Alison Wade is not only a tireless and largely unheralded member of the national distance-running media, but a genuine Idea Person too. If you don't know the background on Ryan Shay or Jenny Crain, follow the appropriate links below.
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 We are pleased to announce the publication of The Runner's Cookbook: Winning Recipes from Some of the World's Best Athletes, a fundraising cookbook for Jenny Crain and Ryan Shay. The Runner's Cookbook features 100 recipes from 90+ contributors, including Joan Benoit Samuelson, Sebastian Coe, Shalane Flanagan, Adam and Kara Goucher, Ryan and Sara Hall, Deena Kastor, Craig Mottram, Dathan Ritzenhein, Khadevis Robinson, Alan Webb, and many others. All of the proceeds from the sales of this book will be donated to the Ryan Shay Memorial Fund and the Jenny Crain "Make It Happen" Fund. Any corrections, updates, or information about this project will be added to this web site as they come up. If you have any trouble ordering this book, or with the quality of the product you receive, please let us know. We can't necessarily fix the problem, but we'd like to be aware of it, so we can do our best. Buy the Cookbook | About Ryan Shay and Jenny Crain | Corrections | About the Editor | Contact Us | ||
Comments
Wow good. having run popular road races with Jenny Crain. Well run in them anyhow, way, way behind her... and having been horrified by her accident, this is something to get! Thanks.
Posted by: Markk | May 11, 2008 11:58 AM
This is not entirely on topic, but could you give your thoughts on footwear? I've been under the impression that you need comfortable shoes for running and I've been suffering from some minor knee pains lately, which - knowing how knee injuries are pretty nasty - kind of prevents me from exercising efficiently. However, I've just run across claims that footwear with thinner soles might be better. To quote the abstract of 'Athletic Footwear: Unsafe Due to Perceptual Illusions' from PubMed: "However, when injurious plantar loads elicit negligible perceived plantar discomfort, a perceptual illusion is created whereby perceived impact is lower than actual impact, which results in inadequate impact-moderating behavior and consequent injury."
Posted by: Flaky | May 12, 2008 11:01 AM
Flaky- As a fellow runner and Chimp Refugee, I can say that you have brought up a touchy topic. There are some schools of thought that advocate minimal footwear and others that go to the opposite extreme (with a bunch scattered about the middle). My opinion, based on many years of running, is that for most folks, leg pains are less about shoes than other factors. Granted, sometimes people get fitted in precisely the wrong shoe, but I think you need to look at changes in training volume, frequency, terrain, and other stresses first.
I will say that any sudden and wholesale change in these factors may precipitate a problem while a drastic change in footwear is unlikely to solve an existing problem (excepting the cases of completely worn out or ill-fitted shoes). I have run many miles and races in a variety of shoes including solid trainers and minimalist racing flats. While I am not a national class runner, I probably have better form than most of the folks I race (or so I'm told), but I wouldn't consider running all of my miles in minimalist flats. Personally, I think rotating through several different brands/models/styles simultaneously is a good idea.
You can come across lots of claims regarding running while searching the Intertubes, but some of them, like Pose or Chi, rank pretty high on the woo scale.
Posted by: JimFiore | May 12, 2008 11:40 AM
I'm actually rather certain that my problems are due to a tendency to compensate low training frequency with relatively high volume. A tendency that's surprisingly hard to overcome. I guess I was hoping that a small change like shoes would make a significant difference.
Posted by: Flaky | May 12, 2008 12:17 PM