Exploring the World Wide Running Community in the remarkable "Run the World" by Becky Wade

As someone who's run for the last thirty-six years of my life, I didn't need to read Becky Wade's new book "Run the World" to know runners form wonderfully unique communities. But her remarkable book shows just how diverse the strange tribe of runners are throughout the world, all dedicated to the simple act of running.

Shortly after finishing her distance running career at Rice University, which included All-American honors and two Olympic qualifying times, Becky Wade was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a one-year fellowship for study outside the United States. Ms. Wade used this to explore the running communities of England, Ireland, Switzerland, Ethiopia, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and Finland in the course of a year starting in the middle of 2012. Her book is her story of those travels, followed by a coda of her debut marathon at the 2013 CIM Marathon in Sacramento where she finished in 2:30:48, the third fastest time for any US woman under 25.

The success of travelog books like this depend heavily on the strength of the narrator and the good news is that Ms. Wade is an enthusiastic, talented storyteller. What could have easily been a tedious "bus schedule" of work-outs and weekly events is instead a series of engaging stories of the people and cultures she encounters who share her devotion to running.

It helps that Ms. Wade clearly used her elite connections to hook up with numerous running clubs and meet elite athletes, including distance running stars Vivian Cheruiyot and Haile Gebrselassie. A scene with Gebrselassie crazily dancing as he hosts a party is one of the more memorable scenes in the book. Ms. Wade clearly has a knack for adapting and blending in to each new place she visits, enhancing her impressive powers of observation. While the various running clubs and training groups she joins on her worldwide tour include runners of all abilities, the book focusses more on elite runners hard at work pursuing lofty goals than those running for recreation or personal growth.

Yet, even within this narrow elite focus, we find there is a wide spectrum of different approaches to running throughout the world.  In Ethiopia, Ms. Wade trains with the Ya-Ya Girls, three aspiring young elite women runners who never keep a log, start their runs with no set time or distance, spontaneously running through rugged, high-altitude terrain in whatever direction they feel like. A bad run by one of the Ya-Ya Girls is ominously chalked up to "The Devil was inside of her sapping her strength". Yet in Japan, she encounters a group of elite male marathon runners stoically running lap after tedious lap in small parks at tightly regimented paces and seemingly suicidal training volumes. Somehow through these opposite approaches both the countries Ethiopia and Japan both dominate world class running. The other countries she visits all approach training some where in the middle of these extremes, often reflection the national culture. For example, the Swiss stress more precision in their workouts while the Irish tend to be more freewheeling.

What we discover in Ms. Wade's book is that despite all the cultural differences, the hard work of running creates a universal bond and respect within each running community, whether in sprawling European clubs full of runners of all abilities engaging numerous post-run social events, or with the Ethiopian Ya-Ya Girls, cloistered in a small room at the foot of the mountain treating Ms. Wade to a traditional coffee ceremony.  Ms. Wade's historic debut marathon to conclude the book has a certain inevitability to it, as if she could not possibly fail to achieve a great marathon performance after cramming so much valuable running experience during her year abroad.

Unfortunately, it's doubtful "Run the World" will find much readership beyond the running community.  That's too bad, because it carries a message that seems to be missing as our nation seems increasingly divided. "Run the World" shows while racial and cultural barriers certainly exist, the hard work, patience, and understanding required to achieve a common goal will overcome them.

(Harper Collins provided an advance copy of "Run the World" for the purposes of this review.)

Reviewing the Provocative "80/20 Running" by Matt Fitzgerald

Matt Fitzgerald's latest running book, "80/20 Running" is not so much a running book but a detailed argument on how to train.  Its central thesis claims optimal training results are obtained when 80% of a runner's miles are completed slowly enough to carry on a conversation, which Fitzgerald terms the ventilatory threshold. Running faster than this, which most runners consider key to improvement, should only consist of 20% of total mileage volume.  Most runners, Fitzgerald argues, have this ratio out of whack, running too many miles above the ventilatory threshold and counter-intuitively, all this hard training is stifling improvement rather than promoting it.

Fitzgerald cites an impressive amount of research conducted on both elite and recreational athletes to back this up and presents a pretty compelling case for an optimal 80/20 ratio of easy to hard running for achieving the best race results.  Elite runners have intuitively recognized this ratio for decades according to Fitzgerald, while most recreational runners run too many of their miles fast, resulting in long term fatigue and insufficient recovery for optimal improvement.  However, the book's appealing subtitle "Run Stronger and Race Faster by Training Slower" only tells half of the story.

The other side to this story is that Fitzgerald is also advocating higher training volumes in his programs conducted at sub-ventilatory pace while maintaining this 80/20 ratio, so perhaps a book subtitle "Race Faster by Training Longer" would be more honest.   For runners with little time on their hands, Fitzgerald's revelations will likely present a bit of a dilemma.  The good news is that the author realizes each runner is different about how much time they can commit to a training program. Fitzgerald wisely tailors his ideas to runners at different levels of experience and commitment.  And make no mistake, Fitzgerald is a firm believer in hard workouts.  He just doesn't think running more than 20% of our miles at a pace faster than we can hold a conversation, whatever our overall training volume is, does us much good.

Fitzgerald helps make it pretty straightforward to find out ventilatory threshold pace, as well as a finding other key training paces to integrate into a training program.  I've read no better advice in formulating a training plan than Chapter 7 where Fitzgerald present's the "fine print" to the "80/20 rule" in the form of seven sub-rules.  The book is not for those seeking to finish their first 5k or 10k, but any runner looking to improve their current performance should get a lot out of 80/20 Running.

I often rate a running book by how it affects how I run.  Analyzing my own training after reading 80/20 Running, I found that I'm was doing too high a ratio of fast to slow miles per the 80/20 rule.  My ratio was more like 75/25 or 70/30.  So I've added a few sub-ventilatory miles here and there, increasing my overall weekly miles and sometimes, have cut back a little on my hard runs. Three weeks of modification is not really enough to gauge the effectiveness of a training plan, but so far I seem to be making reasonable improvement yet still feel pretty fresh.  This is something I'll likely revisit after the half-marathon is over to better gauge how moving closer 80/20 actually helped.

The provocative and slightly misleading sub-title aside, 80/20 Running is an excellent guide book in finding your way to run faster.

Book Review: Brew Britannia! Presents a Fascinating British Counterpoint to America's Brewing Revolution

It may seem a little pointless to post my high recommendation of Brew Britannia!, the history of British beer's rebirth written by Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey.  After all, since people on both sides of the pond like Zak Avery, Alan McLeod, Stan Hieronymus and Pete Brown have already weighed in with their enthusiastic thumbs' up, what's really left really for me to say?

