Thursday, July 16, 2009
Barefoot runnning update
I'm running/walking a couple miles a day barefoot or in sandals. So far I feel great and have not taken any Motrin yet. People seem concerned about my well being-- particularly my mental well being-- and bring up all kinds of objections to this newest activity. Apparently, there is a least a 99% chance I'll step on a needle and get AIDS followed closely by broken glass and rusty nails wounds--I never knew drugs and trash were that big of deal on the Greenway. Then there are all those dog siht fears. The only thing I can figure is some people don't siht otherwise it seems like they would know by now that a little of the stuff won't kill you or maybe dog siht is just different in some way from human siht? Anyway I'm so worked up about all this that last night I laid awake for 2 seconds worrying. Today the a guy a the running/bike shop told me it wasn't natural to run barefoot. He said that people have evolved to run in shoes. I was damn near speechless. Let's see, the modern running shoe was developed less than 40 years ago and the evolutionary processes kicked in and now we can't run properly without them? I'm not surprised a guy making money selling over priced shoes would not be a objective about barefoot running. It's about the money and the list of money makers includes all those orthopedists making beach house payments off running injuries. Do you think your going to get honest answers from the Running Industry?
My advice? If you want to runner faster with less injuries start getting away from those expensive shoes. Do what I did, take a barefoot run on grass, I think it will change your thinking.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
They can't even regulate tricycles...
Years ago the city of Charleston passed laws to regulate pedicabs. Right from the start, when they used the name rickshaws to describe these vehicles, they got it wrong--a rickshaw is a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by hand; what they were regulating was a 3-wheeled tricycle, a pedicab. Naturally, rather than allow the FREE market to determine the number of cabs, the city put a limit of 15 cabs and then created a bureaucracy to enforce the rules. For a time none of this really matter since no one from the city seemed to know what was going on with the pedicabs or didn't care or where too lazy to do anything about it. In this unregulated vacuum the free market did its thing and pedicabs became part of the landscape. The number of bikes on the street fluctuated based on demand for the service. Even in the busiest of times it was rare to wait over 10 minutes for a cab. Everyone was happy: the hotels, the cab companies, the riders and especially the customers---tax payers. Wouldn't you know it? Since everything was working great the city decides to get back involved by enforcing the law regarding the number of cabs on the street. Probably caused by the new guy from the city charged with pedicab harassment--I'll bet the family farm this guy has never even been for a ride in a pedicab. Of course, they pulled this stunt at the worst possible time...the start of Spoletto. Waiting on a cab went to 30 minutes or more and in some cases NEVER. Now we have a system where there are cabs in the barn, kids eager to ride the cabs and customers wanting to ride and a big fat bureaucracy parked on it's ass right in the middle of the free market. Anyone out there surprised?
