Let's Hear It for the Tortoise!

A steady pace wins the race.




That's right! NPR had a story today on running:

Imagine for a moment how our earliest ancestors felt when they came down from the trees and stood on two legs.

"Hey, now we can carry stuff!" they might have thought. They paid a price though — on the ground it was a tiger-eat-monkey world, and two legs were slower than four.

But one prominent biologist, Dan Lieberman, a Harvard professor of anthropology, says not so fast. Humans invented something better than speed — endurance running. It allowed us to hunt faster animals, and that changed the course of evolution.

To listen to it or read about it, click here: For Humans, Slow and Steady Running Won the Race



In other news, both Phil and I have hit a pothole in our training: Dad has a swollen knee, and I had a crappy run last night. A bad run isn't so alarming (it was about 90 degrees and I could only do 8 1/2 miles out of 10, plus, I had to pee the entire time, so deal with it!). But a swollen knee? NOT GOOD! Here's Dad's email:


Hi blog mistress..... today...and last night.....I am discouraged...my R knee is swollen and I am limping...I was at the doc's 4 days ago and he said I have a bit of arthritis in my inner R knee but no big deal. And I have had two 5 mile runs since then and I am not doing so well. Last night I decided to run 5 on the treadmill thinking that would be easier on the knee, but it is visibly swollen, and it hurts. Today we are to do 10 miles and I have decided to do an hour and a half on the eliptical trainer instead to be even nicer to Mr. Knee. Ah well, we will see what we will see. I am stretching every night and I will call and make an appointment to see doc again soon. I think something else is wrong. Going to stay "up"...Left, Right, breath in, breath out. Talk to you later. Dad


A couple of weeks ago, he got his legs checked out, x-rayed, etc. and it seemed all was well, but then a few days ago, Dad's knee swelled up to the size of a tennis ball. It took the combined nagging of my mother, my sister and me to convince him to take a break and NOT exercise AT ALL until he got things checked out again. I instructed him to eat lots of peanut butter ice cream. Fingers crossed that things get better. I just bought our plane tickets to Chicago!