These beer writers are pretty knowledgeable about British brewing.  I, on the other hand, only had this foggy notion about some weird group of British beer enthusiasts called CAMRA, which sounded like something straight out of a Monty Python skit.  So I eagerly read Brew Britannia! hoping to learn beer's transformation in Britain given I was pretty well versed in America's brewing revolution.  Boak and Bailey's book presents a fascinating British contrast to what happened in America.

As many already pointed out, Boak and Bailey couple impressively thorough research with a conversation-like writing style, focusing on the personalities that drove the British beer revolution to create an engaging story. Beer histories tend to be fairly wonkish, delving deeply into brewing styles,  beer ingredients and brewery equipment.  Boak and Bailey thankfully go in the opposite direction, focusing on the personalities and motivations of the various individuals who made British beer what it is today while rarely discussing the beer itself all that deeply.  Given the book give a very linear history of British beer starting from 1960's, this was a wise choice, preventing it from turning into a tedious "bus schedule" of British beer minutia.  What I found especially fascinating about Brew Britannia! was comparing Britain's beer revolution to what occurred at approximately the same time in the United States.

American brewing pioneers such as Fritz Maytag, Ken Grossman, and Jim Koch were undeniably passionate about beer and took great personal risks to follow those passions to create Anchor Brewing, Sierra Nevada, and Boston Beer respectively.   However, it is equally undeniable they were all also shrewd and highly ambitious businessmen who worked long hours to build their eventual empires. The craft brewing revolution in the United States was in many ways, entrepreneurial capitalism at its finest, where a few smart and hard working individuals took calculated risks the market would pay extra for a different product and turned out to be right as individual consumers started buying it.

Boak and Bailey's history documents a revolution with a similar outcome, but a demand driven one rather than the American revolution driven by new supply.  Various consumer groups emerged in the 1960's, most notably CAMRA, which not only were seeking better beer in opposing the Big Six British corporations, but were undeniably social and arguably political organizations.  Their fight was ultimately a lot more than simply demanding traditional live cask ales in favor of forced carbonated kegs of fizzy the Big Six brewers favored. It also centered on the traditional role of the British pub and a revolt against large corporations that were perceived as poor stewards of British tradition and identity.  While there was certainly dissatisfaction in the United States at the sorry state of beer in the 1960's and 1970's, there weren't any organized consumer groups in United States seeking change in our nation's beer.  That whole idea seems somehow un-American.

The early British craft brewers emerging in the 70's and 80's come across as reluctant businessmen, simply trying to brew a few barrels of decent brew without the more ambitious goals of the America's initial craft brewers. And yes, Boak and Bailey portray CAMRA as both goofy and dogmatic, prone to infighting over virtual any trivial topic they could possibly fight over, confirming my suspicions about the organization all along.

Boak and Bailey's story of Britain's craft brewing revolution seems, well very British.   Which raises the question, does each nation's brewing transformation uniquely capture it's national identity?  Are Sweden's and Italy's craft brewing revolutions distinctly Swedish and Italian?  Are Beer Bolshevik's fermenting revolt among Russia's proletariat as China engages on a Long March against lager imperialists led by a beery Mao Zedong?  Upon finishing Brew Britianna, these questions no longer seem as absurd.

"Canned!": A Colorful, Comprehensive Look at Craft Beer Art

(photo Schiffer Publishing)

Not only has American brewing revolution brought new and distinctive new flavors to a new generation, it's brought new art as well.  Numerous breweries striving to create own identity have commissioned artists to convey their own personality, as well as create memorable images for each beer in their line-ups.  There's no better compilation of this staggering amount of artwork than the new book "Canned!:  The Artwork of the Modern American Beer Can".

Virtually every American craft beer sold in cans is displayed, along with short comments about the artwork or the beer itself.  A few short years ago, this would've been a pretty slim volume since few craft beers were sold in cans.  As the public has readily adapted to the concept that high quality beer can indeed be sold in cans, the craft beer industry has transitioned to release more and more of their product in cans.  While a lot of this has to do with the convenience of the packaging and because cans preserve beer better than traditionally used bottles, the fact that cans provide an ideal canvas for branding artwork is certainly part of that motivation.

Author Russ Phillips has been chronicling this phenomenon on his website Craftcans.com and the depth of his knowledge shows in "Canned!" his first book.  The book is organized into sections based on US brewery geography, which a short history canned beer and a forward by Dale Katechis, the founder of Oskar Blues Brewery.

"Canned!" one of those books you can start in the middle someplace and lose yourself while effortlessly leafing through the pages, discovering new beers and learning about new breweries while gazing at all the colorful artwork.  "Canned!" is nothing less than an engaging document of an emerging and colorful part of craft beer culture.

Chatting with Hal Higdon on his new book "4:09:43 Boston 2013 Through the Eyes of the Runners"

Few people in the United States were paying any attention to the Boston Marathon until a couple bombs detonated near the finish line last April, 4:09:43 after the race started. Then, the news channels were dominated by endless replays of both bombings going off, reports of the dead and injured, and speculation as to who would commit such an act.  As the police filtered through the scattered images from security cameras and cell phones, a picture emerged of two suspicious men walking into the crowd with large backpacks only to calmly emerge from the chaos a few minutes later without them. From carefully sifting through the noise of billions of bits of data, the picture of the terrorists slowly emerged.

In a similar fashion, long time running writer Hal Higdon pieces together the story of the Boston Marathon Bombings through scattered stories from runners in his new book, "4:09:43   Boston 2013 Through the Eyes of the Runners".  Higdon picked through the enormous chatter of social media generated by the runners themselves to chronicle the 2013 Boston Marathon through the eyes of 75 different runners. Higdon captures the story of the race from the initial excitement and apprehension at the start, the screaming girls at Wellesley College, running up Heartbreak Hill and the final struggle to the finish line before the bombs went off sending the runners into a confused, terrifying flight from the finishing area.

The result is a readable, engaging tale of the 2013 Boston Marathon from a perspective that couldn't possibly exist only a few years ago.  Higdon's social media connections with so many runners works to his advantage, allowing him to piece together a mosaic of the race story from the words of several runners who directly experienced the entire 2013 Boston Marathon.   I had the chance to speak with Hal Higdon about his remarkable new book.

What was it like piecing all the postings from social media all together for this book?

