Eric Orton's Posts

Running with the Tarahumara Indians - Part 2

Posted by Eric Orton on May 27, 2009 at 11:52pm

Once we had arrived in the canyon and got that first run in our legs, life started to slow down a bit and for the first time I was able to thinking about what was about to happen. For years now I had been researching as much as I could about the Running People of the Copper Canyon. Now I was about to trek 30 miles in their company. You could tell Caballo Blanco was getting a little anxious for the trek and how the Indians would react to us. We left Batopilas early in the morning and headed down the road and onto dirt. This was the quietest the group had been the entire trip and you could feel the anticipation. The plan was to trek to the homes of the Batopilas Tribe who were planning to race and journey the 30 miles with them up and over the canyon walls into the town of Urique, the race site. The following pictures were taken during our ascent up the canyon:

Ironically, I took this shot of the same rock, just moments after Luis capture the shot for the cover of Born To Run

As we ascended the canyon with the Tarahumara runners, it was very quiet and everyone just hiked. You could here whispers every once in a while, but for the most part, all you could hear was respect! Once we hit the top of the canyon, you could see for miles and how expansive the canyon(s) were. On the ridge we stopped for fuel and Jenn broke the ice with her trademark handstand. This got everyone smiling and just like that, the air was lifted and the group started to talk and laugh and interact. This was the first time I felt comfortable taking out my camera and here are the shots I took as we ate and became friends with the indians.

Scott, Luis, and Barefoot Ted's sunburned shoulders.

Jenn and Billy - All is Good!

