Sorry, I don't get Jason and Damian's points (in these last two comments). I (and Abide) started out making a simple suggestion, then Damian introduced all these extraneous points, I tried to get it back to the original point, and then we all end up agreeing with each other. A complete waste of time in my opinion, but I'm glad everyone seems to agree with each other in the end.
Yes, it's truly about doing what we enjoy, so long as some kind of base level of fitness and health are attained and sustained. I guess whenever someone mentions science or studies or research, the image of a fuddy duddy in a lab coat immediately comes to mind for some people. I don't enjoy simplistic dichotomies at all, like dry scientist versus fun-loving hippie, and become annoyed when I try to manage these conversations away from them. For me, there's an art and science to everything we do, and there's no need to choose one side or the other. But oftentimes, if someone says A, another feels compelled to say not A; B, without even bothering to listen to the point of A. Just a complete waste of time.
At first, I began participating in these forums, last spring or so, because all this was new to me--I had been a 'just run' sort of runner--and I wanted know what I thought of some of the seemingly absurd notions bouncing around in barefoot circles, like running slow to run fast (Maf method), maintaining an exact cadence no matter what the pace, using gravity to go forward, actively lifting one's feet, and so on. I've lumped these together as the rules-based approaches. I've since learned that few if anyone in elite running circles entertain these notions, nor does current research support them, which comes as a relief. But, as Jason has noted, some of them may be useful as coaching cues, or as remedies to over-training, or a way to help newbie runners ease into things, and so on. Fair enough.
In contrast, I've found what may be called the 'just run' approach, or perhaps we could call it 'natural running' except that phrase has also been adopted for a more narrow description of non-heel-striking running. In this approach, there is perhaps less conscious manipulation according to a rigid set of percepts, one tries to adhere more to the natural capabilities of the human body, and one draws more on empirical observation and established science than idea-driven methods and novel interpretations of scientific principles. I'm happy a like-minded runner like Abide also enjoys sites like Magness's and Kanute's and their endorsement of this more naturalistic approach. I like talking to and learning from those kinds of people about running and fitness stuff. Frankly, Damian seems to have trouble staying on topic, doesn't respond to actual questions where his experience might be of some use, and has poor reading comprehension. So I don't really enjoy the exchanges. Yah, I get the part about overcoming challenges, living your dreams, testing the limits, creating your own reality, etc., and have done a fair amount of that sort of thing in the past myself, but that wasn't the point of the body-type question. Maybe in a different context, like shooting the shit over beer, it would be more fun. I know this is an internet forum and we write our responses hastily, often when we should be doing something else, but if the conversations about technique or training get too flabby I stop enjoying them and lose interest.
Anyway, after six months of looking into this stuff, I know more or less all I need to know now. I will continue to enjoy conversations in which details and refinements are discussed, like body type with respect to running protocols, or the relative merits of engaging the 'core', and methods for doing so, so long as they stay relatively focused, but I think I will do my best to avoid any discussion of the meta issues involved in the rules-based approaches from now on.
Mostly, I'm thinking about my run later today, hoping my knee continues to feel good as I try to up the mileage slightly to 3-4 miles or so. Because I need to run, and these baby runs just aren't doing it for me. My sense is that I'm another 2-3 weeks out before I can begin to push it a bit. Both Jason and Damian's endorsement of active recovery has been very useful to me, and hopefully Damian's pills will further the process along, so for that, I'm grateful to have participated in this conversation.
. Oh well. Just in case there's something to the Hammer capsules, how often do you recommend taking them?
