There’s nothing like good news from the scientific community to spur interest in a given exercise: We’re all open to the latest magic bullet when it comes to getting in shape or improving performance. We’re even more susceptible when that magic bullet includes the promise of health minus hurt. Which is why a study appearing last week in the journal Nature suggesting that running barefoot may help prevent injury has caused the sports medicine community to respond with an optimistic cringe.
Category Archives: Running
The barefoot runner: Coming in from the cold
In the midst of Saturday’s snow and ice storm, Jon Hayden of Holly Springs went for an 18-mile run wearing a pair of $5 water shoes from Walmart. The water shoes, a thin glove of rubber and mesh intended for a hot summer day at the beach, were a concession: Hayden, a marathoner, prefers to run in his bare feet.
Dealing with disappointment
I wanted to surf, but grew up a thousand miles from the nearest ocean. I wanted to be a synchronized swimmer, but the only guys who did it were these two. I wanted to play pro football, but my hair hurt when I took off the helmet. So I did other things. Things that a 12-year-old didn’t have to hitchhike a thousand miles to do. Things it was socially acceptable for guys to do. Things that didn’t hurt my hair.
Four carrots to get you to spring
I love carrots, crave them. Couldn’t press on without ‘em. If I can’t envision a carrot in the distance, I’m hard pressed to roll out of bed and go for an early morning run or ride, let alone in 20-degree weather. So today, a few carrots to motivate you through the cold challenge of winter.
News from your neighborhood statewide trail
The emailroom here at GGNC gets inundated with enewsletters, and frankly, most are enews in ename only: most are eblabla. The staff is instructed to throw most in the circular efile.
The January 2010 enewsletter from the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is an exception, chock full of news on several fronts. We’ll get to those fronts in a moment, but for the benefit of those of you not familiar with the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, a quick introduction is in order. The MST is a work-in-progress trail that will one day span the state, running from Clingman’s Dome on the Tennessee border to Jockey’s Ridge State Park, where North Carolina gives it up to the Atlantic. The trail is estimated to run about 1,000 miles when done. About half of it is finished, volunteer work crews are adding more monthly, which is enewsnugget No. 1 from this months Friends newsletter: