All Aboard: The Total North American Train Travel Guide Reviews | The Travel Blog Home About Contact The Travel Blog All Aboard: The Total North American Train Travel Guide Reviews July 5th, 2012 Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen Book Description Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything christmas in italy travel specials we thought we knew about running christmas in italy travel specials is wrong.Isolated by the most savage christmas in italy travel specials terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner christmas in italy travel specials while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife christmas in italy travel specials that plague christmas in italy travel specials modern christmas in italy travel specials existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: christmas in italy travel specials a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against christmas in italy travel specials an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire christmas in italy travel specials your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.Amazon christmas in italy travel specials Exclusive: A Q&A with Christopher christmas in italy travel specials McDougallQuestion: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 christmas in italy travel specials 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. christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials bolts through the bottom and middle—behold, the Running Man.The Tarahumara have a saying: "Children christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials 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. christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials or technology, but plain, simple durability. With some 70% of all runners getting hurt every year, the athlete who can stay healthy christmas in italy travel specials and avoid injury will leave the competition behind.So naturally, Eric idolized christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials from 50 miles to 200-plus.Eric figured shock and awe was the best way for me to build durability christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials tall, 200-plus pound guy—not anyone's typical vision of a distance runner, yet you've completed ultra marathons christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials 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, christmas in italy travel specials this idea that you have to be some kind of elite being to handle such a basic, universal movement. Q: If humans christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials to ultramarathons? christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials 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. christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials food, downing christmas in italy travel specials water by the gallons, and feeling their stress melt away with the miles. christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials 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 christmas in italy travel specials Moehl often beat every man in the field