The modern day running shoe is a perfect example of technology and science working to build upon the advances made through history to help human beings walk and run for longer distances and faster speeds in comfort and without injury. 

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, the Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer, once wrote: that "the foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art" 

Those who conceive manufacture and sell modern day running shoes dare to improve on the use and design of the 200,000 year old evolved human foot.  They are doomed for failure, unable to compete with the efficiency of our born to run bodies.  But running shoe companies can benefit from five thousand years of experience from those who walked and ran before us, and incorporate the lessons of cordwainers, cobblers, and shoe makers throughout history as they seek to create a better running shoe.

Show Links:

http://runninginhingham.blogspot.com

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com

Send me your SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGMENT for the runners of the 5^th WWFoR:

Email me steve@steverunner.com or Call 206-339-6497

http://theextramilepodcast.com

http://astore.amazon.com/phedthepodcfo-20

While the first part of this episode is dedicated to the precautions a pregnant mother should take with regards to athletic endeavors, there are many benefits to running while pregnant including the prevention of excessive weight gain.  Running while you’re pregnant can keep you mood off and help to prevent pregnancy induced hypertension.

If you’re healthy, and you’re having a healthy pregnancy there is no reason not to run.  Listen to your body, and check with your doctor.  It’s probably best not to run an Ultra marathon, or compete in a major race where you might feel obligated to run hard.  Remember, you’re running for yourself and your unborn…and while running can be good for you and make you feel better: what’s most important is that you are healthy and well prepared on your child or children’s birthday as you go through one of the greatest athletic event that a woman will ever experience…the marathon of labor.

Show Links:

http://teammojoloco.blogspot.com

http://amilewith.me.uk

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com

www.audiblepodcast.com/phedi

SEND ME YOUR SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGMENT: steve@steverunner.com

OR DIAL: 206-339-6497

As it is with most things in life, taken in moderation: Caffeine can be good for you and improve you’re your health and your performance on race day. But too much of a good thing can lead to disaster.  In living our lives to the top we have to learn to savor, with small sips, those things which bring us pleasure and improve our health.

Show Links:

http://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440(07)00076-X/abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1478936/?page=1

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com

http://hearzenrun.com

Free Audible Book download: www.audiblepodcast.com/phedi

 “The Java Jive” was by The Inksports (1940)

“Coffee Man” was by Calvin Owens http://topcatrecords.com

Running is an activity that fellow runners, like you and I, gather pleasure from.  We look forward to these feelings of pleasure every day when we lace up our shoes.

To the non-runner, or someone who finds any physical activity abhorrent, this love of running is an alien emotion.  These sufferers on THE COUCH OF DOOM consider the act of running as equivalent to the act of smashing a brick into ones forehead: it neither seems like a good idea, nor would it bring pleasure to do so.

So, how does one fall in love with running?

Once you start paying more attention to your body in motion, you’ll begin to feel the urge to take that daily break out on the roads.  You’ll begin to feel an infatuation with eating and living healthier, to enhance and improve your daily performance.  You might even start subscribing to a few running related podcasts…especially as you start to realize that you could run faster than some goofy little podcaster from New England, who really isn’t all that and a bag of chips…and the next thing you know you’ll be eating those chips from within a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the purpose of sodium replacement and protein muscular recovery.

And maybe, just maybe your new found love for running will work both ways and you’ll find that running is in love with you. 

Show Links:

http://buckeyeoutdoors.com

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com

Free Audible Book download: www.audiblepodcast.com/phedi

“Say Hey (I Love You)” was by Michael Franti and Spearhead http://michaelfranti.com

“A Glorious Dawn” was part of the http://www.symphonyofscience.com project by John Boswell.

What is the morally correct thing to do when we learn the truth about the working conditions for the people who make all this stuff we carry and use?  I can’t answer that for you, that’s something you have to figure out for yourself.

I’m not here to talk philosophy with you; remember: I am just a doofus.  But I think that the very least any of us can do is to LEARN about what’s going on in places like Indonesia: just so we can answer the question, as athletes, regarding this aspect of the running shoes you and I wear every day.

Think about it: right now you and I select our shoes based on fit, style, functionality, weight, price and reputation….what if we were to add to that list of aspects the adherence to social justice of the manufactures?  If, as runners, we focused on just one company: Nike, the leader in sportswear and running paraphernalia, and just learn more about how our shoes are made: that we might consider the treatment of workers in our formula for what we should be purchasing?

No one is asking you to ban Nike products, this isn’t about you and I: this is all about learning…and I urge you to consider going to Teamsweat.org just as soon as you get back from your run today, and click on the upcoming events link: please, I’m asking this as a friend, and see when Jim Keady is going to be in your area next; in fact: I’ll go further: if you attend a College or University, why not contact Educating for Justice at http://educatingforjustice.org and see about getting someone from that organization to come to your school to talk about these issues.

This is important stuff, and I’m not telling you this to make myself feel better about myself as a runner: I’m telling you this because I think it will make us better athletes, plain and simple.

This is not about me, and it’s not about you: it’s about the good people in countries like Indonesia who just want a little of the life that you and I enjoy.  I’ll spare you the angry rant about Nike or my firm belief that they are most certainly evil: but I hope you’ll listen to what Jim Keady is saying here, and I very much hope you’ll make an effort to go see him; I’m going to list some of the places where he’ll be speaking in the near future; he’s getting ready to head back over to Indonesia, so it’s important that we learn from what he finds there, and that we think for ourselves, using the information we can learn from his findings and those findings of other independent activists.

