Image by Jorg Badura for The New York: TimesRunners on Governors Island.

Well, maybe not a caveman, because that’s more often than not a codeword for neanderthal, and though it may or may not mean anything, their stocky build doesn’t look anything like that of peoples with a knack for running. Long and lean. You know, like the Masai tribesmen?

Moshe Feder at Tor posted a NY Times article on barefoot running this morning, saying that while he wasn’t a runner, he found it fascinating. Something about his comment tweaked my interest, so I pulled it up (see link below). See, I’ve always wanted to be a runner, but my body has had other ideas. When I run, all 6’2″ and 225 pounds of me, which is light for a football player of the same size but heavy for anyone who’s not, seismographs at the Smithsonian shake off their mounts and buildings sway. More importantly, my knees take a terrific impact and I get winded in no time flat. Up to ten years ago I’d push myself through a mile of hell at the beginning of a workout because it seemed like the thing to do. Then my knees took me aside for a long talk and a painful walk, and we agreed that running shoes need never grace my feet again. And yet…I just ran a mile at the gym with no knee pain, and only moderate winding. I mean, I wasn’t gasping for breath like a dying man.

I have a mantra about doing things. “If it’s hard, you’re doing it wrong.”

It turns out I’ve really been doing it wrong.

It may not be a universal truth, but looking for easier, or more efficient ways to do things is my (begin British Middle School accent) particular specialty (end British Middle School accent). So I keep my eyes open for more efficient ways to do things…even running, which we’re doing in large part for the exercise.

Humans have been long distance runners for a significant part of our evolution, as McDougall mentions in his New York Times Magazine article, “The Once and Future Way To Run, ” and it makes perfect sense. The human ability to wear down faster prey, known as “Persistence Hunting” is unique in the primate world, as we are able to use our ability to sweat to keep ourselves cool enough to run longer, if not faster than animals like antelopes. Wolves and dogs, by the way, do something similar with faster prey like rabbits, even though they can’t sweat, because they have a complex network of blood vessels that run through their noses and back into their brains, offering air cooled craniums. Maybe it helped them keep up with humans.

Still, if you’ve ever watched runners like the Masai tribesmen, it’s clear that they’re not doing it the way the 20th Century Jogger is doing it. Yes, I know that was the last century, but it looks very much as though running in the Twenty-First Century is going to take a lesson from the Eighteenth Century, which was probably just relearning what early many already knew. Running is done best with the least on your foot, landing gently on the balls of your feet, rather then either heel or toe, and lean your body slightly forward rather than keeping your upper body straight.

When I read all that in the article, I immediately thought of images of Masai tribesmen running effortlessly across the African plain. Even though I’m not seven feet tall and as thin as  a Praying Mantis, I wondered if I could learn to run like that too.

It turns out that this technique is harder to teach to generations of runners that have re-wired their brains to what seems to me to be sprinting gone bad. Fortunately for us, an Eighteenth Century chemist’s apprentice, working fourteen hours a day, came up with a system that forces you to learn the right moves. He shared his work in a 1908 titled “W. G. George’s Own Account From the 100-Up Exercise,” according to McDougall’s piece, and it consists of a simple set of moves that train you to run in a much more efficient and less painful way. It’s necessary to train your body, because the learned tendency is to heel strike and to throw your arms in the opposite direction of your legs, both of which work pretty well with waffle tread running shoes, but not at all if you’re barefoot.

Here's an approximation of the "minor move" in 100-ups. Raise your knee while pulling back the elbow on the same side. Then put it down and repeat with the other side. 100 times. (click on animation to play)

The first step is to learn the motions.

The best way is probably to go check out the NY Times video, link, as usual at the bottom of the article. It’s not to hard to describe the basic move though.

Standing straight, and preferably barefoot, lift one knee up so that your leg it parallel to the ground. At the same time, pull back the elbow on the side you are lifting back.

Repeat 100 times.

It feels odd because the “natural” tendency is to move your elbow forward with your arm. At least it feels odd until your body gets used to it.

By the way, I never did put those running shoes back on. Instead I outfitted myself with a pair of old Tevas (fairly hard sandals) and white socks. Stylin, that’s me.

I expect I’ll be hurting tomorrow, but I’ll come back in a week and update the blog with an entry on how I’ve done.

Links / References

• The Once and Future Way to Run, Christopher McDougall, New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html
• Persistence Hunting, Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting
• Mechanisms for the control of respiratory evaporative heat loss in panting animals,David Robertshaw: http://jap.physiology.org/content/101/2/664.full
• NYTimes 100-Up Video: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/11/02/magazine/100000001149415/the-lost-secret-of-running.html