Good Source on Elastic Energy Storage

The Achilles tendon is short or absent in great apes, but long in arboreal gibbons and humans^. It provides elastic energy storage in hopping, walking, and running. Computer models suggest this energy storage Achilles tendon increases top running speed by >80% reduces running costs by more than three-quarters.  It has been suggested that the "absence of a well-developed Achilles tendon in the nonhuman African apes would preclude them from effective running, both at high speeds and over extended distances."

From Evolutionary Robotic Approaches in Primate Gait Analysis (Link Here)

Abstract Understanding how primates move is particularly challenging because many of the experimentation techniques that would normally be available are unsuitable for ethical and conservation reasons. We therefore need to develop techniques that can maximize the data available from minimally intrusive experimentation. One approach for achieving this is to use evolutionary robotic techniques to build a musculoskeletal simulation and generate movement patterns that optimize some global parameter such as economy or performance, or to match existing kinematic data. If the simulation has a sufficiently high biofidelity and can match experimentally measured performance criteria then we can use it to predict aspects of locomotor mechanics that would otherwise be impossible to measure. This approach is particularly valuable when studying fossil primates because it can be based entirely on morphology and can generate movements spontaneously. A major question in human evolution is the origin of bipedal running and the role of elastic energy storage. By using an evolutionary robotics model of humanoid running we can show that elastic storage is required for efficient, high-performance running. Elasticity allows both energy recovery to minimize total energy cost and also power amplification to allow high performance. The most important elastic energy store on the human hind limb is the Achilles tendon: a feature that is at best weakly expressed among the African great apes. By running simulations both with and without this structure we can demonstrate its importance, and we suggest that identification of the presence or otherwise of this tendon—perhaps by calcaneal morphology or Sharpey’s fibers—is essential for identifying when and where in the fossil record human style running originated.

Beach Running World Championship Has Begun

 

A great trend - I hope there's a time where every beach vacation we take, we can participate in events such as this!  

 

Beach Running World Championship Has Begun

The Beach Running World Championship began at just after 7:00 AM today >Nov 19th<.  

Runners, including a barefoot division, will follow a course a course along the beach from the Cococa Beach Pier south to about the southern city limits of Cocoa Beach, then turn around and head back to the Cocoa Beach Pier for the Finish.

The race is organized by the Beach Running Association and sponsored by Ron Jon Surf Shop.

You're Doing It Wrong

Mr McDougall, instead of "there's only one way to run"

How about "there's only one way to find out how YOU run"

To the aggressive opponents of barefoot or barefoot-style running (can't imagine why/how you'd take that position) - picking apart the semantics is not a way to refute a good theory.  The point people like Christopher are trying to make is that the only way to find YOUR way is by including the intrinsic parts of your body, without treating bio-mechanical symptoms through over the counter footwear. 

From NY Times <Link here>

Christopher McDougall is an ardent proponent of barefoot running, but as the number of tendo-achilles and calf injuries related to running barefoot rises, it is clear to those of us who treat ailing runners that this is not the ideal form for everyone. Just as there are alternate styles of swimming or hitting a baseball, biomechanics shows us that runners should develop their own style to maximize performance.
DR. JAY KERNER,
Rockville Centre, N.Y.

There are new injuries.  People need education along with minimal footwear.  That's what places like this blog are for.  How can we better reach out to people doing TMTS (too much too soon) on muscles that have atrophied after a lifetime of over-support and cushioning??   Open to suggestions....

Save the Kids' Feet

I watched my niece run by my in a heavily cushioned shoe.  She's 6.5 years old and was wearing a >10oz shoe.  Doing the math, that's the same as me wearing a >3pound shoe! 

That made me decide to get minimal shoes for my 3 nieces.  As if reading my mind, I just got an email today from Soft Star Shoes advertising their latest youth shoe.  Link Here.  So my gift will be 'foot strength' :). 

Any other ancestral gift ideas?  Please share!

So You’ve Run A Marathon. But Could You Run 100 Miles?

Photo: Elaine Acosta

While there are hardcore runners out there who live to run marathons at the competitive level, most people strive to simply finish one: 26.2 miles of blood, sweat, and tears (but mostly sweat). However, did you know there’s a whole subculture of uber-athletic runners who go above and beyond those “measly” 26.2 miles? This is the world of ultra marathon running, where participants run (and run and run and run) any distance beyond the standard length of a “regular” marathon. And one of the longest supported races is the 100 mile-long Javelina Jundred, which took place this past weekend in the Sonora Desert of Arizona.
Now in its ninth year, the Javelina Jundred — pronounced with “H” sounds as in “jalapeño” — started out as a joke in 2003 when runners Geri Kilgariff and Anthony Humpage were running the Pemberton Trail in Arizona’s McDowell Mountain Regional Park: an idea to run over six loops around the desert trail to total 100 miles. That joke spiraled into a more serious idea, and before they knew it, 180 people signed up for the first “100-Mile Party Run.” Nine years later — now organized by Aravaipa Running and sanctioned by US Track and Field — it drew 384 extreme ultra-runners this past weekend, to challenge them to run 100 desert miles over the span of 30 hours straight.
Of that 384, only 173 runners finished the entire run after battling not only the fatigue of running, but nose bleeds, blisters, darkness, coyote howls, and rainstorms. As much as this “fun run” may have been appealing to these runners, it wasn’t necessarily fun the entire time, especially when you’re running solo during parts of the trail in the middle of the night and it starts pouring.

Elaine Acosta runs the Javelina Jundred by night.

“[It was fun], but it wasn’t when I was running,” said ultra-runner Elaine Acosta of New Jersey, who had gone through all of the aforementioned hardships, including the downpour in her 18th consecutive hour of running. “No, it’s awesome. That’s what I had to keep telling myself. It’s all mental.” Acosta is no stranger to ultra marathons, having run fifteen “regular” marathons, four 50k’s (31 mi.), three 50-milers, and one 56-mile race since 2007, in races around the globe from South Africa to India. Running these “measly” sub-100-mile marathons seems to be part of the proper training for the century runs; in fact, runner Hideki Kinoshita warmed up for the Javelina Jundred by running the ING New York City Marathon just the weekend before.
While Kinoshita dropped out around mile 70, others did complete the grueling endurance race, some with astonishing times: Hal Koerner was the top male runner, completing the 100-miler in 13 hours, 47 minutes; Elizabeth Howard was the top female at 15 hours, 47 minutes. Acosta completed the race in 28 hours, 42 minutes, just a little over an hour before the cutoff time. In the end it was worth it; she left the course with a “runners’ high” as she has with every ultra marathon she’s completed.
“That’s why I do it,” said Acosta. “You love it and you hate it. And whenever I cross the finish line I say I want to do it again.”
So where does an ultra marathon runner go after running 100 miles? There’s the Badwater Ultramarathon, covering 135 miles in a non-stop race from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, CA — and in temperatures up to 130°F — which requires applicants to bring their own support team. Acosta is considering it — but not until she’s fully recovered from her first “measly” 100-mile race.

Running Shoes, More Harm Than Good