Scott and Caballo Blanco fueling up for the descent into Urique

Luis and Arnolfo

Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Christopher McDougall

Posted by Eric Orton on May 25, 2009 at 11:08pm

Question: Born to Run explores the life and running habits of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyon, arguably the greatest distance runners in the world. What are some of the secrets you learned from them? Christopher McDougall: The key secret hit me like a thunderbolt. It was so simple, yet such a jolt. It was this: everything I’d been taught about running was wrong. We treat running in the modern world the same way we treat childbirth—it’s going to hurt, and requires special exercises and equipment, and the best you can hope for is to get it over with quickly with minimal damage. Then I meet the Tarahumara, and they’re having a blast. They remember what it’s like to love running, and it lets them blaze through the canyons like dolphins rocketing through waves. For them, running isn’t work. It isn’t a punishment for eating. It’s fine art, like it was for our ancestors. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle—behold, the Running Man. The Tarahumara have a saying: “Children run before they can walk.” Watch any four-year-old—they do everything at full speed, and it’s all about fun. That’s the most important thing I picked up from my time in the Copper Canyons, the understanding that running can be fast and fun and spontaneous, and when it is, you feel like you can go forever. But all of that begins with your feet. Strange as it sounds, the Tarahumara taught me to change my relationship with the ground. Instead of hammering down on my heels, the way I’d been taught all my life, I learned to run lightly and gently on the balls of my feet. The day I mastered it was the last day I was ever injured. Q: You trained for your first ultramarathon—a race organized by the mysterious gringo expat Caballo Blanco between the Tarahumara and some of America’s top ultrarunners—while researching and writing this book. What was your training like? CM: It really started as kind of a dare. Just by chance, I’d met an adventure-sports coach from Jackson Hole, Wyoming named Eric Orton. Eric’s specialty is tearing endurance sports down to their basic components and looking for transferable skills. He studies rock climbing to find shoulder techniques for kayakers, and applies Nordic skiing’s smooth propulsion to mountain biking. What he’s looking for are basic engineering principles, because he’s convinced that the next big leap forward in fitness won’t come from strength or technology, but plain, simple durability. With some 70% of all runners getting hurt every year, the athlete who can stay healthy and avoid injury will leave the competition behind. So naturally, Eric idolized the Tarahumara. Any tribe that has 90-year-old men running across mountaintops obviously has a few training tips up its sleeve. But since Eric had never actually met the Tarahumara, he had to deduce their methods by pure reasoning. His starting point was uncertainty; he assumed that the Tarahumara step into the unknown every time they leave their caves, because they never know how fast they’ll have to sprint after a rabbit or how tricky the climbing will be if they’re caught in a storm. They never even know how long a race will be until they step up to the starting line—the distance is only determined in a last-minute bout of negotiating and could stretch anywhere from 50 miles to 200-plus. Eric figured shock and awe was the best way for me to build durability and mimic Tarahumara-style running. He’d throw something new at me every day—hopping drills, lunges, mile intervals—and lots and lots of hills. There was no such thing, really, as long, slow distance—he’d have me mix lots of hill repeats and short bursts of speed into every mega-long run. I didn’t think I could do it without breaking down, and I told Eric that from the start. I basically defied him to turn me into a runner. And by the end of nine months, I was cranking out four hour runs without a problem. Q: You’re a six-foot four-inches tall, 200-plus pound guy—not anyone’s typical vision of a distance runner, yet you’ve completed ultra marathons and are training for more. Is there a body type for running, as many of us assume, or are all humans built to run? CM: Yeah, I’m a big’un. But isn’t it sad that’s even a reasonable question? I bought into that bull for a loooong time. Why wouldn’t I? I was constantly being told by people who should know better that “some bodies aren’t designed for running.” One of the best sports medicine physicians in the country told me exactly that—that the reason I was constantly getting hurt is because I was too big to handle the impact shock from my feet hitting the ground. Just recently, I interviewed a nationally-known sports podiatrist who said, “You know, we didn’t ALL evolve to run away from saber-toothed tigers.” Meaning, what? That anyone who isn’t sleek as a Kenyan marathoner should be extinct? It’s such illogical blather—all kinds of body types exist today, so obviously they DID evolve to move quickly on their feet. It’s really awful that so many doctors are reinforcing this learned helplessness, this idea that you have to be some kind of elite being to handle such a basic, universal movement. Q: If humans are born to run, as you argue, what’s your advice for a runner who is looking to make the leap from shorter road races to marathons, or marathons to ultramarathons? Is running really for everyone? CM: I think ultrarunning is America’s hope for the future. Honestly. The ultrarunners have got a hold of some powerful wisdom. You can see it at the starting line of any ultra race. I showed up at the Leadville Trail 100 expecting to see a bunch of hollow-eyed Skeletors, and instead it was, “Whoah! Get a load of the hotties!” Ultra runners tend to be amazingly healthy, youthful and—believe it or not—good looking. I couldn’t figure out why, until one runner explained that throughout history, the four basic ingredients for optimal health have been clean air, good food, fresh water and low stress. And that, to a T, describes the daily life of an ultrarunner. They’re out in the woods for hours at a time, breathing pine-scented breezes, eating small bursts of digestible food, downing water by the gallons, and feeling their stress melt away with the miles. But here’s the real key to that kingdom: you have to relax and enjoy the run. No one cares how fast you run 50 miles, so ultrarunners don’t really stress about times. They’re out to enjoy the run and finish strong, not shave a few inconsequential seconds off a personal best. And that’s the best way to transition up to big mileage races: as coach Eric told me, “If it feels like work, you’re working too hard.” Q: You write that distance running is the great equalizer of age and gender. Can you explain? CM: Okay, I’ll answer that question with a question: Starting at age nineteen, runners get faster every year until they hit their peak at twenty-seven. After twenty-seven, they start to decline. So if it takes you eight years to reach your peak, how many years does it take for you to regress back to the same speed you were running at nineteen? Go ahead, guess all you want. No one I’ve asked has ever come close. It’s in the book, so I won’t give it away, but I guarantee when you hear the answer, you’ll say, “No way. THAT old?” Now, factor in this: ultra races are the only sport in the world in which women can go toe-to-toe with men and hand them their heads. Ann Trason and Krissy Moehl often beat every man in the field in some ultraraces, while Emily Baer recently finished in the Top 10 at the Hardrock 100 while stopping to breastfeed her baby at the water stations. So how’s that possible? According to a new body of research, it’s because humans are the greatest distance runners on earth. We may not be fast, but we’re born with such remarkable natural endurance that humans are fully capable of outrunning horses, cheetahs and antelopes. That’s because we once hunted in packs and on foot; all of us, men and women alike, young and old together. Q: One of the fascinating parts of Born to Run is your report on how the ultrarunners eat—salad for breakfast, wraps with hummus mid-run, or pizza and beer the night before a run. As a runner with a lot of miles behind him, what are your thoughts on nutrition for running? CM: Live every day like you’re on the lam. If you’ve got to be ready to pick up and haul butt at a moment’s notice, you’re not going to be loading up on gut-busting meals. I thought I’d have to go on some kind of prison-camp diet to get ready for an ultra, but the best advice I got came from coach Eric, who told me to just worry about the running and the eating would take care of itself. And he was right, sort of. I instinctively began eating smaller, more digestible meals as my miles increased, but then I went behind his back and consulted with the great Dr. Ruth Heidrich, an Ironman triathlete who lives on a vegan diet. She’s the one who gave me the idea of having salad for breakfast, and it’s a fantastic tip. The truth is, many of the greatest endurance athletes of all time lived on fruits and vegetables. You can get away with garbage for a while, but you pay for it in the long haul. In the book, I describe how Jenn Shelton and Billy “Bonehead” Barnett like to chow pizza and Mountain Dew in the middle of 100-mile races, but Jenn is also a vegetarian who most days lives on veggie burgers and grapes. Q: In this difficult financial time, we’re experiencing yet another surge in the popularity of running. Can you explain this? CM: When things look worst, we run the most. Three times, America has seen distance-running skyrocket and it’s always in the midst of a national crisis. The first boom came during the Great Depression; the next was in the ‘70s, when we were struggling to recover from a recession, race riots, assassinations, a criminal President and an awful war. And the third boom? One year after the Sept. 11 attacks, trailrunning suddenly became the fastest-growing outdoor sport in the country. I think there’s a trigger in the human psyche that activates our first and greatest survival skill whenever we see the shadow of approaching raptors.

