by Elinor Fish After successfully completing Colorado’s infamous Leadville Trail 100 several years ago, I was on cloud nine, dreaming about my next big endurance challenge. While my imagination soared, my body plummeted into depths of exhaustion I’d never before experienced. I couldn’t seem to recover from Leadville, and almost a year after the race…
About once a week, the Natural Running Center will receive an email from a reader complaining about chronic plantar facsiitis pain in his or her foot. For these sufferers, conventional treatment ranges from orthotics to NSAIDS, neither of which are natural methods or recommended. Nor are they effective. These readers are looking for answers. Maybe…
by Dr. Phil Maffetone. With his day-glo orange racing flats flashing through the Berlin streets, Kenyan Dennis Kimetto blazed to a world record 2:02:57 marathon. The weather did not hinder his pace, and it may not have helped much either, as other race times were not particularly quick (third-place men’s time was almost 2:06, and…
by Nick Pang. Wearable technology is making sports like football (not soccer) safer with concussion-prevention sensors embedded in helmets and mouth guards with live data via Wi-Fi on the field and sidelines. What about running? Even with all the latest shoe- cushioning technologies and research, runners are still get injured every year. Now Scribe Labs…
Here in our small town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia you will find truly amazing people with their own amazing personal stories. So please enjoy this fun and inspiring interview with Two Rivers Treads’ leading ladies, Diana Gorham and Sheri Fiolek, who finished the Burning River 100 miler in Ohio on August 3. If anyone tells…
Two bold, young documentary filmmakers, Dana Richardson and Sarah Zentz, left their home in Big Sur, California, and traveled to the depths of Copper Canyon in Mexico in search of the “seeds of health.” They lived among the Tarahumara who suffer almost none of the modern illnesses of Westernized Society. The Tarahumara are famous for…
The sub two-hour marathon is running’s final, most elusive barrier. The first runner to go 1:59 will become universally celebrated as marathon’s Roger Bannister. This timely book by Dr. Phil Maffetone, “1:59: The Sub-Two-Hour Marathon Is Within Reach—Here’s How It Will Go Down, and What It Can Teach All Runners about Training and Racing,” examines…
Several weeks ago, Vibram USA, which is the parent company that produces and distributes FiveFingers running shoes, agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged the company made “false and unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits” of its toe-glove footwear. According to the court filings, Vibram will deposit $3.75 million into an escrow account and those…
by Nick Pang. The Topo MT offers the ultimate hybrid experience by pairing the best features of a trail and road shoe. A rugged lug outsole provides multi-directional traction and the three density sole platforms offers plating protection without sacrificing ground feel. Reduced weight and increased flexibility will help you maintain your pace when you…
On the last day of March, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) released a groundbreaking position paper called “Selecting Running Shoes.” To those who came across the paper the following day, they might have mistakenly thought this was some kind of April Fools’ joke. It wasn’t! After a generation of sports medicine doctors, podiatrists, coaches,…
Getting published in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Pulse Magazine is a great honor for scientists, engineers, technologists, and biomedical researchers. A comparison would be a health or medical research team having its study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In the current issue of IDEE Pulse that feature articles…
Building on the success of the best-selling Skechers GOrun 2, Skechers has created another potential winner with the launch of its GOrun 3 running shoe. The Skechers GOrun 3 is the next generation of transitional (or bridging) running shoes. Designed for speed with innovative performance technologies to promote a midfoot strike, it fosters a barefoot-running…
by Bill Katovsky. By rudely pushing aside lean-’n-mean minimalist shoes in running stores, those beefy bullies known as maximalist shoes might one day be remembered as a shoe-category killer. We hope not. But consider all these brands boasting super-thick foam styles: Hoka One One, Brooks, Skechers, Puma, Vasque, New Balance and Altra. Other shoes like…
by Bill Katovsky. Depending on how frequently runners read magazines like Outside or Competitor, or check Runner’s World’s blog, they can be excused for thinking that minimalism is gone, departed, yesterday’s news. The sporting goods and fitness media abhor a news vacuum; they constantly seek out the latest trend, often on the heels of announcing…
by Nick Pang. There is a dangerous swing (in my opinion) in the running shoe pendulum from minimalist to maximalist running shoes for 2014. The pendulum swung the opposite direction a few years ago. Which direction will it swing next and where will it settle? Make sure you understand the choices before diving in….
We are pleased to repost this essay from Dr. Casey Kerrigan on treadmills. It originally appeared on the blog for OESH Shoes where Dr. Kerrigan is founder and chairman. Citing studies, she dispels one very popular myth that because “it’s a tiny bit easier to run on a treadmill, many will tell you that to…
by Bill Katovsky. Gyms have replaced bars as America’s favorite gathering places. But depending on time of day and year, health clubs are typically agog with lycra-spun exhibitionism, squadrons of Spinners and Cross-fitters, or quieter than a Trappist monastery. Now gyms are moving outside with boot camps and paleo-style workouts leading the fitness charge. The…
Thousands of miles from the Copper Canyon region of Northern Mexico is a small organic farm that’s located on the western outskirts of North Carolina adjacent to the Pisgah National Forest. Co-founded by Will Harlan and Emily Diznoff in 2005, Barefoot Farm is partially modeled on the self-sufficiency farming methods practiced by the Tarahumara for…
Which guidelines are those to know when you have a sufficient base to start HIIT {High-Intensity Interval Training} workouts? Sock Doc: You’re okay to start HIIT training such as intervals, hills, and other high-intensity activities once your aerobic fitness test no longer improves. Say you’re able to run two miles in 16 minutes at a…
Nick Pang, our shoe review editor and co-founder of Natural Running Center, recently attended The Running Event trade expo in Austin, TX. There, for three consecutive days, he happily stalked the carpeted exhibit hall where he checked out the new crop of 2014 running shoes. Many footwear companies were only showing demo models, so Nick…
by Charlotte Clews. The Tarahumara people are renowned for their long-distance, trail-running skills and while much has been written about their top male runners who consistently win international ultra-marathon races, little has been said about the remarkable Tarahumara women. In addition to honing their agility and stamina on the rugged terrain of the Sierra Madres…
by Bill Katovsky. National Geographic Magazine contributor and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek has turned his back on time through a very old-fashioned way: by walking. His pre-modern goal is to walk across seven continents (21,000 Miles) in a bipedal attempt to cover the same ground as the early humans who first began…
Going with a more traditional shoe design, Topo Athletic, which introduced split-toe or Japanese tabi-style models last summer, recently announced the addition of two new models to its expanding running shoe portfolio: the zero-drop Speed Trainer (ST) and 2mm drop Mountain Trainer (MT). Natural Running Center shoe review editor Nick Pang got an early look at the…
For the past 12 years, I have dissected and modified hundreds of shoes, taught running form clinics around the country, opened a minimalist store in my home town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, directed races (from 5K fun runs to marathons), got local children excited about running, and most importantly listened with all my senses –starting…
by Nick Pang. The second generation of casual and dress minimalist shoes are finally here. Once a runner has transitioned away from large-heel, ample cushioned, and narrow toebox running shoes, he or she will almost never go back. But what about their everyday casual and work shoes? Does the same hold true here? Personally, my…