Yesterday was cross training, and considering how I felt when I set out this morning, today should have been too. There was nothing specific wrong with me; I just didn't feel motivated. But that's not going to get me to Ft. Collins. So, I laced up the ASICS and headed out for what started as a s-l-o-w run and ended up as a more-than-respectable six miles. Somewhere between miles 2 and 3, I started feeling better (and going faster), and my pace for miles 5 and 6 was two minutes faster than for miles 1 and 2. Workouts are often funny that way. Like famous ultra runner Forrest Gump said, "You never know what you're going to get."
Considering that running is arguably the world's oldest athletic competition, it has inspired comparatively little literary output. If I had to recommend a single title on running, it would be Christopher McDougall's Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.
Journalist McDougall's spell-binding tale introduces the reader to a tribe of super-runners: the Tarahumara Indians from Mexico's remote Copper Canyons. Intrigued by the Tarahumara's ability to run prodigious distances injury free, McDougall goes looking for the answer: an answer that he finds in mankind's evolutionary development. Humans survived as a species because they acquired the ability to outrun their dinner. Hence, we were born to run.
More controversially, McDougall claims that runners do not require fancy, and expensive, shoes to do what they naturally do. In fact, he contends that modern running shoes, with their abundant cushioning, encourage unnatural heel-striking and cause, rather than prevent, running injuries. (I doubt that McDougall is welcome at Nike headquarters.) Following publication of the book, the debate over barefoot--or minimalist--running has raged with no definitive resolution in sight. Interestingly, the big shoe companies have begun to hedge their bets and offer minimalist shoes along with their more cushioned, stabilized shoes. (More on this in a future post.)
What makes "Born to Run" so much fun is not the controversy but the cast of outrageous characters--including Barefoot Ted, surfer-girl Jenn Shelton and her partner Billy Barnett, and gringo expat Caballo Blanco, who lives among the Tarahumara--and the unfolding drama of a race for the ages.
When your running's not going well and you need a little inspiration, check it out.
Considering that running is arguably the world's oldest athletic competition, it has inspired comparatively little literary output. If I had to recommend a single title on running, it would be Christopher McDougall's Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.
Journalist McDougall's spell-binding tale introduces the reader to a tribe of super-runners: the Tarahumara Indians from Mexico's remote Copper Canyons. Intrigued by the Tarahumara's ability to run prodigious distances injury free, McDougall goes looking for the answer: an answer that he finds in mankind's evolutionary development. Humans survived as a species because they acquired the ability to outrun their dinner. Hence, we were born to run.
More controversially, McDougall claims that runners do not require fancy, and expensive, shoes to do what they naturally do. In fact, he contends that modern running shoes, with their abundant cushioning, encourage unnatural heel-striking and cause, rather than prevent, running injuries. (I doubt that McDougall is welcome at Nike headquarters.) Following publication of the book, the debate over barefoot--or minimalist--running has raged with no definitive resolution in sight. Interestingly, the big shoe companies have begun to hedge their bets and offer minimalist shoes along with their more cushioned, stabilized shoes. (More on this in a future post.)
What makes "Born to Run" so much fun is not the controversy but the cast of outrageous characters--including Barefoot Ted, surfer-girl Jenn Shelton and her partner Billy Barnett, and gringo expat Caballo Blanco, who lives among the Tarahumara--and the unfolding drama of a race for the ages.
When your running's not going well and you need a little inspiration, check it out.
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