[quote]LBramble wrote:
[quote]OBoile wrote:
[quote]LBramble wrote:
Mr. Ed,
Whether you switch to hills, or continue distance, for your knee’s sake, make sure your running on GRASS.
NOT concrete
NOT Asphalt
NOT a synthetic track.
Your feet and knees evolved for 10 million years on dirt, grass, sand etc. They are designed for optimal use and optimal health on these surfaces. Pavement ain’t been around very long in the big picture. And if all you need to make running on pavement healthy is fancy ass $200 shoes, then why are all the college/pro baseball and football teams switching back to grass???
Because despite the fancy shoes, their biggest investment,their players, were dropping like flies due to knee and feet problems.
I haven’t found a good grass hill in my new home in Nashville, so i run 40’s on a nearby high school grass football field.
You may want to give flat sprints on grass a go, then try hills. Twenty 40’s is a decent workout if ya run’em all out.
Stay on the grass.
Your knees will thank you.
LB[/quote]
I really don’t think this is that big of a deal. Particularly if you are running up hill which already greatly reduces the amount of impact. Lots of people have been jogging on pavement for years with no problems.
I’ll agree grass is better, but I wouldn’t worry too much if there isn’t a good grass hill around.[/quote]
For me it is.
I use to box since my teens, got old, then coach’d kids, and when i coached i sparred which required stayin in shape. Miles and miles of early AM roadwork and evenings skipping rope took its toll. I was scheduled for knee miniscus surgery (in the fall 4 years ago) after an exam but asked my surgeon to wait till January because i had used all my medical pre-pay dollars that year. Came across an article talking about evolution, knee’s and ankles and pavement and shoes. I couldn’t just sit on my ass waitng for January so i found a softball field and started running circles around it in the grass. By January i had no pain at all. I had the knee’s re-scoped and the tears in both knees had healed themselves. And sparring was no longer painful, except for when i caught a good left hook.
I don’t do any running period on anything but grass.
I’ll guess and say your not in your mid 50’s yet. Yeah?
And i don’t do distance anymore period either for the same evolutionary reasoning.
Ask yourself, aside from being better than doing no exercise at all, where is the evolutionary advantage to running long distance slowly (i.e. jogging) or for that matter running a marathon at WR pace???
10,000 years ago you had to be fast enough to catch the deer you wounded, and fast enough to get away from the bear or tiger. Sprints have evolutionary function. As a man, ask yourself, would you rather look like the olympic winner of the marathon or the 100 metre’s. Or better yet go ask an 18 co-ed which one she thinks is hotter. Selection of the fittest.
Still think thats crap, go to a daycare and watch kids under 5 when they are free to play without rules. They do what comes natural. You NEVER see one running slowly around the playground. They will all run their tails off as fast as they can till they’re out of breath, stop, catch they’re breath, and do it all over again. Sprints. Just like a baby tiger that attacks it’s mother’s neck, or it’s brother’s neck when its playing. It ain’t by accident.
We don’t “learn” to jog until we get “old” cause its easy. And we ain’t got to physically survive like our great great great grandad’s did. But thats where are genes are from.
If you don’t think running on pavement is problem go see an orthopedic surgeon and ask him/her how’s business.
LB[/quote]
No I’m not > 50 and no I don’t run much anymore for many of the same reasons you gave (I’m not sure why you said all this, given my first post on this thread was pro-sprints). That being said, there is a theory that many human tribes hunted by running their prey until they were exhausted.
My dad is 62 and my step-mom is 59. Both run ~20 miles a week and have been running on pavement for > 30 years. So have many other people. It really isn’t that big of a deal.