Tag Archives: trail running

The Running Man

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A good friend of mine asked me about my running and why I changed to minimalist.  Big mistake.  She had to sit through my bottom to top lecture.  I will take her at her word that she thought it was a great summary.  The real test will be if she converts this spring when she starts running again.

The more I research, the more I am convinced that we are natural distance runners.  I am also convinced that our bodies are built to work hard. We benefit from constant motion and being productive. So here is my view on why our bodies are so well adapted to distance running.  A lot of what I am saying has been investigated and codified by Dan Leiberman at Harvard. I won’t go into gory detail, but I’ll hit the hotspots so you know what I’m talking about. I will talk about each of these in terms of the evolutionary benefit they provide us as runners.

1) The Covering – Our skin has pores and not much hair. No other mammals have the extensive pore structure that we have. The benefit is that our bodies can cool down while we exert. Quadrupeds and other bipeds don’t have pores. They pant to cool down. That means they can’t exert themselves for a long time before they overheat.

2) The Tootsies – We have short toes. You can’t run with long toes. Period. Monkeys have long toes.

3) Sensitive Feet - There is a huge amount of nerve endings in our feet.  The densest in our whole body. That is why a smart man gives his wife or significant other a foot massage. It relaxes the whole body. It also provides a high degree of proprioception, or sensitivity. When we walk or run barefoot all those nerve endings tell us just how to adjust our bodies so that we have the most natural gate. Shoes cover all that up. We ran for millions of years before shoes on all kinds of terrain and in all kinds of weather.  Just saying.

4) Arch Friends – The arch of the foot is a masterpiece of evolutionary engineering. It is also a massive spring to absorb shock.  Funny thing is that it only does that when we run with a natural foot strike.  Meaning fore or mid foot, not on the heel. Other primates have flat feet. And they don’t run distances.

5) God of the Leg – Our Achillies tendon is another shock absorber. No other primate has one in their leg. Ours allows for a large amount of shock to be dissipated if you keep your knees bent and use a natural stride.

6) Nice Ass – Don’t get me wrong. Our leg muscles all play in running. Go run some hills and tell me how your Quads feel. What is most interesting along the legs is that glutes. They are purely running muscles. I now know why it is easy to find some nice buns to follow in every race I have run. Comparing to primates again, have you ever seen a chimp or gorilla with a big booty? Nope.  They don’t run distance. We do. We get the booty award.

7) Breathe Baby – More than anything we are the only biped or quadruped who can breath in a ratio different than our stride. All other running animals stretch and compress (think of a big cat running). That motion allows them to breath in and out. They have no muscles around their lungs to promote a big inhale and exhale during exertion. We have a powerful diaphragm that allows us to breath and take multiple steps. That happens when you run. Most people take two or three steps with each inhale and exhale. The real benefit is that it allows oxygen replenishment and respiration over a long period of time and at many different gates.

8) Open the Gate – We have a continuously variable gate control.  That means we can adjust our rate of step to just about any rate from a dead stop to our personal fastest rate. Other mammals are stuck with four gates.  When a horse moves from a trot to a gallop, they have just those speeds.  Yeah the gallop has a little play in it, but they have about four speeds and that is it.  If you are a running animal, being able to finely adjust your gate to the terrain or the prey you are tracking gives you a huge advantage in efficiency over long distance.

9) Knuckle Draggers – Well, we aren’t knuckle draggers. Other primates are. That is because we have a tendon in the back of our neck that goes up through the base of the skull.  It keep our head erect and shoulders back while we run. Only running animals have the tendon. If you look at a chimp run, they lean forward and use their hands to keep from falling over as they skuttle for the short distances that they can run. We run erect (go ahead, make the jokes!).

10) Art and Science – There is a large body of research that says we think better when we are in motion. It is a basic survival trait for humans who first ventured out of the trees and on to the hard packed and rocky surface of the savannah.  We had to be very aware so that we could find food or not be food.  There is more to it than that.

We were barefoot and weaponless. There were many predators out there, so why did we dominate? We were bipedal for at least two million years before we invented tools and weapons. How did we feed our big brains which take 20-30% of our energy? We needed meat and fat from big game. We scavenged a lot, but we also learned how to hunt in a very unique way.