It was really enlightening.  We were all in shock after the bombings and kept seeing the replays on the news at the finish line with the bombs going off, with the clock stopped at 4:09:43.  Back then, I  certainly didn’t think I’d be writing a book about the race.  Afterwards, runners started posting their stories to their blogs, most of them meant for only their friends and family to read.  Then these postings started making their way to my Facebook page.   I have a large footprint on the Internet from my Facebook page so had a lot of access to the runners who finished the Boston Marathon.   That’s when it came into my head that I could write a book about the Boston Marathon Bombings and share all their stories.

What did you learn putting the book together?

I really got a unique viewpoint of the whole event.  Most of the runners were on the course for 4-5 hours and most of that time, it was a joyous run on the course running through Boston and only at the end did the bombs go off and then all of a sudden it had a really bad ending.  And that’s what I reported on.

How do you think social media changes the way we look at terrorism?

We have more viewpoints these days.  First, there were only newspapers to get our information from.  Then television came along and we got news from two sources.  Then we have the Internet and social media where we learn things immediately.

A lot of people remember where they were when John F. Kennedy was shot, when the Challenger Disaster occurred, when the Twin Towers fell.  The 2013 Boston Marathon has become like those events, where you remember just where you were when it happened.

How has the Internet changed running?

Certainly one of the things that’s changing is that we can track runners who aren’t necessarily the race leaders or elite athletes.    We can now follow the people we know in the race remotely, and see when they pass through the 5k checkpoint, the 10k checkpoint, ect, over the course of a race.  I was watching my daughter run a marathon and I knew just when to expect her at the half way point based on her time at the last checkpoint.

It’s also greatly improved our ability to dispense information.  Runners from all over can ask me questions and the Internet allows me to talk directly with them.  It’s all happened only in the last dozen years.

Tell me about this fad you recall about beer drinking being good for running.

There was this fad in the 70’s with the initial running boom that carried into the 80’s about beer being good for running, initiated some of the things Dr. George Sheehan wrote, who was a popular running writer at the time, and a number of beer companies were also involved.   I’ve noticed many runners enjoy a glass of wine or a beer and most of them can control their alcohol without any problems.

I ran the Athens Marathon a couple times.  The first time I took it really seriously and finished under three hours, which put me in the top 10 or 15 runners.  The next year I didn’t take it so seriously, and carried a few Drachmas in my pocket with me so I could stop for a couple beers along the way at bars along the course.  At the second stop, I was ready to pay for my beer when the bartender stopped me, pointed to a gentleman on the other side of the bar, who waved back at me.  They didn't speak any English and I didn't know any Greek, but I figured out the guy waving at me paid for my beer so I thanked him and headed back out onto the course.  I didn't take the race very seriously but had a lot of fun.

Anything else you’d like to add about the Boston Marathon?

Everyone is really looking forward to the Boston Marathon this year and it will really be the race of the century.  They’ve opened up the race more to include 36,000 people.  It’s going to be what we all hope will be an enjoyable time, a time to put the tragedies of the last Boston Marathon behind.  We’ll always remember the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings and I think my book is the definitive record of them.

Reflections on "Beyond the Pale" by Ken Grossman

When we think of California entrepreneurs, most think of people like David Packard, Steve Jobs, or Elon Musk.  Should we add Ken Grossman to this select group?  Foodies swoon over Thomas Keller and Alice Waters, but have they really had a bigger impact over our national cuisine and food culture than Ken Grossman?

These questions are ones I hadn't considered until reading the Grossman's long awaited autobiography of Beyond the Pale.  It's a fascinating study of someone who over thirty years ago literally built a brewery out of little more than discarded scraps salvaged from junk yards.  Back in those days, distribution meant Grossman delivering beer to the few places that would sell it in his pickup truck.  His typical 12+ hour days were spent restoring antique bottling lines to functionality, repairing refrigeration equipment, or welding together discarded dairy equipment into a brewing system, things today's craft brewers rarely ever do.  Supplies were hard to come by in those times, so Grossman even found a way to incorporate unwanted hop samples larger breweries had no use for into some of his early brews.  Grossman's problem solving skills, creative force, and seemingly unstoppable energy jumps out through the dense prose on nearly every page.   At times, I found it exhausting just reading about the shear number of projects and challenges he tirelessly took upon himself to build up a brewery from scratch. 

Each chapter is an education onto itself.  Whether talking about the brewing process, creating a business in a time where small breweries were virtually non-existent, discussing legal and business wrangling that occupied much of his energy in the 90's, or espousing his personal environmental and management policies, there is plenty to learn on each page and Grossman shares plenty of great insights.

For example, on the United State's three-tiered distribution system, often vilified in the craft beer industry as stifling competition in favor of large brewing corporations, Grossman writes, "Collectively, this complex web of seemingly arcane state and federal laws has done a lot to allow the craft movement to flourish.  Many other countries don't have a prohibition against the vertical integration of manufacturer and retailer, which has generally stymied the growth of small and independent brewers.  For example in England breweries had a long history of owning pubs, and through consolidation a handful of brewers controlled tens of thousands of pubs that sold only their own brands, making it nearly impossible for start-up breweries to get their beer in front of consumers....In other part of Europe and the world, it's common practice for breweries or distributors to cut exclusive deals with bars and restaurants....in exchange for exclusivity in the brands the retailer sells.  These market driven systems may be aligned with some people's notion of free enterprise, but they limit choice and independence, favoring a consolidated industry in which a large supplier that can provide beer, spirits, winder, soda and so on has a significant upper hand that eliminates a level playing field for competition."

These type of comprehensive, insightful, and at times a little long winded, explanations on all things craft beer are peppered throughout the book.  Grossman wrote Beyond the Pale during a time of ambitious and time consuming plans for a second brewery.  As he put it, "The last thing I needed on my plate was writing a book, so a dragged my feet for several months until one day I had an uncharacteristic lapse in judgment and finally caved."  This hardly seems like the making of a great book, but it's yet a further insight on Grossman's incredible stamina, experience, and brewing knowledge.  Of course, it also explains why the last few chapters are a bit meandering and at times have the feel of being written by committee.  Despite Grossman's candid admission to his readers from the very beginning that the book they are about to read was a distraction, he comes through for his readers with a thoughtful, insightful, and comprehensive story about how Sierra Nevada came to be.  That says an awful lot about Ken Grossman in itself.

The Audacity of "The Audacity of Hops"

Reading books like this make me feel like I'm an expert.  Of course, it's author Tom Acitelli who's the expert on the history of America's craft beer revolution, not me.  But he tells the story with such clarity and detail in this incredibly researched book that any reader will feel like an expert on the America's craft beer revolution after reading his new book, The Audacity of Hops.

