Quick catch-up: McDougall was an avid runner. Like many avid runners who entered the sport in the 1970s, he was an avid heel-striker. And like many avid heel-strikers as he entered middle age, he began enduring a host of injuries common to runners. Doctors told him to find something else to do, but McDougall wasn’t ready for long walks in the park. Besides, he wondered, running was once integral to our survival: running to catch a meal, running to avoid becoming a meal. Thousands of years had groomed us to run; only the last few hundred had tried to break us of the habit. And what about pockets of people around the world such as the Tarahumara in Mexico’s Copper Canyon who could run for days on end? Why could they run forever?

In searching for answers McDougall discovered that we were indeed born to run: We’d just forgotten how to do it. Rather than running on our forefeet, which have the bone structure to absorb the constant pounding of running, we’d been lulled by pricey running shoes with thick, wedge-shaped heels into striking our heels first. There’s little natural absorption in the heel; thus, over time that constant pounding takes a toll.

There’s been considerable debate on the matter, but probably the most telling endorsement of the “Born to Run” minimalist approach? The shoe companies that got us hooked on those cushy running shoes in the ‘70s all now offer minimalist shoes that cater too, and encourage, a forefoot strike.

Now weighing in on the issue: the American Council on Exercise. ACE enlisted the help of the University of Wisconsin La Crosse’s Exercise and Health Program to study the effectiveness and safety of minimalist running. Researchers John Porcari, Ph.D., and Caitlin McCarthy, M.S., recruited 16 injury-free female recreational joggers ages 19 to 25 and tested them running under three conditions: wearing the Vibram FiveFingers Bikilas, a barefoot-style running shoe; wearing “neutral” running shoes (New Balance 625); and while barefoot. The runners were then tested in the lab for “3-D motion analysis and measurement of ground-reaction forces.”

The results show that test subjects who ran properly in the FiveFingers — meaning they adopted a forefoot strike — did indeed endure less stress. Those who persisted with their heel-striking ways, however, were more prone to injury.

If you’ve been following the “Born to Run” debate, check out the full study here. Worry not: It’s relatively short and devoid of medicalese.

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In other fitness news …

Do you have a fitness “problem”? Ever wonder if you work out too much? Of course you don’t — but maybe you should. According to The Nemours Foundation, you may be a “compulsive exerciser” if you:

• Refuse to skip a workout even when tired, injured or sick.
• Exercise out of obligation, rather than enjoyment.
• Double the length of a workout after missing one.
• Obsess over weight and burning calories, along with weight loss.
• Increase exercise to make up for eating more.
• Prioritize exercise above seeing friends and family, and participating in social activities.
• Allow intensity and frequency of exercise to affect self-esteem.
• Are unable to find satisfaction in physical accomplishments.

Stroke! Stroke! Finally, if you’re a guy and you’ve been trying to get pregnant (you know what I mean), try taking your boys for a walk. A study of 215 guys at Japan’s Yamaguchi U. found that those who exercised moderately exhibited the best sperm motility. (Translation for those who have never been handed a specimen cup: their sperm were better swimmers.) Interestingly, couch potatoes and the fitness obsessed both had weaker swimmers. Learn more here.

Battle of the bulge. Wanna lose that spare tire? Jogging beats weight lifting for losing belly fat, according to a recent study at Duke’s Medical Center. Duke studied 196 sedentary, overweight adults ages 18-70 over an eight-month period. Half ran the equivalent of 12 miles per week at 80 percent maximum heart rate, half did three sets of eight to 12 weight reps three times per week. Result: the aerobic exercisers burned 67 percent more calories than the resistance trainers.

“Resistance training is great for improving strength and increasing lean body mass,” according to lead author and Duke exercise physiologist Cris Slentz. “But if you are overweight, which two-thirds of the population is, and you want to lose belly fat, aerobic exercise is the better choice because it burns more calories.” More here.

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Right, I gasped to myself. And you can pick up my lung when I cough it up.