We evolved to be persistence hunters. That means we ran our prey to death. We sweat through pores and run at a variety of gates with ease over long distance. We hunted the big game at the hottest part of the day and made them keep running.  They couldn’t cool down because they can’t pant and run at the same time, so after a few hours they overheated and were either easy to club to death or just fell over. Persistence hunting is very effective. In the 60′s there were still hunters in Africa who practiced persistence hunting. Four out of five hunts resulted in game being caught at the end of the run.  That is much more effective than spears or arrows. What is it about persistence hunting that makes us what we are today?

Persistence hunting required developing a skill for speculative tracking.  The ability to envision what the animal would do when there were no signs on the trail. That speculative tracking helped develop our imagination. Tracking was a learned skill and hunters taught other hunters the techniques for following different kinds of prey. It was the first use of the scientific method, albeit elementary.  From that sharing of knowledge came the ability to understand how the beast would react while being chased. Speculative tracking is the ability to put your mind into the head of the beast and to feel where it had gone. In a sense, we learned to think strategically. It is all because we were able to run long distances.  It is in our genetic code and in every element of our physical being.

Among all the creative activities we developed because we learned to be speculative, the most wonderful is love. So when I say I love running, I really mean it.  Without running there would be no love.

Get out there. Screw the weather. Screw the excuses. One foot in front of the other. Run 5 feet or 50 miles. Get in contact with what you really are – a running hunter. The most awesome predator that has ever lived on this planet.

Run Free. Dig Deep.

Run for the Hell of It!

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It was a cool, Sunday morning.  A thunderstorm had woken me a few times during the night.  There is something about thunder and lightening at night that is both awesome and scary.  After some morning caffeine infusion I donned my sandals and shorts and went out into the overcast morning for a few miles of pleasure.

I usually take my iPhone so I can track the mileage and snap pictures as I go.  About three miles out I looked over and saw this.

View from Rt37

The grass had been matted by the rain.  Colors were deep and rich under the overcast light.  It was a moment to stop and enjoy the scenery.  I felt my muscles keyed up from the effort and listened to my even but accelerated breath.  My glasses started to fog up a little because the heat of my body warmed the frames and caused the cool, moist air to condense on the glass.  A little breeze cooled me through evaporation of my damp jersey.  All of my senses were engaged and I’m pretty sure I was smiling.  Could there be a better reason to run?

Listen, I’m all about working out and challenging yourself physically, but it has to be fun if you are going to do it long term.  If you have read any of my posts on running then you know I am a believer in the adage that we are natural long distance runners.  It’s more and less than that.  It took someone like Micah True to bring it home to me.  We didn’t evolve as runners to work out.  We evolved as runners because it helped us survive.  Our brains grew, our bodies became running machines engineered through evolution to be better at distance across land than any living creature.  We run and generate endorphins – how cool is that!  Who needs drugs when the best are already in your system.  What a gift!!

NOTE:  After I wrote that last paragraph, I looked out at the rainy morning facing me today and said  “WTF” and did a short 3 miler.  Nice to run in the rain.

The aftermath of rain.

Running is an all weather sport, day or night.  I don’t think of it as a “must do” to keep in condition any more.  I think of it as a release of my primal being.  Something I share with ancestors I don’t even know I had.  They all knew the aches and pains, joy and revelation that I feel.  Its a continuity that makes me feel part of something much, much greater.

It’s funny how this post didn’t go anywhere that I had originally intended.  Kind of like a lot of my runs these days.  I’ll see something and head down a path because it looks interesting.  What is rewarding is that I almost always discover something new or find an image that is there for only that moment in time crafted by light and atmosphere.  Like this scene.  It is a little blurry, but I was breathing hard.

A hiking trail off of Haviland Hollow

Get out.  Have fun.  Make each run different by stopping and looking around, even on a busy street.  And always – Run easy.  Run light.  Run for the hell of it!

PS: A Twitter running mate of mine, named Jenn, said she had lost the fun in her run.  I hope this helps her rediscover the pleasure.

It’s all in the Mud

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I just got back from a six miler.  It felt good, but I was tight.  You know, like maybe the muscles needed some rest.  My mileage the last couple of months hasn’t been too heavy, but I’ve been on the road for several weeks on business during that time.  I think the travel and sitting in  airplanes for five plus hours at a time kind of got to me.

I’m not complaining, though.  My travels took me to San Diego and I was able to log morning runs before work most days.  One particular run came to mind as I was stopped to look at a nice view on my run today.  Let me tell you about it.