Acitelli pulls off this audacious plan to include so many different actors and stories of craft beer's origins and weave them into a engaging and sweeping narrative using a concise, yet conversational tone providing just enough detail to keep everything connected together.  This book could have easily degenerated into a tedious, linear "checklist" of people and events, collapsing under the shear weight of Acitelli's research.  Instead, Acitelli integrates numerous short, bite-sized chapters into a mosaic from which the story of craft beer emerges, a story where just a couple breweries in the 70's and a few scattered homebrew clubs to somehow coalesced into the 10 billion dollar industry craft beer is today.

Of the many insights I gained from this book, four really stand out.

1) The craft beer industry has always been a chummy collaborative industry
I've always been struck by how chummy "competitive" craft breweries always are.  Arguably, that was integrated into the industry's DNA from the beginning since the late 70's, an example being Anchor's Fritz Maytag letting New Albion's Jack McAuliffe drive his pick-up from Sonoma County to Anchor's Brewery to fill it up with as much malt as he could load in the flatbed.   There was no other way McAuliffe could obtain malt in the low quantities his small brewery could afford, and without Maytag's assistance, New Albion would have ceased operations much sooner than it did.

2) Contract brewing and gypsy brewers are nothing new
From almost the very beginning, new breweries used the trick of short circuiting the need for enormous capital investments to build a brewery by finding breweries to make their beer under contract. Plenty of breweries with excess capacity were only happy to oblige back in the 80's, as they do today.

3) The IPA craze is a pretty recent development
Fritz Maytag's main beer was a Steam, Jack McAuliffe's New Albion Brewery made Stouts, Porters and Pale Ales, Sierra Nevada's Ken Grossman claim to fame was a Pale Ale (albeit a hoppy one), Jim Koch's Boston Beer brewed a Lager, New Belgium and Pete Slosberg's made their names with Amber Ales. The IPA really doesn't arrive on the scene in a big way until the last decade.

4) The craft brewing bubble of the late 90's was mostly fueled by investors seeking to go public or get rich quickly
It's an open question whether we're entering a craft brewing bubble with all the new breweries being founded and increasing capacity of existing breweries.   Most of these recent new breweries are in the classical tradition of home brewers turned businessmen, turning their passion for brewing into their livelihoods.   Whatever happens, it will certainly have a different character than the bubble in the late 90's where a lot of outside investors looking to get rich quickly with public offerings got burned, a product of those go-go times.

Interestingly enough, I started reading "The Audacity of Hops" a few days after finishing "Bitter Brew", William Knoedelseder's  excellent book about the rise and fall of Anhueser-Busch.  From afar, Anhueser-Busch looked like a mighty fortress.   But within, this company run as a virtual Busch-family monarchy struggled mightily since the 70's due to unchecked power and privilege of wealthy Busch family members who became increasingly out of touch and unfit to run the company.    Bitter Brew was a fascinating contrast to the story of people like Fritz Maytag and Ken Grossman who built up their empires from virtually nothing through shear hard work and innovation. 

Which underlies the point that the American craft brewing revolution is about a lot more than simply great beer.  It's very much about the triumph of American entrepreneurial capitalism over stodgy cronyism

Discovering "The Cool Impossible" with Eric Orton

Eric Orton is a man with big ideas.  His training methods are revolutionary, he calls for radical dietary changes and he developed his own unique sports psychology.   He describes this all in his new book, “The Cool Impossible”.  It’s densely packed full of scientifically sound training ideas and inspirational messages. Orton’s writing flows in an engaging conversational style mimicking the way he coaches his many athletes.

I doubt you’ll adopt everything he advocates in his book to your training.    I didn’t.  In fact, I’ll even go so far as to say I disagree with some of his approaches to training concepts.    But one of the strengths of “The Cool Impossible” is that different runners will each find things they will use to reach new heights in running.

And what is this “Cool Impossible”?  Orton describes it as, “…getting back to daydreaming and creating the biggest, coolest fantasy we can think of to achieve.”  While Orton claims this philosophy applies to all parts of our lives, his book focusses on achieving this “Cool Impossible” in running. 

Orton knows a thing a two about helping runners accomplish inconceivable goals. He transformed one Christopher McDougall from an injury prone runner who could only handle runs of a few miles to an ultra-marathoner who completed a 50 mile race in Mexico’s rugged Copper Canyon in just nine months. McDougall’s book about this ultra-marathon in the land of the reclusive Tarahumara Indians, “Born to Run”, became the bible of the minimalist running movement.  Declaring "running shoes may be the most destructive force to ever hit the human foot",   McDougall inspired runners to toss off their heavily padded shoes for ones with thinner lightweight soles.  Some ditched their shoes altogether and started running barefoot.

What Orton calls for is not so such much a rethinking of what runner’s wear, but how runners run.   Considering swimmers, tennis players, golfers and even sprinters spend much of their training time perfecting their technique, this may not seem particularly radical.  But running form has been largely ignored on the assumption it’s just what comes to us naturally.  Since each of our bodies our different, we naturally assume different running gaits based on our structural differences without considering how our individual running form creates inefficiency and injuries.  Challenging these long held beliefs, Orton declares  “…I have conducted more than a thousand training sessions with runners, and most have the same issues….all tend to lead back to muscle disequilibrium and improper form.”

A slant board I built myself using a couple
6 x 6 inch bathroom tiles and a slat of wood

Despite all the groovy New Age-like rhetoric on things like “awareness” and “flow”, Orton’s program is all about hard work, dedication and applied biomechanical science.  He outlines a number of running drills and strengthening exercises designed to strengthen the legs and the core to help runners achieve better form.  They can be done in your living room or backyard without much equipment.  All you need is a wobble board, an inflatable exercise ball, and a simple apparatus Orton’s developed called a slant board.   Ski poles, walking sticks or even cut off broomsticks are also used to help keep your balance for some of the exercises.

Trying Out Orton’s Techniques



Side Lift Position on the Slant Board

I was eager to try out Orton’s techniques myself and started working 20-30 minute workout sessions into my training 3-4 times a week.   My early attempts resulted in a lot of flopping and stumbling around in my living room.   Say this about Orton’s exercises, they’re not easy.  Standing on the slant board on one foot, I could feel the strain in my legs, from my feet all the way up to my hips, especially in the ankles and calves.  The inflatable exercise ball is used to develop muscles in the core by balancing on top it assuming different positions.  Plenty of times, I lost control on the exercise ball and rolled into a giggling heap on the floor.  You’ll probably have the same difficulties, but just keep working at it and you’ll develop the strength and balance necessary.  Orton encourages us that while developing these new skills “Use some patience and put your ego in check…work like a martial artist: deliberate movement and constant practice.”

