Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Reading Response 2: Born to Run
I started another book this week. I started reading probably one of the best books ever written, it's most definitely the best running book ever written. This book has inspired millions of runners and people. This book is about a group of superhuman athletes called the Tarhumara Indians. These people can run hundreds of miles a day, yes I did say in one day, without a single hint of an injury. I've learned that every year during their harvest they have a giant party where they consume large amounts of their home brewed corn beer and they do this all night. Then, the next day they all line up and run for 2 days straight, I couldn't run for more than 3 hours straight. The most any of the Tarhumara have ran during the 2 days was 435 miles, that's equivalent to running from New York to Detroit. This Indians live off the bare minimum, they wear homemade skirts, togas and sandals. They live invisible, you could pass and entire village without even noticing a hint of human life around. This is how they like to keep things, they only show themseslves when they want to. They have been through so much in last 400 years, from explorers enslavinng them to men killing them for the scalps just to make money. These reason are why they live so far in the Barracas del Cobre or Copper Canyon. This book is written by a reporter who is a doing a story or more of an investigation on why he has problems running and how he can fix them. His name is Christopher McDougall, he's an award winning journalist and often injured runner.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Reading Response 1: "Running with the Buffaloes"

Lately I have been reading a couple books but the one I have enjoyed most is the book "Running with the Buffaloes" by Chris Lear. It is about the 1998 Colorado University Cross Country team and their journey the NCAA Cross Country Championship race. So far I have met the the entire team from the people who are the top runners all the way to the newcomers, they all have very strong abilities to their different styles of running. The top runner Goucher exceeds all expectations and demands with his training. His Coach Mark Wetmore is a very strategic man, focuses on the longer runs more than the speed and repittion runs. He looks at everyone as a key component to the team either as a top seven runner, alternate runner, or a wild card (a runner that puts in a lot of work but you never know what will happen during a race). So far they have just started their season are in Phase C of Wetmore's training program which is longer anerobic workouts with shorter rest periods. The team is training a lot harder this year for the NCAAs because this is the senior's last year to win the NCAAs as a team rather than as individuals, they want to do this because it has never been done at Colorado University. That is all I have for now, so I will inform you on more when I post next time.