I woke up in the hotel room to discover that a soft, soaking rain had graced the San Diego valley overnight.  The street surfaces were wet and shiny.  Still dark and with no coffee in the room I walked over to a convenience store to get my caffeine fix.  I filled up a tall coffee and felt the air temperature in anticipation of just how much to wear for the run.  Just before sunrise I made my way out along the road at a slow pace to warm up.  There was a trailhead about a half mile away that the woman at the front desk told me about.  I had run the trail the day before and enjoyed being out of traffic and closer to the natural beauty of the area.  There were two paths running parallel along the trail, one was a paved bike path the other crushed granite that was muddy in areas along with puddles from the rain.

As I hit the trail the sun rose and gave the path a brownish-orange glow.  The granite surface had a wet stickiness and muddy sections were hard to discern in the early sunrise since the glow of sunrise and the color of the mud were of the same hue.  Along the way I waved to other runners, walkers and cyclists.  Part of enjoying a run is being friendly.  It is clearly an unusual activity in San Diego since most of my fellow movers along the path seemed startled to be waved to.  They all responded, but the return smile was often a fraction behind their recognition of my salutation.  That’s a sorry state for the oldest sport known to man.  And a topic for a post at another time.

Today I want to talk about form.  I learned a lot on that trail following that muddy sunrise.

Tred Light

Out on the trail I decided to take a detour.  It was one of those “paths less taken” moments.  There was a branch off of the trail that had a gate that was very easy to go around since there was no fence.  It was a steeper and muddier trail. Much more inviting and clearly no one had been there since the rain.  I don’t know how long the path ran, probably less than a mile judging by the time it took me to get to a dead end.

Running took some concentration to keep the correct form while trying not to slip and slide.  I used a trick I learned in cycling.  I looked where I wanted to go – about 10-15 yards ahead – not where my feet were moving.  Your brain is really good at carving the path you envision.  The corollary is to look at where you want to land, not at what you are trying to avoid.  It is actually easier than it sounds.  And very dependable.  Trust yourself.

At the very end of the trail there was a nice rise and it got pretty sloppy.  So much so that even the sides of the trail were pretty mucky.  I stopped and turned around to take in the sights.  The sun was up full now, warming the branches of the trees and bushes, the scent of waking flora filling the air.  I took out my iPhone wanting to capture the visual and noticed my footprint in a puddle of mud.  I walked over to it and snapped a shot while I smiled and whatever hormones that make you happy flowed into my blood and stimulated my neural networks.

I was smiling because of the shape of the footprint.  Minimal style is all about treading light and easy.  Two things about the imprint hit me right up front.

First, it is a balanced impression.  At least it looks that way to me.  You can see the arch of my foot clearly and the forefoot has an even pressure to its impression.  The heel is not as deep as the forefoot, which is good.

When I ran in regular shoes I was a heel striker.  Muddy imprints then always had very little forefoot impression and I ran on the outsides of my shoes.  It was amazing to see how the outer edges of my shoes wore out first.  In my Luna sandals, the impression in the sand  looks very much like a stamp pad impression, kind of like on a birth certificate.  It also says that the huarachis are very much contoured to my feet and have great flexibility.   A nice even imprint in mud.  How cool.  Then I saw the second thing.

Notice that there isn’t a cluster of mud kicked up at the heel.  It is as if the foot was set in the mud and then lifted right out, like they would do with a movie star at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.  And that is exactly what it means.  A light touch.  No pushing off with the forefoot like you do when you are shodden.  You step and lift.  The desire is to minimize the amount of time your foot stays in contact with the ground.

To keep the minimum contact you have to run light.  You have to run easy.  You need to be smooth.  You focus on your body moving forward, not up and down.  Lift your knees, don’t push off with your foot. If you concentrate on how your feet hit the ground you’ll get all fuddled up.  Just let you foot fall naturally while you just think of lifting your knees right after each pace.  Not high, like in a marching band, but enough to let your forward momentum give you speed.  That is also one of the reasons your cadence is up in the 180 or higher range,  Quick, light steps.  Don’t push off, just lift up.  With your body in straight posture you’ll have a natural forward momentum.  Just let it roll.

All along the route back to the gate I saw imprints of my running.  All of them looked that way.  Even in the slippery mud.  If your touching down light, there isn’t time to slip.  It was just a great feeling to have my form confirmed in such an clear way.

I’m not 100% yet.  I still have aches in my ankles and calves.  It takes about a mile of running to loosen them up and then I am good to go and enjoy myself.  The muscles are still adapting, but I’m in the gaining stage.

How are you all adapting?  Are you feeling the strength develop?  Do you feel more comfortable in the form?  Are you wrestling with some issues?  I’d love to hear, good or bad.