Knees to chest on the exercise ball
(my back should probably be straighter)

I saw the results in my running within a week.  Running I found myself zipping right through patches of uneven ground I used to wobble through off-balance.  I can see why trail runners are particularly big fans of Orton’s training.  As a forefoot striker, I tend to get more flat-footed towards the end of runs as fatigue set in.  Gaining leg strength from Orton’s workouts, I found myself at the end of runs maintaining form and speed rather than stomping around over the last couple miles.  And I recognized from photos in Orton’s book I wasn’t lifting my knees high enough and so consciously worked on getting higher knee action in my form. 

Orton talks about visualizing yourself striding over “logs” while running to get proper knee lift.   As you run faster, you should visualize yourself striding over bigger logs.   I noticed during my runs I could use my knee lift as a “throttle” and just focus on adjusting my knee height to control my speed.   It’s powerful to suddenly realize the possibility to run faster not by working the legs harder, but to use the mind to guide the body to make subtle changes in form. 

Knee drive position on the wobble board
(Pictured on a carpet, but use wobble board on
a hard floor for best "wobbly' results)

Orton’s form and strengthening exercises are intended to supplement a nine-week “Strategic Running Foundation” training plan.  The plan is individualized to each runner’s ability level using one mile time trial and a heart rate test.  From this, Orton formulates no fewer than seven speed zones and seven heart rate zones individualized for each runner to follow in his training plan.  If keeping track of all 14 zones seems rather complicated to you, you’re not alone.  While Orton’s plan is based on sound science and I personally use a mix of running speeds to train, I found Orton’s plan way more complicated than necessary.  The workouts are also written in a notation that’s hard to follow.  I’m sure there’s some good workouts buried in there.   Many of Orton's readers will wish he outlined his Strategic Running Foundation in a more straightforward, simplified and accessible manner.

Doing the "Scorpion" on the Execise Ball

Orton on Eating Well, Running Well

When it comes to food, Orton is not bashful about his opinions.  He’s big on organic fruits and vegetables, and rails against all processed food that dominates our grocery store shelves.  That includes pasta, a carbohydrate source most runners crave.   When it comes to protein, he’s adamant about eating organic, free-range meats and wild caught fish with portion sizes no bigger than the palm of our hands.  He even encourages us to take on a 20 day sugar detox, eliminating sugar completely from our diets.  Orton goes so far as to suggest runners develop their own nutrition mission statement.

Whether it’s really necessary or even realistic most for recreational runners to make this level of dietary commitment is an open question.  To Orton’s credit, he doesn’t take a rigid “eat this, not that” attitude, and he’s OK if you eat a cookie or drink a beer now and then.  But he’s pretty adamant as he writes “Listen, we have a choice of how we want to eat.  We know what is best for us: simple, natural, nutrient-dense foods.  The challenge is choosing to eat that way, making it a habit, and sticking with that choice.  It takes discipline, focus, awareness.”

I’m not planning on going on a 20 day sugar detox or writing a nutrition mission statement.  But he has inspired me to make better decisions about what to eat.  I resist the impulse to pick up that pack of M&M’s at the grocery store check-out line.  I order a side salad instead of fries.  And yes, when thirsty, I’ve started pouring a glass of water instead of automatically cracking open a beer.  These are small decisions, but they add up to a larger dietary change.  I’ve lost 5 pounds off my 185 pound frame in the last month as a result, the lightest I’ve been in years.  I do feel better, too.

Return to Boston?

After finishing Orton’s provocative book, I found myself thinking about things I wanted to accomplish in running.  The last marathon I completed was the 1994 Boston Marathon nearly twenty years ago and I’ve always wanted to come back and run Boston again.   The biggest thing that’s held me back is my body has broken down on runs long before I’ve completed anything close to 26.2 miles. 

I’ve spent a lot of effort correcting the imbalances and weakness that led to injuries.  I saw a chiropractor four years ago to correct a hip imbalance that was causing all sorts of problems.   That turned out to be a great investment, but I still had foot and knee problems limiting my longest runs to 10-12 miles.  I discovered last fall my running shoes were a size too small, and now can complete runs of up to 15 miles without too much pain. 

When I ran the Boston Marathon in 1994, I really never embraced the whole Boston experience.  I was nervous and uptight, ended up going out to fast and barely made it across the finish line.  I wanted to come back and do the race over again, but the opportunity never came.  Returning to Boston is something I’ve held in the back of my head, but it never seemed realistic given all the injury problems I’ve had.  After reading “The Cool Impossible”, Boston doesn’t seem too far away anymore.


(Penguin Group Publishing provided an advanced review copy for the purposes of this review which will also appear in June/July issue of Adventure Sports Journal.)

Beer Effortlessly Subs for Wine in Janet Fletcher's "Cheese & Beer"

Say this about Janet Fletcher, the lady knows her cheese.  In addition to writing a weekly column on cheese for the San Francisco Chronicle, she's authored numerous books on cheese including the "The Cheese Course", "The Cheese Tasting Party Kit" and "Cheese & Wine".  The Napa-based food writer has earned three James Beard Awards and the IACP Bert Green Award, and  now ventures into new territory with her latest book, "Cheese & Beer".  Sure, she knows plenty about cheese.   But does she know beer?

I'd say she does.  Judging from her book, it appears she's enjoyed many fine brews when her wine friends aren't looking.  Or maybe they drink more beer up in Napa than we think.  Either way, her book is a very complete, well researched guide to pairing any beer with good cheese.  It's clear from the pages that cheese is her main passion, given so much detail she shares on different cheeses and the cheese making process.  But that shouldn't detract from all the good advice she gives on virtually every available style of beer and how to pair them with cheese.   I also like the fact she gives equal attention to sessional beers styles such as Bitters as she does to the stronger (and arguably wine-like) Belgian Ale or Barley Wine styles.   Writing about beer effortlessly, with a very matter of fact treatment, her writing is a refreshing contrast to other works that treat beer as the "new wine" or as some hot new thing.     There's an enjoyment of beer that's palpable from each page.



One of Ed Anderson's fine images from
"Beer & Cheese".