Combo Workout for Strength and Running Form

Posted by Eric Orton on May 22, 2009 at 10:00pm

I have been getting quite a few question regarding strength training and good running form. First of all, the majority of strength work that I have my athletes do is running. This is accomplished quite simply by doing very short, steep hill repeats. They do not need to be a max effort, nor should they. Your run effort should just be strong. In my workouts I say, "train, don't strain" and this type of training run should refect this. Hard and strong, AND consistent. Too many runners will run too hard during the first few reps or repeats, only to end up too fatigued to remain cosnsistent with their effort and they eventually run slower, but at a higher effort. This is diminishing returns and straining. And something you will dread...ultimately not do!

So, getting back to the point of strength training hill repeats. Keep these short, 10-15 seconds long, no longer. If you extend this time, they will be too slow. Today, I went out to the hill behind my house and did 10 X 15 second repeats.

Here's The Hill:

I finished all ten at the same spot, which means I stayed consistent with my effort. When running hills, lean into the hill with your hips, not your shoulders and notice how this body lean seems to make your effort easier. This type of workout will help recruit your gluts, more specifically your glut medius which is instrumental in run stability. Which plays a crucial role in having good running form.

I performed my run in Vibram Fivefingers to help build my foot strength. Foot strength I feel is paramount in developing natural running form and in staying injury free. Everything starts at the feet and works up from there. So if you develop great foot strength you build a natural arch for yourself which will help create lateral stability when your foot strikes the ground. But most importantly, when we run barefoot, not only our feet, but our entire leg fires appropriately. By this I mean, all of your muscles are recruited in the proper pattern and used how our body was meant to use it while running. I am so much faster climbing this hill barefoot than with shoes because I am so economical. Everything flows.

Here is a look at the trail...pretty rugged, but no problem for the fivefingers. The only thing you feel is your foot muscles working overtime.

When executing this strength run workout, be sure to take lots of recovery between each repetition. Recovery is important because this is a strength workout and not a cardiovascular workout. You want your legs to recover so your effort remains consistent. So a 2-3 minute rest between reps is ideal. Look around and enjoy being out while you rest.

