Gadget-powered runs are good but they can miss the point
Research, apparently, has suggested running was one of the things that made us human. Standing up on two legs and breaking into a trot delineated our forebears from other animals several million years ago.
Or so I’ve read somewhere. I’m no anthropologist.
The point I’m trying to make is that running has been around for about as long as humans.
And the point of making that point is that you’d think we’d know better than to clutch on to every latest thing going.
But, no: runners are suckers for fads.
Science shows runners will click on a social media post promising insight into the hottest ‘‘thing’’ – be that a training theory or a device – faster than it took for Usain Bolt to react to the starter’s pistol when he broke the 100m world record.
And at race expos before races, where merchandisers peddle their wares, gadgets and elixirs cram the tables.
Apparently there’s a correlation between a willingness to buy something and proximity to a race.
I’ll admit to being wooed by bright and shiny running things and ideas, and I started young with some downright wacky stuff.
In high school, a mate, Zeke, convinced me that we should try running after drinking salt water. Thinking back, the theory probably came about through confusion between ‘‘salts’’, as in electrolytes, with ‘‘salt’’, as in the stuff you put on hot chips.
Anyway, we ran one-mile laps
Once upon a time, the night before a marathon, everyone would go to a ‘‘pasta party’’ to carbo load. Now, I wouldn’t take a ticket to one of those if it was going free.
around the Auckland Domain after school, the first one without drinking anything – I guess you call that the ‘‘control’’ in this schoolboy scientific experiment.
Subsequent laps were run after slurping salty water.
Needless to say, the liquid did not stay down. And Zeke and I didn’t adopt it as a performanceenhancing boost when it came time for the interzone crosscountry champs.
But that early encounter with
running mumbo jumbo did not put me off seeking accessories.
These days I run with a GPS watch, upload my training to the online running platform Strava and, on long runs, wear a pack which a friend described as something worthy of an astronaut.
(He’s wrong, by the way, it’s not really a pack, it’s a vest designed to... oh, never mind…)
Any time there’s word of a new bit of technology or kit going, my ears prick up.
Rumours about a new shoe for Eliud Kipchoge’s attempt to break two hours for the marathon last year caused a frenzy in running circles.
Weekend warriors were jumping up and down to find out what the shoe was and when you could buy it.
You’d think the shoe had magic powers (update: Nike, sponsors of the Breaking2 attempt, did produce a special shoe, and while Kipchoge was 25 seconds off his target, the shoe appears to be selling like crazy).
But it’s not just kit that runners lust after. The latest training tips or strategies are just as popular – if it sounds right, we’ll give it a go.
Mona Fartleks, Yasso 800s, junk miles, hill bounding – they’re all training sessions or ideas that I’ve integrated into my training sometimes over the years after hearing about them one way or another.
And then there’s diet and nutrition. Once upon a time, the night before a marathon, everyone would go to a ‘‘pasta party’’ to carbo load.
Now, I wouldn’t take a ticket to one of those if it was going free – a light, normal meal the night before a race does me fine.
And maybe there’s a moral in that. In the same way ideas about pre-race fuelling have pulled back to a more simple idea, it’s probably time I grew up and stopped seeking the latest and greatest, and get back to the simple pleasure of running itself.
It’s something that coach and physiotherapist Brad Dixon, our guest on the trail running podcast, Dirt Church Radio, emphasises.
Dixon told co-host Matt Rayment and me that when he stopped fixating on numbers and time-based goals, and concentrated instead on getting out into nature and enjoying time with his running mates, he re-discovered the joy of running.
And there isn’t a pill or a gadget in the world that can help with that.