Quality vs Quantity

Ahh the debate rages on is quality more important or quantity.  I thought about this a lot this past weekend as I sat and watched my son literally bounce from one piece of furniture to another in his chocolate induced high. It was actually quite impressive, I mean how often do you see a 3 ½ year old run 3 grown adults into the ground by 1:00 in the afternoon?  What is equally impressive is the crash that he has experienced, or should I say is experiencing.  (According to my wife he is having a bit of a rough go two days after chocolate fest 2009!) 

So what about running, quality or quantity?   I think it depends on what stage you’re at it your training.  Speaking for myself, after going on my second run since injuring my back pulling on my boxers (yeah that’s right, for those of you that are reading my blog for the 1^st time, go back a few entries and see the wonderful experience I had getting dressed a few days ago) I would say that quality is better.  Maybe that’s because I can’t go more than 500m without having sharp shooting pain into my thigh and knee and the thought of running everyday with that kind of pain is not very appealing! But hey at least I was out right?? A little more details about the run itself, I did have that sharp pain after the 500m mark and the weather was a tad chilly and running in Parry Sound (where I was for Easter weekend) is a bit hilly (and by bit I mean very) and my grand total distance for the run was a pathetic 3km. WTF! I was only incapacitated for a few days and going out for 3km feels like I have never run before! Not good.  So I guess you could say I have had neither lately, quality or quantity.  I know in the long run (no pun intended) that quantity is necessary for any success in a long distance training program but it sure would be nice to have some quality thrown in there to encourage me to do more. 🙂

As for my son I know if I asked him what was better he would definitely say quantity.  At least when we are talking chocolate! The same would go for ice cream, playing hockey and wrestling! And really who can disagree with a kid that can wipe out 3 adults by lunch and be ready to take on a 4^th for the afternoon!