The book is organized by various beer styles.  Each style is introduced in Fletcher's own words, followed by a discussion on pairing each style with cheese, and concluding with Fletcher's cheese pairing recommendations.  A useful cheese pairing table can be found at the end.  As a cheese ignoramus, I found this to be a useful guide to navigate through the sometimes baffling world of cheese.

Photographer Ed Anderson delivers vibrant photos throughout the book, bringing the subject matter alive.

"Cheese & Beer" is now hitting the bookstore shelves, and Janet Fletcher is embarking on a book signing tour.    I suspect this book will resonate more with wine lovers looking for an entry point to explore great beer, than with beer drinkers looking for a way to discover fine cheese.  But craft beer aficionados looking to further their appreciation of beer will find no better book.




(Andrews McMeel Publishing provided a copy of "Cheese & Beer" for this review.)

 

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Running Ransom Road: A Review and Interview with Author Caleb Daniloff

There's pretty much universal agreement that running is great for physical fitness.  Less appreciated is how running strengthens mental fitness, albeit in ways elusive to measure and highly individualistic.  There's no better example of this than a new book entitled Running Ransom Road. It's about the personal journey of author Caleb Daniloff, a recovering alcoholic (he prefers the term "former drunk"), took as he turned to running to help battle his addiction.   He decides to  revisit the different cities from his dark past, his "sinning grounds" as he calls them, by running marathons and other distances races in each place as an attempt to further heal himself and those around him. 

What raises this book above a standard self-help memoir is Daniloff's highly poetic writing style, razor sharp observations, and astute personal assessments.  Of course, it also doesn't hurt that his early upbringing was hardly ordinary.  The son of US journalist Nicholas Daniloff, who was assigned to cover the Soviet Union for US New & World Report in the early 80's, Caleb Daniloff spent his teenage years in Moscow during the cold war in the early 80's until his father was arrested in 1986 on espionage charges by the Soviets.   (Nicholas Daniloff was eventually allowed to return to the US.)  It also helps that three of his sinning grounds are Boston, New York and Washington, home of marathons heavily steeped in running lore.

But where the book really stands out is with memorable description of how running enabled his recovery with passages such as "My stride started to gain fluency, my feet acting as metronome.  The repetition became less monotony and more a rhythm of nothingness, like a Buddhist chant, my head humming with open space".    Daniloff also captures each race with great imagery, such as describing  the teaming masses assembling before the New York Marathon, noting "There was no way you couldn't feel small, like so many plankton inhaled into the whale's mouth."   Through it all, Daniloff includes brief flashbacks which serve as cracks through which the reader catches glimpses of his former life.  You won't find too many sordid tales in these flashbacks, but they are effective in not only what they reveal, but also what is left unsaid and alluded to, leaving the reader to speculate what dark places Daniloff  had actually gone to.

It's a book sure to resonate with runners, especially those who used running to help them through difficult times in their lives.  And certainly those dealing with alcoholism and other substance abuse issues will also find reassurance from someone they can identify with.  Of course, any story well told with unique insights about being human has universal appeal.  As Daniloff engages in a slow march every few weeks at each of his marathons to break the four hour finishing time barrier, we see whether one attains the personal goals they've set for themselves isn't what's important.  It's what you gain from the act of reaching for them.

I caught up with Caleb Daniloff during his book tour, both over the phone and through e-mails, to discuss his latest work.  Here's what he had to say.

Q: How do you find people reacting to your book?

Daniloff: So far, so good.  A lot of readers, including runners, are reaching out and identifying themselves as having battled with alcoholism or other demons or just dealing with difficult times in their lives.  The greatest reaction so far was from a mother who has a son struggling with addiction and currently in prison. She really wanted to send him a copy of the book, but prison rules required it come directly from the publisher. So we arranged for that. She was incredibly grateful.

Q: A lot of people tell me they hate running, or think it’s a necessary evil they need to do to keep in shape.  How are non-runners responding to your writing about running’s therapeutic effects?

Daniloff: Most people recognize that following some form of passion has a therapeutic effect and most people recognize the mind-body connection of regular exercise. But yes, lots of people do find running boring and repetitive, so it’s sometimes hard to explain to them how the repetitiveness and increased exertion over time is where a lot of cool things can open up. But I can see how some runners might say, “It’s a running thing, you wouldn’t understand.”  There’s something mesmerizing about the rhythm--the pounding feet, sawing arms, heaving lungs.

Q:  Can you explain some of these “cool things” that arise from the repetitiveness?

Daniloff:  Creative thought for starters. Plenty of images and lines for the book bubbled up during a run. Even things that I’d never have thought of sitting still at my desk; seeing a stubborn problem in a whole new light. There’s a real clarity. You can access greater depths of feeling for people in your life, for the world around you.

Q: I’ve always felt that success in running requires a willingness and tolerance for self-abuse.  Do you think the self-loathing you describe in your alcoholic past factors into your running?

Daniloff: I think in the beginning, running was more like self-punishment.  Running was fairly painful in the early years and I was welcoming of that pain.  Over time as running became less physically painful, and the mental element of running helped mitigate the self loathing, the shame, the guilt, the insecurities. I used to think if I run a marathon, then I’ve really come out the other side. But there always more “other sides” to come out of. That’s just life.

Q: Is it a sense of accomplishment that mitigates the self loathing?  I have to say some periods when I ran my best races and fastest times correlate pretty well to difficult times in my life, and my dad once told me, “You always run your fastest when you’re running away from something.”

Daniloff:  Your dad is probably right. Yes, the sense of accomplishment gives you the confidence and boosts your self-esteem, which can mitigate and soften negative feelings you might be harboring.  Running also allows one to indulge in the feeling of running away without actually doing so. And at the same time, it reminds you that you can’t run away from your problems. Your head is always going to be on your shoulders.

Q:  You’ve completed marathons in your old “sinning grounds” and earned redemption.  What’s next for you, running-wise?

Daniloff:  I’ll be running the Philadelphia Marathon in a couple weeks, and would like to run the Boston Marathon in 2013. I now run one marathon a year, but have no real time or distance goals at the moment.  The idea of running South Africa’s Comrades Marathon (a 56-miler) pops up in my mind from time to time.

Q: Have you thought of doing shorter races, like cross-country or 5 and 10k’s?

Daniloff:  I’ve run a couple 5Ks, but I like the challenge of the longer races where it’s about more endurance, not speed, at least for me.  I also prefer the longer races because I don’t want the run to end so quickly.

(An advance copy of Running Ransom Road was provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the purposes of this review.)

