Notes from Born to Run
"The best runner leaves no tracks"-- wasn't some gossamer koan, but real, concrete, how-to, training advice.
There's something so universal about that sensation, the way running unites our two most primal impulses: fear and pleasure. We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time.
Three times, America has seen distance-running skyrocket, ... Great Depression ..., Early 70s (Cold War), One year after the September 11 attacks, trail-running suddenly became the fastest-growing outdoor sport in the country.
when this ninety-five-year-old man came hiking twenty-five miles over the mountain. Know why he could do it? Because no one ever told him he couldn't. No one ever told him he oughta be off dying somewhere in an old age home. You live up to your own expectations, man.
Vigil had been furiously taking mental notes (Look how they point their toes down, not up, ...
Remember? Back when you were a kid and you had to be yelled at to slow down?
That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running
They were so ignorant, they didn't even realize they were supposed to be burned out, overtrained, and injured. Instead, they were fast; really fast.
Emil Zatopek
"There are two goddesses in your heart, ... "The Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Wealth. Everyone thinks they need to get wealth first, and wisdom will come. So they concern themselves with chasing money. But they have it backwards. You have to give your heart to the Goddess of Wisdom, give her all your love and attention, and the Goddess of Wealth will become jealous, and follow you."
My arms floated until my hands were rib-high; my stride chopped down to pitty-pat steps; my back straightened so much I could almost hear the vertebrae creaking.
Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad
Posted on the wall of Vigil's office was a magic formula for fast running that, as far as Deena could tell, had absolutely nothing to do with running: it was stuff like "Practice abundance by giving back," and "Improve personal relationships," and "Show integrity to your value system.
For ten minutes, Scott lay like a corpse. Then he got up and did it, shattering the Badwater record with a time of 24:36.
But like every champion, he was up against the Curse of Ali:...
"I thought if you could run one hundred miles, you'd be in this Zen state. You'd be the fucking Buddha, bringing peace and a smile to the world. It didn't work in my case--I'm the same old punk-ass as before--but there's always that hope that it will turn you into the person you want to be, a better, more peaceful person."
Dr. Daniel Lieberman -- "A lot of foot and knee injuries that are currently plaguing us are actually caused by people running with shoes that actually make our feet weak, cause us to overpronate, give us knee problems
In a stroke of dark irony, Bowerman named it the Cortez--after the conquistador who plundered the New World for gold and unleashed a horrific smallpox epidemic...
"The forward foot moves toward the track in a downward, backward, 'stroking' motion (not punching or pounding) and the outer edge of the ball of the foot makes first contact with the track," Wilt writes. "Running progression results from these forces pushing behind the center of gravity of the body. ..."
But Bowerman had an idea: maybe you could grab a little extra distance if you stepped ahead of your center of gravity.
"We ran in canvas shoes," Lydiard went on
"You don't stop running because you get old," said the Demon. "You get old because you stop running."
"Whenever you run, remember that feeling of straining against the rope. It'll keep your feet under your body, your hips driving straight ahead, and your heels out of the picture."
... the greatest marathoners in the world run like kindergartners. "Watch kids at a playground running around. Their feet land right under them, and they push back,"
1988, triathletes started to use aero bars on their bikes and cyclists mocked them mercilessly--until Greg Lemond used one and won the Tour de France by eight seconds."
"Quick, light leg contractions are more economical than big, forceful ones.
Yeah. It's like they're running on hot coals."
The way to activate your fat-burning furnace is by staying below your aerobic threshold--your hard-breathing point--during your endurance runs. (fact-check)
... his only advice being to focus on form and keep the pace relaxed enough to occasionally breathe with my mouth shut. (Fifty years earlier, Arthur Lydiard offered an equal but opposite tip for managing heart rate and pace: "Only go as fast as you can while holding a conversation.")
... tesgüino is very lightly fermented, so it's low in alcohol and high in nutrients.
Running Man theory
getting air may have determined the way we got our bodies.
Bramble would later say. Running is just a controlled fall,
Achilles tendon, which connects the calf to the heel: we've got one, chimps don't ... Your butt's job is to prevent the momentum of your upper body from flipping you onto your face. ... Achilles tendon serves no purpose at all in walking ... All an Achilles tendon does is stretch like a rubber band
David put lizards on a treadmill, and found they can't even run and breathe at the same time. The best they can manage is a quick scramble before stopping to pant
So how long would it take to actually run an animal to death? ... if you can run six miles on a summer day then you, my friend, are a lethal weapon in the animal kingdom.
... how old are you when you're back to running the same speed you did at nineteen?" ... It's sixty-four."
The reason I was feeling so much stronger today than I had on the long haul over from Batopilas, I realized, was because I was running like the Kalahari Bushmen. I wasn't trying to overtake the antelope; I was just keeping it in sight.