Born to Run is potentially a life-changing book for me, if I can act on everything I want to act on. I feel by getting in to the St. George marathon this fall I'm taking the first step. My sweet sister Jackie recommended this book to me and I'm forever in her debt for encouraging me to read it. Just thinking about the book makes me want to go for a run.
When I ran my first half marathon last month my feet were KILLING! Yes my legs were sore the next day but my feet hurt so bad I couldn't walk normal for over a week. But even with my feet killing, I was thinking to myself "I can't believe I actually did that. I need to step it up a do a full marathon sometime!" But the hurt feet part was definitely scaring me. Why would my feet hurt so bad from doing something that is supposedly natural, or is it? Well, it was something similar to destiny to get the book from Jackie and start reading right when my feet were in ultimate pain because Chris McDougall had the same thought: "Why do my feet hurt when I run?" And thus was the beginning of his journey. I started to read, and have been addicted to all things running ever since.
The book mostly is a story about the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico that routinely run 100 mile races, through the mountains, in homemade sandals. That story alone would make the book great, but I also loved reading about the history and science of running. Did you know that humans are indeed "born to run"? Did you know that running shoes essentially force humans to use improper form when running, thus causing the foot pain? Because of this book I've overhauld my running form to great results (meaning no foot pain) and I find myself looking at the form of virtually every person I see outside running (and notice pretty much 100% of the time that they are using incorrect form). Basically you're supposed to keep your legs under your body and land on the ball of your foot on each step. Running shoes "encourage" longer strides and striking your heel with each step, which is what I notice pretty much all runners doing and that is what causes the injuries. While I haven't abandoned shoes to go barefoot as the book encourages, I have altered my form and haven't had any foot pain since changing, even on long runs.
No I have not magically transformed into an elite runner or anything like that; in fact with my new form I'm slower than ever as I try to change the habit, but I am now to the point where I don't "fear" or "hate" a run, which is progress for sure. I think this book reads great. It's non-fiction but reads just like a story. Rachel kept asking me "are you done with that yet?" because I couldn't put it down. The book talks so routinely about ultra-marathoners (50-100 mile races, usually in mountains) that the thought of this St. George marathon in October seems a tad anti-climactic. Well, I certainly can't even sniff even a "regular" marathon at this point and I probably have about 50-100 lbs to lose, not 50-100 miles to run. In any case, I loved this book and am more stoked than ever to train for a marathon as a result of reading it.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Lost
By now this is old news. . . I mean the finale of Lost happened a whole 5 days ago. However, I'm actually glad I took a few days to think it over before writing my feelings about one of the greatest shows ever put on television.
One of the main reasons I'm happy to be writing it a few days later is I know I am writing something totally different than I would've written Sunday night, Monday, or any other day. You never know what your point of view will be in the future. That is one of my main takes on the series; I feel like it is portrayed that they had a master story line to cover the entire scope of the series from the first episode, but I don't think that's true. I feel the main idea for the story was "let's have a plane crash on a mysterious island and tell the back stories of the survivors". Throw in a few weird items on the island (polar bears, monster noises) and you have a solid plot line to build on. What makes it even more impressive to me is how the writers were able to come around (for the most part, obviously there are plenty of questions left out there unanswered) and tie up the series in a nice fashion.
I am a strict believer in the "let's take it from here and build" approach rather than the approach that they had the whole story ready from the beginning for multiple reasons: 1) who knows if tv shows are going to make it; most story ideas are just that, an idea with potential, 2) the whole back half of the plane in season 2 ended up being worthless with the exceptions of Bernard and Libby, 2 minor characters, 3) there was also an episode in season 2 where two new characters were introduced and then buried alive in the same episode-I remember reading how the writers were reacting to the fan's criticisms of too many new characters being introduced, so they killed a couple off in a quick episode which was entirely meaningless to the overall story, 4) i read an interview once with JJ Abrams (the producer/creator) and he noted how he's a big fan of boxes with mysteries inside-in this case it was the hatch in season 1, but even they hadn't decided yet what they were going to do with the mysterious hatch at the beginning of the show.
All in all it's not really important if they kept building on ideas or they had the entire series scripted out from the beginning; I feel like it was a great show that had a solid ending. Even more so I'm happy that they set it up to have an ending rather than drag the series out indefinitely until the ratings have dropped such that it gets canceled.
My one beef with this finale season was the fact they killed Sun and Gin. Especially given the ending that they could've got off the island on the plane and they could've raised their daughter, etc. kind of bugged. It seemed stupid how they died. But that's tv I guess, characters have to die :).
I'm aware that you have to watch the entire series to get anything in this show, but if you haven't seen it, I would recommend buying all 6 seasons and tearing through them. I personally rank Lost as the best drama I've ever followed on tv. I'm hoping I can find a decent replacement show in the fall. Probably the saddest part about knowing it was over was a couple days later when I happened to be on my DVR Series Recording manager screen. There was Lost at priority #1, with zero future episodes set to record. I felt like I had a little closure myself as I erased it from the series settings.
One of the main reasons I'm happy to be writing it a few days later is I know I am writing something totally different than I would've written Sunday night, Monday, or any other day. You never know what your point of view will be in the future. That is one of my main takes on the series; I feel like it is portrayed that they had a master story line to cover the entire scope of the series from the first episode, but I don't think that's true. I feel the main idea for the story was "let's have a plane crash on a mysterious island and tell the back stories of the survivors". Throw in a few weird items on the island (polar bears, monster noises) and you have a solid plot line to build on. What makes it even more impressive to me is how the writers were able to come around (for the most part, obviously there are plenty of questions left out there unanswered) and tie up the series in a nice fashion.
I am a strict believer in the "let's take it from here and build" approach rather than the approach that they had the whole story ready from the beginning for multiple reasons: 1) who knows if tv shows are going to make it; most story ideas are just that, an idea with potential, 2) the whole back half of the plane in season 2 ended up being worthless with the exceptions of Bernard and Libby, 2 minor characters, 3) there was also an episode in season 2 where two new characters were introduced and then buried alive in the same episode-I remember reading how the writers were reacting to the fan's criticisms of too many new characters being introduced, so they killed a couple off in a quick episode which was entirely meaningless to the overall story, 4) i read an interview once with JJ Abrams (the producer/creator) and he noted how he's a big fan of boxes with mysteries inside-in this case it was the hatch in season 1, but even they hadn't decided yet what they were going to do with the mysterious hatch at the beginning of the show.
All in all it's not really important if they kept building on ideas or they had the entire series scripted out from the beginning; I feel like it was a great show that had a solid ending. Even more so I'm happy that they set it up to have an ending rather than drag the series out indefinitely until the ratings have dropped such that it gets canceled.
My one beef with this finale season was the fact they killed Sun and Gin. Especially given the ending that they could've got off the island on the plane and they could've raised their daughter, etc. kind of bugged. It seemed stupid how they died. But that's tv I guess, characters have to die :).
I'm aware that you have to watch the entire series to get anything in this show, but if you haven't seen it, I would recommend buying all 6 seasons and tearing through them. I personally rank Lost as the best drama I've ever followed on tv. I'm hoping I can find a decent replacement show in the fall. Probably the saddest part about knowing it was over was a couple days later when I happened to be on my DVR Series Recording manager screen. There was Lost at priority #1, with zero future episodes set to record. I felt like I had a little closure myself as I erased it from the series settings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)