This run can be done once per week year round. Start out with 4-5 X 10 seconds and progress each week. As you develop strength, increase your effort and not the length of the interval. Then hit the FORUM and tell me how much you enjoy feeling leg and glut muscles you never thought you had.

E

Could ONE muscle be the culprit to your IT Band issues?

Posted by Eric Orton on April 28, 2009 at 5:00pm

I have executed well over a thousand one-on-one training sessions with runners of all abilites. Seeing good and bad, it has become very evident to me that the number one culprit in biomechanical and gait disfunction, IT band issues, knee pain, and over all lack of run stability is a poor firing glut meduis. This is your smaller glut muscle that is located to the side of your gluts. This is a very important muscle for runners because it helps your lateral stability when on one foot, running. This muscle tends to go dormant through time due to various reason. When this happens and the muscle is not being used very well, you will over work your hip flexors, low back, and place a lot of stress on the quad, which can lead to IT touble. How many times have you ended a long run and your hip flexors are so worked? Or, have you noticed that you can stretch the heck out of your hip flexors, without much progress? This is because they are being over worked and stretching will not hold until you deal with the problem, poor glut medius activity. Needless to say, this I feel is the most important muscle for running economy, effieciency, and long term run health. Now let me back up and say that it is my belief this all originates from a lack of foot strength, leading to excessive, unhealthy pronation, which keeps the knee unstable, ultimately not firing your glut medius. OK...that is a mouth full. But I think you get the idea, foot strength lays the foundation, but from my experience, most runners need to activate the glut medius for proper running performance. Here is a great way to do it. Position a flex band around both knees, and then balance on one leg. From this position, perform 3/4 depth, one leg squats. Work up to doing 2-3 X 20-30 reps. These will burn and if you did not understand where your glut medius was before, you will after. To add a performance challenge, perform these on a BOSU, as demonstrated in the images below. These are great to do PRIOR to a run, activating your muscles before you head out.

