CHRISTOPHER MCDOUGALL is at it again

Chris McDougall has a blog in the NY Times which is well worth a read but I need to correct him here. He goes on about barefoot running and now is considered some kind of spokes person for the latest running craze. So before you throw out your running shoes you might want to read my post.

"Hang on — if running is bad for humans, why isn’t it bad for every animal?” Dogs run on sidewalks, elephants trot for miles across baked African savannas, reindeer bound across solid ice on rock-hard hoofs, yet they don’t get shinsplints and Achilles tendinitis. How come every other creature gets along just fine on its own limbs except us?"

Quoted from his blog http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/born-to-run-the-marathon/

Well think about this. When was the last time you saw a dog run 26.2 miles? are these elephants doing speed work around the track bi-weekly? and just how many legs do reindeer run on? Or better yet any monkeys or apes running 26.2 miles? Thats what I thought.

Kenyans run barefoot right? until they get free shoes donated to them and they jump right into them.
What about the story of animal hunters wearing down other animals? Are they running on a track doing? doing tempo runs? or racing every weekend? chances are they are more likely to do stop and go running and something they were raised doing. And lets not forget there lives are filled with physical hard work and heavy lifting, when was the last time you dragged a dead carcase back home from where you killed it?

And what of the tribe in Mexico? they are running sandals that are one inch thick, hardly barefoot. If we're getting injured a lot it's because we're over doing it. Do you treat track work and tempo runs like a race? are you pushing yourself too hard too soon? are you getting enough rest? do you run on an injury?

I'm just dropping this here because many of us (including myself ) are injured runners. Looking for a quick and easy answer isn't the way to go.

And by the way Mr. Mcdougall says he weighed about 240 Lbs. That is roughly 100 more Lbs than I am. Anyone carrying that much weight around is sure to have problems running.

He could have easily had the same results by stronger and losing weight with lifting.

I'm not saying barefoot running is not good for short runs to get your feet stronger but running races barefoot is smartest thing to do. And by the way many of those barefoot runners I do see at road races are the slower runners.
you want to be a faster and better runner? follow Mebs or Paulas training plan not some guy who's selling his book.