Born To Run
Born to Run - by Christopher McDougall
I started this year with a goal/resolution to push myself to read at least one new nonfiction book per month. I just got done reading Born to Run by Christoper McDougall and I strongly recommend it. It's a great story of a man who was trying to find out why he was constantly getting injured while running. This leads him to the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's Copper Canyon, the greatest long distance runners in the world. If you like running, you'll love this book!
Here are my notes:
Your legs and feet instinctively come down hard when they sense something squishy underfoot. When you run in cushioned shoes, your feet are pushing through the soles in search of a hard, stable platform.
The best injury-prevention advice he’s ever heard came from a coach who advocated “running barefoot on dewy grass three times a week.”<
"Let me ask you this, you ever see one of those barefoot guys in a 10K race?”
“Yeah. It’s like they’re running on hot coals.”
"You ever beat one of those guys?"
"Good point."
"You don't stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running."
- Jack Kirk, aka "The Dipsea Demon," who was still running the hellacious Dipsea Trail Race at age 96"Imagine your kid is running into the street and you have to sprint after her in bare feet. You’ll automatically lock into perfect form - you’ll be up on your forefeet, with your back erect, head steady, arms high, elbows driving, and feet touching down quickly on the forefoot and kicking back toward your butt."
To embed that light, whispery foot strike into my muscle memory, Eric began programming workouts for me with lots of hill repeats. "You can't run uphill powerfully with poor biomechanics," Eric explained. "Just doesn't work. If you try landing on your heel with a straight leg, you'll tip over backward."
Under her Tarahumara-style eating plan, lunch and dinner were built around fruit, beans, yams, whole grains, and vegetables, and breakfast was often salad. “You get leafy greens in your body first thing in the morning and you’ll lose a lot of weight,” she urged me. Because a monster salad is loaded with nutrient-rich carbs and low in fat, I could stuff myself and not feel hungry - or queasy - when it came time to work out.
"Lesson two, think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't give a shit how high the hill is or how far you've got to go. When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smoooooooth. You won't have to worry about the last one -- you get those three, and you'll be fast."
