I bought this book after catching an interview with the author on Radio 4 (I am an intellectual, honest guv') and was curious enough to purchase a copy for my holiday reading.
The book tells the story of a frequently injured runner (the author) who discovers through research that less is more if you don't want to get injured. Not less miles as you might think, but less cushioning in your shoes. The research leads him to the ultra-running (100+ mile off-road) scene, and some of the colourful characters within, but more specifically it leads him to the greatest ultra-runners of all, the Tarahumara tribe who hide away in the Copper Canyons in Mexico. The Tarahumara seem at first to be a tribe of super-humans, capable of running distances that seem impossible, but the book presents scientific research (in a friendly manner) which explains that running is something we were all born to do. In fact humans are the greatest running animals on the planet.
All you need to do is throw away your expensive Nike shoes and go barefoot (or almost). It was an interesting read from cover to cover, even if the author did come across as a bit pompous in my opinion.
A recommended read!
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1 comments:
Seems like good reading Chris.
I have to say though I am still biased to the opinion that evolution has already changed 'us'(humans) and we are not born to run any more. Maybe it has decided that we no longer need to run far or for long. Anybody who does long runs knows that high mileage is very hard on the human body and recovery is not short. Sure you can train and build up fitness to run for long distances, however this is very soon lost when we stop the training. This seems to suggest that even our distant ancestors were not running very far either.
This tribe that the book mentions may have been doing the ultra distance running for centuries and somehow avoided some of the changes from evolution. This also probably explains why generally people from the African nations make the best distance runners.
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