An Old-School Father reviews "Train Like a Mother"

Guys, let's face it.  We look up to men like Steve Prefontaine and Alberto Salazar who talked a lot about guts and enduring pain, but none of them went through child birth.  Whether they know it or not, the mothers of the world are uniquely experienced to deal with the necessary patience, hard work, and pain threshold required for the thrill of reaching the finish line.  While children do not come with manuals, authors Dimitry McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea  provide a running manual for mothers with their second book, Train Like a Mother.

This book does not fall into the trap many "you can do it"  running books fall into, which make running seem like nothing more than moving your arms and legs around, feeling good, and then raising your arms in victory at the finish line.  Thankfully, McDowell and Bowen create no such illusions in their book.  There's plenty of pages devoted to burning sensations in the lungs and legs, race day flame outs, injuries, chaffing, and unplanned discharges of various bodily fluids.  Which makes taking the journey to the finish line even more significant and the inspirational stories more compelling and real.
They divide their book into 13.1 chapters (OK, it's really 13) that start off with the couple of introductions about running, caveats about taking on any training program, before outlining beginning and intermediate training plans for running the 5k, 10k, half-marathon, and marathon distances.  After that are chapters on matters such as strength training, injuries, nutrition, setting goals, before concluding with tips on how to get the most out of all that hard work on race day.

I found much of the training advice to be well thought out and sensible, although it travelled over rather well worn territory.  But there's always a fine line in training when setting goals and making plans that "absolutely need to be done, no excuses" and being flexible, recalibrating and adjusting your training to how you feel and the things that life inevitably throws in your way. I found the training plans to strike that difficult balance.   For example, workouts are denoted as "Bail if necessary" while critical hard workouts are stamped "Bailing is not an option".

Also valuable are the "Motherly Advice" side bars, where all sorts of tricks and clever ideas are shared to get a little extra training while juggling everything else that's going on.  For instance, they show how to use running strollers and treadmills to get a decent workout in while keeping the little one engaged and happy.  But I must say I was slightly amused by the authors' devoting at least two pages about smoothing over feelings when making a break from a running partner who can't keep up.  (The guy version of this book would have only a single sentence:  "He'll get over it.")

I found the chapters on cross-training, recovery, strength training, and flexibility helpful, with lots of insights on core training and simple exercises one can perform in the living room.  Maybe that's because my wife Linda, a running mother herself, has found a lot of the core exercises she's worked on have helped her running.  With my kids here for the summer and less time to run, I'll be spending more time inside working on core strength and overcoming some form imbalances, with this book giving me some direction in this area. 

McDowell and Bowen also share all sorts of interesting discussions and advice from women readers of their first book, Run Like a Mother.  As a guy who's spent most of his time talking about running with male runners, I found these conversations be a fascinating cultural experience.  And if this book is an accurate representation, compared to guys, women runners talk just as much about chaffing, vomiting, and a lot more about sex.

The authors, Sharon Bowen Shea
is the shorter one.

But perhaps the most valuable passages of this book come from the personal advice the authors share about the need for mothers to take good care of themselves and have positive diversions at a time where they face great demands and expectations elsewhere in their life.  Looking back ten years ago during the time my kids first came into the world, I wasn't running much, was 60 pounds overweight, was angry, unhappy and needless to say, not as good as a father as I could have been.  Guys like my don't ask for directions, and since it took nearly hitting rock bottom before I got some help, this book probably couldn't have helped me back then.  But for those running mothers out there struggling to raise their kids without a manual and still find the meaning and purpose running adds to their lives, Train Like a Mother provides a lot of good direction during this crucial time in their lives.

(A copy of this book was provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing for the purposes of this review.)

There's lots of good stuff in "The Illustrated Guide to Brewing Beer" by Matthew Schaefer

There are books loaded with lots of good information.  Others have plenty of detailed explanations which are clear and avoid becoming tedious.  And then there are those that have a lot of great looking, yet helpful pictures.  The good news is the "The Illustrated Guide to Brewing Beer" by Matthew Schaefer hits this trifecta.

The first thing I noticed when opening the book is all the great photography.  And yet, the photos don't come across as homebrew porn (not that there's anything wrong with that) but serve a purpose in supporting the text.  Whenever Schaefer describes some homebrewing gadget, there's a picture right there to show you exactly what thing-a-majig he's talking about.  Which is one of the strengths of this book is in its descriptions and explanations of various homebrewing hardware.

Of course, it's hard to use pictures to describe the various molecular chemistry involved in brewing, but Schaefer still takes care to provide clear explanations to good effect.   For example, Schaefer carefully explains why you shouldn't keep a lid over the brew kettle, as this prevents the evaporation of Dimethyl Sulfide (DMS) from the brew, which can result in off flavors.  As a novice homebrewer having brewed about 10 batches of beer over the past 2 1/2 years, I always kept the lid on over the stock pot on the stove to retain heat to help the underpowered electric stove in my apartment get the wort boiling. 
I was intrigued as this seemed to be the first time I've ever heard of this, having three other homebrewing books on my bookshelf.  Consulting these books to see if I had missed something, I found that one book never mentioned DMS evaporation.  The other two mentioned something about this, but only in an off-hand way that didn't make keeping the lid off the brew kettle to prevent off-DMS flavors obvious.  The extra care and detail Schaeffer provides made this concept really stick in my head, and now I'll make sure to keep the lid off.

In addition, Schaefer provides more deeper explanations on critical homebrewing topics such sanitizing, hop additions, secondary fermentation and other topic than other books often touch upon, but do not provide the level of information Schaeffer provides.   In fact, I'm getting psyched to make an IPA after learning some new stuff about adding hops.  Schaeffer, a practicing attorney, provides a helpful appendix on the homebrewing laws for all 50 United States and its an interesting read to see how the laws in each state differs.

The book is written fairly economically, and its 240 pages do not come across as a weighty manual.  But I'm afraid it reads a lot like a chemistry text book.  While  I'm sure Schaeffer is a passionate and enthusiastic homebrewer, this just doesn't come across in his the highly factual and procedural style of writing,  especially when compared to the work of Charles Papazian and Randy Mosher, or the Brooklyn Brewshop Beer Making Book, where a certain excitement for homebrewing leaps off the pages.   I kept waiting for a personal story or unique experience from Schaeffer's homebrewing exploits, and save for a rather routine tale about a carboy blowing its top, never got it. 