It's All About the feet: An Extract from Born to Run

Posted by Eric Orton on April 23, 2009 at 9:00am

Well, I was planning to write a post today on the importance of foot strength for improved running performance and injury prevention. And then Chris sent me an extract from Born to Run. So, I will let his words speak for me - E At Stanford University, California, two sales representatives from Nike were watching the athletics team practise. Part of their job was to gather feedback from the company's sponsored runners about which shoes they preferred. Unfortunately, it was proving difficult that day as the runners all seemed to prefer... nothing. 'Didn't we send you enough shoes?' they asked head coach Vin Lananna. They had, he was just refusing to use them. 'I can't prove this,' the well-respected coach told them. 'But I believe that when my runners train barefoot they run faster and suffer fewer injuries.' Nike sponsored the Stanford team as they were the best of the very best. Needless to say, the reps were a little disturbed to hear that Lananna felt the best shoes they had to offer them were not as good as no shoes at all. When I was told this anecdote it came as no surprise. I'd spent years struggling with a variety of running-related injuries, each time trading up to more expensive shoes, which seemed to make no difference. I'd lost count of the amount of money I'd handed over at shops and sports-injury clinics - eventually ending with advice from my doctor to give it up and 'buy a bike'. And I wasn't on my own. Every year, anywhere from 65 to 80 per cent of all runners suffer an injury. No matter who you are, no matter how much you run, your odds of getting hurt are the same. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, fast or slow, pudgy or taut as a racehorse, your feet are still in the danger zone. But why? How come Roger Bannister could charge out of his Oxford lab every day, pound around a hard cinder track in thin leather slippers, not only getting faster but never getting hurt, and set a record before lunch? Then there's the secretive Tarahumara tribe, the best long-distance runners in the world. These are a people who live in basic conditions in Mexico, often in caves without running water, and run with only strips of old tyre or leather thongs strapped to the bottom of their feet. They are virtually barefoot. Come race day, the Tarahumara don't train. They don't stretch or warm up. They just stroll to the starting line, laughing and bantering, and then go for it, ultra-running for two full days, sometimes covering over 300 miles, non-stop. For the fun of it. One of them recently came first in a prestigious 100-mile race wearing nothing but a toga and sandals. He was 57 years old. When it comes to preparation, the Tarahumara prefer more of a Mardi Gras approach. In terms of diet, lifestyle and training technique, they're a track coach's nightmare. They drink like New Year's Eve is a weekly event, tossing back enough corn-based beer and homemade tequila brewed from rattlesnake corpses to floor an army. Unlike their Western counterparts, the Tarahumara don't replenish their bodies with electrolyte-rich sports drinks. They don't rebuild between workouts with protein bars; in fact, they barely eat any protein at all, living on little more than ground corn spiced up by their favourite delicacy, barbecued mouse. How come they're not crippled? I've watched them climb sheer cliffs with no visible support on nothing more than an hour's sleep and a stomach full of pinto beans. It's as if a clerical error entered the stats in the wrong columns. Shouldn't we, the ones with state-of-the-art running shoes and custom-made orthotics, have the zero casualty rate, and the Tarahumara, who run far more, on far rockier terrain, in shoes that barely qualify as shoes, be constantly hospitalised? The answer, I discovered, will make for unpalatable reading for the $20 billion trainer-manufacturing industry. It could also change runners' lives forever. Dr Daniel Lieberman, professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University, has been studying the growing injury crisis in the developed world for some time and has come to a startling conclusion: 'A lot of foot and knee injuries currently plaguing us are caused by people running with shoes that actually make our feet weak, cause us to over-pronate (ankle rotation) and give us knee problems. 'Until 1972, when the modern athletic shoe was invented, people ran in very thin-soled shoes, had strong feet and had a much lower incidence of knee injuries.' Lieberman also believes that if modern trainers never existed more people would be running. And if more people ran, fewer would be suffering from heart disease, hypertension, blocked arteries, diabetes, and most other deadly ailments of the Western world. 'Humans need aerobic exercise in order to stay healthy,' says Lieberman. 'If there's any magic bullet to make human beings healthy, it's to run.' The modern running shoe was essentially invented by Nike. The company was founded in the Seventies by Phil Knight, a University of Oregon runner, and Bill Bowerman, the University of Oregon coach. Before these two men got together, the modern running shoe as we know it didn't exist. Runners from Jesse Owens through to Roger Bannister all ran with backs straight, knees bent, feet scratching back under their hips. They had no choice: their only shock absorption came from the compression of their legs and their thick pad of midfoot fat. Thumping down on their heels was not an option. Despite all their marketing suggestions to the contrary, no manufacturer has ever invented a shoe that is any help at all in injury prevention Bowerman didn't actually do much running. He only started to jog a little at the age of 50, after spending time in New Zealand with Arthur Lydiard, the father of fitness running and the most influential distance-running coach of all time. Bowerman came home a convert, and in 1966 wrote a best-selling book whose title introduced a new word and obsession to the fitness-aware public: Jogging. In between writing and coaching, Bowerman came up with the idea of sticking a hunk of rubber under the heel of his pumps. It was, he said, to stop the feet tiring and give them an edge. With the heel raised, he reasoned, gravity would push them forward ahead of the next man. Bowerman called Nike's first shoe the Cortez - after the conquistador who plundered the New World for gold and unleashed a horrific smallpox epidemic. It is an irony not wasted on his detractors. In essence, he had created a market for a product and then created the product itself. 