Recently, I made time to read Born To Run by Christopher McDougall. I know the book was published in 2008, cut me some slack. I should have read the book long ago, but I believe the story landed in my lap at this time in my life for a reason. I have known about barefoot running, a focal point of his book, for a while and I had made the conversion towards flat, race like run shoes for everyday workouts years ago. More importantly, this book brought validation to a path I had already chosen to run down.
Running for LIFE has become my personal mission. I am not solely concentrating on racking up better times and bringing home more finisher medals. Don't get me wrong, continually pushing myself to run further and faster is part of the plan. My legs are pretty warn down from working at bringing my marathon time down substantially and building a run base that allows me to plan epic long runs. Some quick book hits...
When reading Born To Run, I found myself nodding in agreement and smiling at the continued notion of the freedom that running can bring to your life. The author had chronic back and leg issues forcing him to the sidelines after ramping up to anything over 3 miles. After visiting many doctors, asking "Why does my foot hurt?", he heard the same response that running was not natural and no one should even try to maintain running as regular fitness. He had had enough.
Through primary and secondary research and endless days of hiking in the Copper Canyons of Mexico, McDougall found the core of our current running pains. The modern running shoe, developed in the early 1970s, with all of its technological enhancements have given humans the ability to run with incorrect form and destroy their bodies. While in Mexico, McDougall was able to witness the Tarahumara Indian tribe. The Tarahumara are known to be the greatest living runners in the world, who destroyed the field at the Leadville 100 for only two brief years in the 1990s. Witnessing them in their natural habitat, running on homemade sandals, for hours and hours each day, the author knew that something was wrong with Westernized running.
Born to Run is fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone, not just runners or fitness enthusiasts. The discovery of our ancient running background sheds new light on our current dilemma. Humans are meant to run and we have evolved to run great distances. Only recently have runners had chronic knee pain, lower back issues and foot problems forcing us to bail on the beautiful art of running. I want to spread the word that running is simple and perfect. I was fortunate to have learned descent running form early on in my fitness quest. But a few technique alterations have transformed my balance point, running style and given me the ability to go greater distances with no pain. Only smiles. This happened 4 weeks ago.
Check out the team of Naked Runners (no shoes) traveling the U.S. spreading the word on free running. http://www.chrismcdougall.com/
I had the opportunity to hear him talk in person out at Gearwest last Fall. Supercool guy. Could listen to him talk for hours. That tour is coming to Gearwest in June, and I am looking forward to hearing him talk again, this time while doing a 16 mile run with him, and not in a classroom type setting.
ReplyDeleteI to have made the conversion to a "minimalist" runner abiout a year ago, but was converted to a forefoot runner 3 years ago with the Newton Running shoe. I use minimalist shoes and Vibram Five fingers and I have never felt better. I have not had anything close to an injury in the last 3 years, despite increasing mileage dramatically in last 8 months to a year. The book gives you a lot to think about, and he backs a lot of it up with research. Very good read indeed.