forums >Cross Training>Soccer is killing my running
Black-Toe-Nailed
Well, to start with it's called Footbal
I would say you are doing it wrong.
Here the basics of football explained by an European:
Football is played in a rectangular field, normally made of grass with two teams of 11 players and 3 referees, plus audience and a round object called ball, ah, yeah, there are also two goals.
The objective of the games is to kick as many contrary players as possible and also try to break the goalie's nose kicking the ball as hard as it gets against his face. The audience can participate in this merry entertainment hurling objects at the referees heads.
The most important piece off gear are the shoes, with spikes of course. Contrary to what barbarians of the other side of the Atlantic think, the spikes are not made for better running on the grass but have been carefully designed to be used on the ball, where it doesn't matter too much if the ball is the big round one or the smaller hairy ones attached to the contrary players... as long as it's not chick football, of course.
At the end of the game the amount of read and yellow cards are counted and the team who has more of them wins. If both share the same amount a body count is made and the team with more survivors pays the beer.
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"If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to."Emil Zatopek
All of my "older" friends who play soccer (or pick up bball, volley ball, etc) hurt themselves. I think after a certain age, sports that require sudden changes in direction, and quick bursts of speed, do not bode well to our older, under trained joints. Stick with sports that require running in a constant motion, in one direction. Everything else hurts and will lead to a blown out ACL.
I have to disagree with this in a way.
I think what you're talking about is people who, at a certain age, just go out on the weekend and play 2 hours of b-ball or soccer or whatever. While you can get away with this at a younger age, doing this past the age of say 45 is much more dangerous.
On the other hand, if you condition yourself to play these types of sports, going through drills and strength building and agility exercises the same way that school athletes do, these types of activities can keep you super fit well into old age.
Now, in another way, I have to agree with you.
The reason that linear, constant-motion sports are better for older athletes is because they are in and of themselves conditioning exercises. So you are conditioning yourself while actually doing the sport, and with that conditioning comes (eventually) a lesser chance of injury.
But that doesn't mean that the older athlete is limited to this, if they work out and condition themselves in the proper way.
Are you saying I shouldn't be playing Ultimate with these whippersnappers three decades my junior?
Of course you should be! I am 24 and I think Ultimate has both helped AND hindered my running. See below:
Playing 1-2 games a week in the evenings = 100% help (it's speedwork!)
Playing 6-8 games in a weekend tournament = hindrance
I found during fall marathon training, following a very strict schedule, I managed to play on 2 ultimate teams and still PR for my back-to-back marathons. However, I did prioritize training over Ultimate, and skipped the game 2 days before my race in order to save my legs (I'm a cutter, not a handler.) I also skipped the tournament held the weekend between my 2 marathons this season.
Next year I'm planning on running my first 50k and possibly 50 miler. I'm not sure how much competitive Ultimate I'll be playing but it's a price I'll pay. Add in the high risk of injury during Ultimate (for me at least), and were talking about a lot of damage to months and months of training.
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