NYTimes on Running Form

Any hint in the media that there is an idea of improvement/refinement of running other than "drag your wide butt thru a 9-hour marathon in just 6 weeks" is good for the top end.

Education (and ultimately conversion, hopefully) of the "penguins" is the key to having the top runenrs get paid more.

The problem is Running got sold years ago as a fitness thing, a cure for everyday flab.

And it's not. It's really not.

If I wanted to be fit I would not run. I would swim, do yoga, weight machines, and maybe some spinning for a calorie burn. But I would not run. I would not even jog. And neither should you.

I run because I have a habit or a mania, and I want to do well in races. There may be better ways to spend my time, but I do not wish to contemplate that issue right now.

For thirty years Runners and The Running Industry have used the Fitness ploy in order to blackmail the rest of society into giving us what we want. 'B-B-But you HAVE to let us have access to the roads when we put on our race next month, because we are promoting Health and Fitness! You HAVE to get used to us running down the street half-naked. You have to, have to, nyah nyah nyah, because we are morally superior.' It's a scam, plain and simple, and we might as well face up to it.

Where am I going with this? I forget. Oh yeah. I think what I meant to say was, it's perfeckly okay to hate penguins, and you are not contributing to obesity by doing so. Running is not for losing weight and it is not for keeping fit.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not but I'll call you a dumb f*** anyway. Running is the most accessible form of exercise. If anything I find it pathetic that you complain about the tainting of your perception of the "sport." Stop being an insecure dick, it makes you look weak and stupid.

Word, yo. wrote:I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not but I'll call you a dumb f*** anyway. Running is the most accessible form of exercise. If anything I find it pathetic that you complain about the tainting of your perception of the "sport." Stop being an insecure dick, it makes you look weak and stupid.

Goodness, that was a clever reply.

Now that is sarcasm. Earlier post was not. Mildly ironical perhaps.

I'll grant you your point, that running is the most accessible form of exercise (at least vigorous exercise: walking is even more accessible). But running should not be promoted as a remedy for obesity or as a way for the unfit to become fit. It doesn't work. Most people don't like it. They find it boring, unappealing. It's like stamp-collecting, absolutely mesmerizing to those who have the passion, dull as dirt to everyone else. The obesity epidemic has many causes (bad food, decline in cigarette smoking), but it didn't come about because people stopped being interested in athletics.

Triple-R-Bar wrote:

Word, yo. wrote:I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not but I'll call you a dumb f*** anyway. Running is the most accessible form of exercise. If anything I find it pathetic that you complain about the tainting of your perception of the "sport." Stop being an insecure dick, it makes you look weak and stupid.

Goodness, that was a clever reply.

Now that is sarcasm. Earlier post was not. Mildly ironical perhaps.

I'll grant you your point, that running is the most accessible form of exercise (at least vigorous exercise: walking is even more accessible). But running should not be promoted as a remedy for obesity or as a way for the unfit to become fit. It doesn't work. Most people don't like it. They find it boring, unappealing. It's like stamp-collecting, absolutely mesmerizing to those who have the passion, dull as dirt to everyone else. The obesity epidemic has many causes (bad food, decline in cigarette smoking), but it didn't come about because people stopped being interested in athletics.

It came from people being more interested in stamp-collecting.

So let me just get one thing straight, you're not saying that running doesnt make you fit, you are saying that running isnt the answer to obesity because americans dont have the will power to maintain it as thier exercise?