A Proper Response


 The next time someone tells you when you barefoot that "X" is the proper way to walk remember this. The ways the foot can be used are absurdly varied. 36 joints with 24 of them being voluntarily mobile not to mention all of the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles in the foot and lower leg annndd there interplay with the kinetic chain.

 In club turning traditions the soles of the feet and the weight displacement potential within are often referred to as the bubbling well or pot because the number of variances is like counting bubbles in boiling water. Heel toe, toe to heel, knife edge forefoot to heel to big toe, knife edge to big toe to heel, heel pivot to big toe to knife edge and the list goes on and on and is perfectly applicable to everything from picking you nose while waiting for the bus to running marathon distances.

There are overlaying patterns but really considering that we don't even all have the exact same proportions, nervous systems and number of muscles getting overly pedantic is not going to help the situation.

Meat our supper!

When diagrams are great

I have been exposed to a lot of really crappy anatomical diagrams through the years. This is not one of them, seriously look at that! Clear and consistent with amazing printing standards and even clearer labeling.  I recently paid 80 bucks for materials and membership to a local trainers network and frankly their standards (all of them) are crap. So looks like its the same (personal) course as always but with one change. Teach myself, as I know that I won't get shortchanged, then I am going to go and challenge me some courses with an advanced standing. So that, optimistically, I don't have to listen to anyone try to spoonfeed me bullshit.

But seriously, look at that fucking diagram!

Meat my lunch

I love my local store. The package says lamb head or liver. In actuality I think they just scoop out a lamb.

Machines suck!

Machines suck! That is all.

Musings on Barefoot Running (and training) Part 3

Everything I discuss in this article is centered around a barefoot conditioned physiology although it has some bearing for shod training.

Kinda.

Walking is what we all do before we run and walking can play a big part in rounding off any training regime. I do not mean clomping around the city running errands but more like a walking meditation. Walking only at a speed that you can fully control, meaning that our pronation is clean and supports the knee, the pendulum of the legs is smooth, the rotation in the torso, sway of the shoulders and arms are timed and calibrated to length of the stride and vice versa.

When a violinist draws the bow across the strings there is a relationship of friction, speed  and placement that takes place. The more accomplished the player generally the better they are at combining these elements to control the vibration of the string and subsequently which frequencies are chosen for prominence based upon their aesthetic beauty in the context of the piece of music.

If you take walking a path as your piece of sheet music this makes sense, you want the deepest understanding possible of your walk and the way this happens is by allowing it (the path, the walk/run, your piece of music) to build upon itself creating its own context and meaning. Basically by building complimentary archetypal relationships the same way a painter paints, a writer writes or a composer composes.

The point of walking in a very clean form is the exact same as the string control for a musician. We need to control the body's frequency (which is generated by the gait at which we walk) in the same way the musician needs to maintain control of the string. If we move succinctly (not too hot not too cold is a good colloquialism for this) we can walk without losing kinetic energy which leads to being able to create more amplitude and just the right frequency. Which simply results walking and running further and faster without exhausting ourselves while simultaneously building capacity for movement and expenditure which will allow one to walk and run further and faster without exhausting ourselves.

Hows that for fucking circuitous? Its no small shit that basically every culture ever has had an affinity for the circle.

Immediately upon realising this I began to get the results in my runs that I have been wanting which is namely running further faster through better control of my body by envisioning this concept of the body resonating like a bowed string. Our bodies are proportioned in a manner that is approximate to many other plants and animals as well as the harmonic series of a vibrating string (golden ratio). I find this concept plays straight through all of my training that involves me having my feet on the ground (closed kinetic chain ).

Poor control and "ramming" breaks strings and destroys bodies. I have experienced, seen and see the evidence of this everyday.

The only way that I have been able to get to this point of functional visualization was by slowing down and walking so that the movements are easier to "see". Once again to use the analogy of the bow, one does not grip, grab or hold a bow. The more accurate term is that one mounts a bow, the fingers sit atop the stick and the thumb lightly presses the stick into place against the fingers creating a hinge point behind the balance point, if you grab a bow in a strangle hold it will not only sound like ass but the player will literally gas out during performances. I feel that the process of walking (and running) can be rationalised the same way. The outer edge of the foot and fourth and third toe are placed on the ground first and the foot rolls into place across to the big toe which creates the pressure to balance the foot to deliver the mechanical energy up the leg and through the body. We mount the ground with our feet, there are exceptions of course but overall this is the optimal process. All for the same reasons as our hypothetical musician, to control the frequencies of the string length (the human kinetic chain) to generate the perfect frequency and amplitude for the task at hand.

In this case we can almost be described as an auto-stimulated and self regulated wave length.

Yonge st 10k and the fate of Foreign Objects

 So, first off I have deleted the Foreign Objects post until I can re-write it. I was honestly in the midst of really not feeling very well and rather in a brain fog. I re-read the post yesterday and as a result feel that it really wasn't lucid enough so...from the title I bet you thought it was going to be one of those awkward political rants about "immigrants" didn't you! 

(sounds of laughter and knee slapping)

Enough of that let's get on to something a little more fun.

 I run fairly regularly, on average 16 k at a time, but have never gone and taken part in a large scale public run before. My first ever marathon was the 2013 Yonge St 10k here in Toronto. I. HAD. A. BLAST. I ran it the spirit of a fun run taking 53 minutes to complete the course. I think if I had poured on some speed I would have completed in under 45 minutes but honestly I was far more into enjoying the view running down a car free Yonge St with over 6000 of my buddies.

 I maintain a very typical barefoot runners form. Straight back and neck with relaxed, mobile shoulders and hips. The similarities between my unshod, minimalist and shod runners were most apparent in impact as judged by the quality of noise that the runners were making. I definitely freaked out a couple people as I passed because they couldn't hear me. I needed to be sure to make some deliberate noise (y'know, bit of finger snapping and throat clearing before delivering my "back on the left") so that I didn't freak anyone out on the course as I went by.

 Overall I noticed a strong and positive sense of esprit de coeur. It was also really fun to have the "gazelles" come bounding out of the crowd to come have a little talk and a laugh about running with and without shoes  in Canada with its kaleidoscope weather.  Oh gazelles you make me smile still. 

This is it, the conclusion. 

Run lightly and compassionately with respect for the environment and people around you. When in doubt pull off your shoes, get off your ass and go out and run and hike with others as it is our nature.