It was my first “coached” running workout and a whirlwind of thoughts rushed through my oxygen-deprived brain as I did the third of my four prescribed 600-meter sprints (bookended by a pair of 1,000-meter dashes). Will I be seeing that tuna wrap I had for lunch again? was foremost. Why am I doing this? was a close second. By “this,” I meant hiring, at age 54, a coach to drive me, push me and to make my body feel like it hadn’t since I’d last crossed paths with a coach in high school some 35 years ago.

Quick background: Back in my 20s, I ran — a lot. Mostly 10Ks, about 30-35 miles a week. When I turned 30 my back and knees simultaneously quit; I turned to swimming, cycling and other less-pounding pursuits. Then, last fall, the bug to run, which had never entirely disappeared, surfaced when I started reading about where running was headed. Out were the days of long, meaningless training runs intended solely to rack up miles. Today, the smart runner runs less but makes every mile count. Less emphasis on long pounding runs, more on interval training. I was also inspired — as have been countless others — by “Born to Run,” which, among other things, repudiates the heel-strike movement of the ‘70s in favor of a running stride emphasizing a forefoot strike.

I enrolled in the Fit-tastic walk-to-run training program, which promises to take non-runners and make them capable of running a 5K in 12 weeks. My plan: Prove to myself that I can still run a 5k, then go back to cycling. After three months of training I figured my knees and back would renew their protest and force me back into less impact-insistent activities. Three months of knee and back cooperation, that was all I asked for. Then they could protest all they wanted.

Oddly, that didn’t happen.

In fact, I regained my dormant running form and did pretty well in my 5K return, finishing third in my age group in my first race. I kept running through the winter, upping my mileage. In April, I did a 12-mile trail race. Inspired, I enrolled in the Fast Coaching half marathon training program over the summer. On Labor Day weekend I exceeded my expectations, running the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in 1:45. I was happy, my knees and back were happy. What next? I thought.

The Second Empire Grand Prix 2010 Fall Series, it turned out. The series is a collection of eight races, ranging from the mile-long Magnificent Mile to the Anna’s Angels 10-miler. Most of the races, though, are 5ks, which set up the obvious scenario of trying to improve with each successive race. That meant doing a lot of the “smart” training, with long runs interspersed with intervals, that I’d been reading about. And that planted the seed of hiring Coach Tim.

Back in the ‘80s, Tim Clark was a competitive runner. He’d nearly broken the 15-minute barrier in the 5k, did 31 minutes and change in the 10K. Tim knew about effective training, and what he knew he’d been passing along to others for the last 15 years. (Tim had coached our Fit-tastic group.) And because Tim had been a competitive runner, he knew what it took to meet a goal: someone riding your butt, indifferent to the fact you were beet red, out of breath and about to come un-wrapped.

Coaching adults, even ones who are paying you, is no easy task. First and foremost, they are adults. They take grief daily on the job; they aren’t up for more, well intended as it may be, come playtime. The trick, then, is to be encouraging and demanding without coming off like a high school football coach. You don’t handle a sulking adult who balks at doing that last 400-meter interval by getting in their grill and questioning their manhood. Rather, you do what you would do with a challenging employee: you gently tell them they’re doing good, then throw in the “but” — “but you need to do better.” Especially if they hope to achieve this dubious goal of being 18 again.

At first, I wasn’t entirely sure why I’d hired Tim. Because everyone is doing it? (The American College of Sports Medicine says taking on a personal trainer/coach is one of the top 10 fitness trends for 2011.) I didn’t have long to mull it over; the first question Tim asked was, “What’s your goal? What are we shooting for here?” So I made one up on the spot: I want to break 21 minutes in a 5K. Tim created a workout routine aimed at helping me do just that. And that’s when I realized how Coach Tim differed from Coach Lucifer back at Gateway High: When you’re in high school, the coach gets you to do what he wants you to do. When you’re an adult, a coach helps you achieve what you want to do. Therein lies the danger of hiring a personal coach:

Be careful what you ask for — a coach will make you work for it.

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