'It's genius, the kind of stuff they study in business schools,' one commentator said. Bowerman's partner, Knight, set up a manufacturing deal in Japan and was soon selling shoes faster than they could come off the assembly line. 'With the Cortez's cushioning, we were in a monopoly position probably into the Olympic year, 1972,' Knight said. The rest is history. The company's annual turnover is now in excess of $17 billion and it has a major market share in over 160 countries. Since then, running-shoe companies have had more than 30 years to perfect their designs so, logically, the injury rate must be in freefall by now. After all, Adidas has come up with a $250 shoe with a microprocessor in the sole that instantly adjusts cushioning for every stride. Asics spent $3 million and eight years (three more years than it took to create the first atomic bomb) to invent the Kinsei, a shoe that boasts 'multi-angled forefoot gel pods', and a 'midfoot thrust enhancer'. Each season brings an expensive new purchase for the average runner. But at least you know you'll never limp again. Or so the leading companies would have you believe. Despite all their marketing suggestions to the contrary, no manufacturer has ever invented a shoe that is any help at all in injury prevention. If anything, the injury rates have actually ebbed up since the Seventies - Achilles tendon blowouts have seen a ten per cent increase. (It's not only shoes that can create the problem: research in Hawaii found runners who stretched before exercise were 33 per cent more likely to get hurt.) In a paper for the British Journal Of Sports Medicine last year, Dr Craig Richards, a researcher at the University of Newcastle in Australia, revealed there are no evidence-based studies that demonstrate running shoes make you less prone to injury. Not one. It was an astonishing revelation that had been hidden for over 35 years. Dr Richards was so stunned that a $20 billion industry seemed to be based on nothing but empty promises and wishful thinking that he issued the following challenge: 'Is any running-shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up?' Dr Richards waited and even tried contacting the major shoe companies for their data. In response, he got silence. So, if running shoes don't make you go faster and don't stop you from getting hurt, then what, exactly, are you paying for? What are the benefits of all those microchips, thrust enhancers, air cushions, torsion devices and roll bars? The answer is still a mystery. And for Bowerman's old mentor, Arthur Lydiard, it all makes sense. 'We used to run in canvas shoes,' he said. 'We didn't get plantar fasciitis (pain under the heel); we didn't pronate or supinate (land on the edge of the foot); we might have lost a bit of skin from the rough canvas when we were running marathons, but generally we didn't have foot problems. 'Paying several hundred dollars for the latest in hi-tech running shoes is no guarantee you'll avoid any of these injuries and can even guarantee that you will suffer from them in one form or another. Shoes that let your foot function like you're barefoot - they're the shoes for me.' Soon after those two Nike sales reps reported back from Stanford, the marketing team set to work to see if it could make money from the lessons it had learned. Jeff Pisciotta, the senior researcher at Nike Sports Research Lab, assembled 20 runners on a grassy field and filmed them running barefoot. When he zoomed in, he was startled by what he found. Instead of each foot clomping down as it would in a shoe, it behaved like an animal with a mind of its own - stretching, grasping, seeking the ground with splayed toes, gliding in for a landing like a lake-bound swan. 'It's beautiful to watch,' Pisciotta later told me. 'That made us start thinking that when you put a shoe on, it starts to take over some of the control.' Pisciotta immediately deployed his team to gather film of every existing barefoot culture they could find. 'We found pockets of people all over the globe who are still running barefoot, and what you find is that, during propulsion and landing, they have far more range of motion in the foot and engage more of the toe. Their feet flex, spread, splay and grip the surface, meaning you have less pronation and more distribution of pressure.' Nike's response was to find a way to make money off a naked foot. It took two years of work before Pisciotta was ready to unveil his masterpiece. It was presented in TV ads that showed Kenyan runners padding along a dirt trail, swimmers curling their toes around a starting block, gymnasts, Brazilian capoeira dancers, rock climbers, wrestlers, karate masters and beach soccer players. And then comes the grand finale: we cut back to the Kenyans, whose bare feet are now sporting some kind of thin shoe. It's the new Nike Free, a shoe thinner than the old Cortez dreamt up by Bowerman in the Seventies. And its slogan? 'Run Barefoot.' The price of this return to nature? A conservative £65. But, unlike the real thing, experts may still advise you to change them every three months. Edited extract from 'Born To Run' by Christopher McDougall.

