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On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 07:50 sean mcbride wrote:


>IIRC Australian Aborigines seem to have walked
>about 15km per day in their food quest.
>Some of this may have involved short sprints
>after goannas or whatever but I've never
>seen anything about jogging or long runs.
>I don't think it was necessary.

Sean, you give me the opportunity to ask a question that has been buzzing
around in my mind for a couple of years: "What about those tales we learnt
in [Australian] primary school about young Aborigine men running down a
kangaroo till it was exhausted over a few days as part of their
initiation?  Were they just a whitefella myth?"

And, while I'm on the air, my earlier comments against running (more
specifically, jogging) were made to distinguish:

(a) modern-day aerobic jogging - for the sake of exercise and fitness,
undertaken solely at the volition of the runner with considerable
foreknowledge and preparation (so the runner would be sufficiently rested,
not having a full stomach), with shoes on a paved track and on reasonably
level ground over a small number of set distances, at a reasonably stable
pace and over a roughly predetermined distance and with adequate
hydration, with

(b) Paleolithic running - barefoot, with a definite purpose (catching
game, escaping an enemy etc.), over virgin terrain, through long grass and
scrub, up and down hills, boulder hopping etc. - whatever the occasion
called for and pretty much always at a pace and for a duration over which
the runner was at the mercy of another person or animal.

We should feel quite comfortable in emulating - as far as possible -
running of the latter kind in our activity.  Brisk hill walking, with
occasional fartlek sprints should fit the bill.

Keith

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