Strength training and distance running:
www.theworkoutmachine.com
I don't think you can put a number on it but needless to say, they are typically somewhat counterproductive.
"The truth lies somewhere in between. I think some people on this board are full of crap, but at the same time, it is possible to have both good strength and be reasonably fast, as strength comes from finer muscle fibers (a lot of the big body builders you see aren't necessarily all that strong)."
Define "all that strong"?. As strong as the strongest powerlifters? No, probably not. Stronger than 90% of those out there? Yes. For the most part if you take someone who benches 150lbs for one rep to 450lbs for one rep that person will get much bigger.
The problem with BBing is the steroids. You'll get much bigger in relation to your strength. Also PLers train in very specific ways using very specific techniques that can add a fair amount of poundage to their lifts AND PLers use suits and whatnot as well.
Basically PLers train in such a way to make those competition lifts as much of a full body exercise as possible while the BBer is doing the opposite, generally training and using the big lifts to focus on a muscle. Very small but very important technique and training adjustments.
An example would be limit strength vs strength density. Take a PLer and a BBer and the PLer will have much higher limit strength or the maximum amount of weight they can lift for one rep. The BBer on the other hand may in fact have higher strength density, say the ability to pump out 10-20 reps with a high weight.
Alan