Which is why I would hesitate to recommend this book for a first time homebrewer as it would likely come across to as a dense tome that wouldn't generate any excitement needed to overcome any hesitation on taking the home brewing plunge.  It lacks any "first time homebrewing recipe" that I found to be very useful starting point for my first brew, which simplified all the homebrewing techniques I was trying to learn that were overwhelming at first.  And there were only two recipes.  Schaeffer must know a few more he could share with his readers and would be a great way to further to elaborate various homebrewing concepts much the same way he uses pictures to great effect.

These mostly stylistic issues aside, this book will make me a better homebrewer.  Five years from now, I expect my copy to be rather worn and have a bunch of brewing mash and hop stains on it.  Which is always a sign of a good homebrewing book.

(Skyhorse Publishing provide a copy of this book for the purposes of this review.)

Bare Foot Reflections on "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall

After thirty years of running, I've discovered plenty of people who have a hard time understanding why I find it so enjoyable. Maybe this skepticism isn't too difficult to understand, since running is basically a continuous, repetitive motion which in the short term leads to shortness of breath, muscle soreness, and makes one smell rather nasty. Maybe I should simply be more tolerant of well intentioned, curious questions I get about running that seem motivated by a barely concealed incredulousness that someone could actually enjoy it, while simultaneously trying to unlock dark, elusive running secrets. While my mind registers snide answers to the usual questions like "What electrolytic rehydration drink do you use?" ("Water"), or "What advice do you have about running gadgets?" ("Throw them away"), and "What do you do when it rains?" ("I get wet"), to the ever popular, "Don't you get bored running?" ("No, am I missing something?"), my rational side generally shapes these answers into something more diplomatic, unless I happen to be in a very bad, or very good mood.

In recently months, I found myself being asked "What do you think about barefoot running?", so it seemed time to read the book often cited as a catalyst to this recent movement, "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. And while much to my dismay, this book did not inspire any smart-ass answers to questions about barefoot running, it was a fascinating read, weaving a lot of interesting research about running as it told an intriguing story about McDougall arranging an ultramarathon super-race between an elusive Indian tribe in Mexico and quirky menagerie of American endurance athletes.

The book itself started with McDougall asking himself a simple question, "Why does my foot hurt?". The search for the answer lead him to the barren Copper Canyons of Mexico hunting for the elusive Tarahumara Indians, a tribe where members run hundreds of miles in rugged terrain and sun drenched conditions, fueled by a corn beer they brew, making them the most hard core beer runners on the planet. McDougall begins to investigate the history and secrets of the shadowy group, who display amazing feats of running endurance wearing light weight sandals, instead of modern running shoes.

McDougall finds plenty of biomechanical research to suggest modern running shoes have been a lot of the cause of running injuries, rather than the prevention. Extra cushiony shoes actually require more force to push off the ground with, forcing runners to modify their natural running gait to a more inefficient heel-toe stride, causing injuries as a result. At one point McDougall writes "running shoes may be the most destructive force to ever hit the human foot", and he gives plenty of space in the book for an ultramarathoner known as Barefoot Ted, who's running endurance is only exceeded by his tenacity to preach for hours on the virtues of running barefoot to anyone with the strength to listen to him. It's this part of the book that he helped spark a bit of a barefoot running revolution, where barefoot running advocates claim we can break the shackles of running injuries and big nasty shoe companies, by simply taking off our running shoes, run barefoot, and reach a certain running nirvana.

The problem I have with these barefoot running advocates is that they take some perfectly good research and drive it right off a cliff that flies in the face of some actual historical facts about barefoot runners. For example, barefoot running advocates often mention that Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Olympic Marathon while running barefoot. I find it both highly amusing and highly suspicious that barefoot running advocates conveniently don't mention Abebe Bikila came back four years later to win the 1964 Olympic Marathon wearing shoes on his feet. (In fact, Bikila decided to run the 1960 Marathon in his bare feet because the only available shoes for him didn't fit.) We often hear so much about African children running miles to and from school each day in their bare feet, and indeed, this is probably a major reason why these African children grow up to be world class runners. What we don't hear is that once these African children reach a certain level of running success, they start putting on running shoes and reach even greater heights. Now I ask you: Why do these runners, who fully appreciate the apparent advantages of running barefoot, choose to put on shoes once they have the opportunity to do so and continue to run even faster, rather than continue to run in their bare feet? Barefoot running advocates have absolutely no answer to this inconvenient question.

But McDougall makes a rather convincing case that with running shoes, less is often more. I never cease to be amazed of the performances of athletes in the 50's, 60's and 70's who ran in flimsy slipper-like shoes. And over time, I've found that the best running shoes are the stripped down models, with less overall cushioning. I considered running in lighter and thinner soled racing flats, but found they simply don't provide enough support, and my legs feel pretty beat up if I wear them for too long. Understanding that running without shoes is less than a hindrance one might think, simply taking off your shoes can expose you to more injuries, and it is interesting to note that at the end of the book, Barefoot Ted nurses sore, bandaged feet after the end of the big ultramarathon showdown, while the rest of the athletes, even those that raced in lightweight sandals, were relatively injury free. Sure, the running shoe companies would love to sell everyone their high-end shoes with overhyped and overpriced gadgets, (as if that were a shocking revelation), but the main thing to take away from "Born to Run" is that simple running shoes are the best shoes.

I also found McDougall's writing on benefits running form to be some most valuable information on running I've ever read. From the various passages on running form McDougall wrote, I've modified my running form to have a slight forward lean, with the ball of my foot landing directly below the hips, and my arms swinging either forward or backward without any wasteful side-to- side motion. Running with this form was a little awkward at first, creating the sensation of a continuous fall, with each foot plant catching me from landing smack on my face. But over time, it became natural and lead to an overall faster running pace, and less wear and tear on the body.

But perhaps the most notable chapter in the book describes research by University of Utah evolutionary biologist David Carrier and Dennis Bramble, who teamed up with Harvard evolutionary anthropologist Dan Lieberman, to discover the big evolutionary advantage early Homo sapiens had over Neanderthals because Homo sapiens were better adapted to distance running. It took South African Louis Lienberg, who spent a few years living with Kalahari Desert bushmen and joining them in hunts as they chased antelope until the tired animal collapsed from exhaustion after 3-5 hours. These hunts are a more efficient means of hunting than using crude arrows and other weapons available when both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals roamed the earth. So while Neanderthals had a number of physiological advantages over Homo sapiens, their inability to run down prey in packs is cited as a major reason why the Neanderthals eventually vanished from the face of the earth.

Which explains why the odd, modern day tribe of runners continue their strange habit. We're only human.