Who would you rather look like?

If you've been watching the Olympics over the last 10 days or so, I'm sure you've caught some of the Olympic marathon highlights. Or if you really had nothing to do on Saturday, you sat in front of the t.v. and watched the entire women's marathon. And I'm sure even if you're not paying close attention to the Olympics you heard about Usain Bolt from Jamaica winning the gold medal in the men's 100 meter final and smashing the world record in the process, while showboating for the last 20 meters of the race.

Did you notice anything about the physiques of the finalists in each of these events? Who would you rather look like? The frail marathoner who looks like they haven't had a meal in the last 5 days and wouldn't even have the strength to carry a backpack with their running shoes in it? Or the lean, muscular sprinter with the chiseled six pack who looks like they could run through a brick wall?

Or ask your self who would you rather train like? The marathoner who's logging hundreds of miles per week and hours of continuous aerobic activity at a time? Or the sprinter who's running for 10-20 seconds, 45 seconds if we throw 400-meter runners into in the mix, and then resting before repeating the next interval. How long do you think the total amount of time of work is for a sprinter in a training session? Maybe 10-15 minutes. 20 minutes at the most.

Now think about the appearance and the training approach of these two types of athletes and relate it to your training. Do you see what I'm getting at?