Running with the Tarahumara Indians - Part I

Posted by Eric Orton on April 18, 2009 at 10:30pm

The Race Director, Caballo Blanco, called us the Dream Team! Most likely because of the unbelievable running talent all crammed into a 1960 school bus headed for the depths of the Copper Canyon. For me, Dream Team meant something else. I was living my dream of running and learning from the famed Tarahumara Indians. I have "tried" to study these runners for years, finding tidbits here and there, hearing stories about the '94 Leadville race. So when Chris McDougall asked if I would be interested in coaching him as part of a book about these great runners and participate in the Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon (CCUM), I jumped! First I had the task of preparing Chris for the race, his first 50 miler. His preparation could not have gone better thanks to his devoted training and trust in "my way". As this first unfolded, the plan was for Chris and I to head down to the Copper Canyon, hook up with Caballo Blanco, the race director of the CCUM, and run the race with the Indians. As we got closer to the race and our departure, The Dream Team was formed. Now, Scott Jurek, Jenn Shelton, Billy Barnett, Luis Escobar, and Barefoot Ted were all planning to meet Chris and I in El Paso, and head to the Copper Canyon. Well, the book is finally out, Born to Run. So instead of recount our adventure in words, go read the book. What I thought I would do however, is to chronical our journey with some images that might create an intimate feel to the masterful words of Chris McDougall.

The Dream Team riding on top of the bus on our way to Batopilas

The view from the back of the bus

Somewhere down there is Batopilas....way down there!

Touching down in Batopilas, Jenn immediately makes friends!

Once we had our first night of sleep in the Town of Batopilas, we hit the trails with Caballo. The next few images are of this first trail run. After much travel, it was needed!

Thats Caballo, Scott, Jenn, and Billy

Billy running the rugged trails of the Batopilas Canyon

Chris and Luis all ears for Caballo "speak"

Great shot from the Batopilas Canyon

Copping some shade

After our stay in Batopilas, we prepared for our 30 mile journey up and over the canyon and into Urique. The anticipation was mounting, as we would welcome the indians of the Batopilas tribe to make the trek with us and "show us the way" to Urique. Below is our sherpa burro, as we loaded all of our gear onto the burro for transport to Urique.

Stay tuned for Part II - The Trek

Barefoot Recovery - Be like a Kenyan

Posted by Eric Orton on April 18, 2009 at 9:00pm

Yesterday I received an email question from one of my new athletes. She is training for her first 50 miler at the Big Horn. Her question was about her slow pace on her easy days. Specifically, it went, "should I be running this slow?" My answer was a big fat YES! I explain to her that this slow pace had several purposes: - to allow for adequate recovery between harder, key workout days - to allow your weekly mileage to be higher and more consistent without added too much fatigue - and it is a great time to enjoy being out and work on great running form I gave her an example from the Kenyans. Kenyans are known for their hard training, but what sometimes gets lost in all of this focus is their recovery efforts. They are VERY SLOW. It is not uncommon for them to run almost 5 minutes per mile slower than their race pace. To put this into perspective, do the math. If you are a 6 minute per mile 10ker, your recovery effort should be near an 11 minute mile. Now pace is all releative to ones ability and an 11 minute mile may be fast for some, for this runner it is very slow. I often witness runners running way to hard on their easy days and recovery days. This is typically one of the bigger adjustments my athletes need to make mentally when first starting a coaching program. They are surprised at how easy they run on easy days and how hard they run on harder days. This is especially the case for trail runners who run hilly terrain all of the time. Eventually, all of their efforts can morph into one moderate pace due to the terrain, causing very subtle fatigue at first, and through time, can become too much cumulative fatigue and cause performance problems when harder training is needed. Another great way to become "okay" with running really easy on your easy days is to start running barefoot to strengthen your feet. This is something I prescribe in my Training Packages and with my athletes. Recovery days are great to head to your nearest turf field or manicured golf course for a 20-30 minute barefoot run. Foot strength is essential for proper running form, bomber leg strength, and injury prevention. If you do not have turf close by, I use Vibram Five Fingers for my barefoot runs and are awesome on any running surface, especially nice soft grass and trails. During the spring here in the Tetons, I wear a pair of Injinji socks to help with warmth and they also help with initial rubbing without socks, and I just like the feel better.

My Injinjis and Five Finger KOS

I am lucky enough to have great trails right out my back door, perfect for shorter recovery days and for my Five Fingers. It is mud season here in the Valley, so had great cushioned trails today!

My Back yard double track trails

Sneak Peak of the Grand Teton

Today's workout: 20 min barefoot at 10-12:00 pace or zone 1 heart rate. With the snow pack in the mountains, it will still be sometime before some great epic alpine runs can be had. But my feet will be ready! E