More than anything, I hope that in listening to this small portion of Jim’s lecture: behind the swoosh, you will get at least a little: angry.

Show Links:

http://www.teamsweat.org

http://www.educatingforjustice.org

http://www.educatingforjustice.org/store_main.htm

http://www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/workers_and_factories.html

http://www.brophyprep.org/summit/globalization/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Behind_the_Swoosh.swf

http://twitter.com/teamsweat

http://www.facebook.com/TeamSweat

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com

Free Audible Book download: www.audiblepodcast.com/phedi

“Justice Will Roll Down” was by Sandra McCracken; http://www.sandramccracken.com

My full name, in fact, is Indiana Jones Walker…of the human family Walker; they being the creatures who serve me in every way and are the best-est family a dog could ever have.

This is my house, I live here with Mathew, John, my Mom and my Dad: Steve.  Dad is a runner; but he’s not as good a runner as I am.

I love to run, especially after bunny rabbits…and we have at least two living in our yard.  I can smell them every day.  Dad doesn’t let me run after them, sometimes he let’s me run through the yard sniffing for their trail.  He doesn’t seem to be able to smell them the way I can.

I can smell really well.  My nose has 200 million scent receptors compared to Dad’s nose, which has only 5 million.  My olfactory bulbs are four times as big as his so I can smell things from, far, far away.  Dad’s nose would have to be the size of a refrigerator in order to be as sensitive as my nose!

I can smell that bunny rabbit, and I want to run after him, but Dad won’t let me because he’s afraid I’ll get lost or get hit by one of those big “move-me” machines.

But, I just want to play!  Doesn’t everyone love to play?

Show Links:

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com

The song “Mr. Jones” was by The Counting Crows http://www.countingcrows.com/

It is important to note that my skepticism with this study is related to the implied suggestion that training for and running a marathon is considered extreme exercise.  Maybe it is, or maybe after having run 21 of them…the last not much more than a controlled crawl, I see the marathon as an endurance event that homo sapiens have evolved to run as a means of hunting and gathering; chasing down our prey with persistence. 

As we listen to the results of this research, we need to understand the severity of the impact, and consider other factors which might invalidate the results; remember: 25,000 runners just finished the Boston Marathon a few weeks ago, not to mention the hundreds of thousands who will run such a distance this year; and yet the sample size for the test group in this study was only 49. 

This isn’t to say that those 49 aren’t representative of the entire human population of marathon runners; nor does it necessarily trivialize the results of this study; but it does put this study into perspective against the media interpretation that marathon’s can kill you.

Show Links:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aIOu08KfQ3LQ

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100255768

http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/637000/main.html

http://www.examiner.com/x-25448-Boulder-Running-Examiner~y2010m3d15-Marathons-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health

http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/reprint/55/10_MeetingAbstracts/A80.E751.pdf

http://www.twitter.com/Frothyfroth

http://twitter.com/reallynotarunnr

http://twitter.com/Moultgard

http://twitter.com/Kieran1209

http://worldwidefestivalofraces.com

The song “Think For Yourself” was by George Hrab at http://www.geologicrecords.net

I like eggs.

Show Links:

http://www.fdiplive.blogspot.com

http://qik.com/steverunner/videos

http://feeds.feedburner.com/IntervalsAudio

http://runningpodcasts.org

“Final Broadcast” by the Statistics http://musicalley.com

Professor Daniel Leiberman’s (and his team) paper “Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners” looks into how and why human beings can and did run comfortably without modern running shoes.  In it, he proves that experienced, habitual barefoot runners tend to avoid landing on our heels and land with a forefoot or midfoot strike. 

Most of their research looks into the mechanics of different kinds of foot strikes.  He shows that most forefoot and some midfoot strikes, when running barefoot, do not cause sudden, momentary and major force impacts which occur when you land on your heel barefoot.

In a previous episode of Phedippidations, I talked about how Professors Lieberman and Dennis Bramble have shown us that homo sapiens have evolved, and thus are born to run…and with this study “Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners” Professor Lieberman and his team have shown us that we should seriously reconsider the way that we run, with or without minimal running shoes.  It turns out that we’ve had the proper biomechanics and shock absorbers with us all along…we’re not only born to run; but we’re born to run well!

At the end of this episode I talk about why I didn’t produce an episode last week, what I’ve been up to lately, some “sad” news about Stephen Walker and changes in this show that are long over due.

Show Links:

http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu

http://educatingforjustice.org

http://www.teamsweat.org

 “Move Your Feet” by the Dogman Joe http://www.dogmanjoemusic.com

When you run, you’re body is under stress, and that causes your body to increase the levels of certain chemicals to kinda even things out.  These chemicals, in turn, may lead to an increase in gastrointestinal problems in distance running.

Our bodies are incredible machines, but while evolution has done a wonderful job of allow up to go forth and multiply; there are some sniggly little issues which come up from time to time to prevent us from going forth at our full potential. 

Gastrointestinal Problems in Distance Running are a lot more common than you might otherwise believe, and there’s a thirty to eighty-three percent chance that you are currently, or will one day suffer some kind of an issue with your digestive system that will slow you down or keep you off the road.

Show Links:

http://www.ismj.com/default.asp?pageID=611023489

http://runningfromthereaper.com

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=3716

“Die Alone” was by Ingrid Michaelson: http://www.ingridmichaelson.com