Sara Palin wrote:
kartelite wrote:sub-15 5k in college, and my vertical then was way better than it is now so I don't think being in distance shape means you'll lose your vertical.
What? Maybe your vert got lower because of twelve years instead.
5'7" and I could touch rim in 8th grade doing 20 miles a week. A year later doing 40 miles a week in 9th grade I couldn't touch rim. In college doing 70 miles a week freshman year I still couldn't get back to the rim.
At 34 now doing 50 miles a week I can barely get backboard, and my knees hurt when I land.
I ran pretty hard for about 3 years (19 to 22) with almost no training right before or after then, and didn't really notice a difference in jumping ability when I started or stopped running. Of course, it could be that my peak years for jumping ability corresponded with my distance training which somewhat offset each other. But I don't think you're destined to lose all your vertical when you up your mileage.
I couldn't even touch backboard until fall of 9th grade (5'7), then barely grazed the bottom of the rim spring of 10th grade. Dunked a tennis ball in 11th grade and first real dunk was probably 12th grade or not long after graduation. Until this year it was probably 7+ years since my last dunk, was curious if I could still do it..took a little while to get loose but was able to throw a few down (two-handed days are probably behind me, since I have calf issues which prevent any explosiveness training). I'm pretty bad off two feet though, could only just touch the rim off no-step jump which even my brother (who has never dunked a regulation ball) can do. If I can still dunk at 40 I will post a video haha..