> From: Hilary McClure <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: power curves, chaos, and jogging
> and that all of these together would have enabled us to run down
> four-legged prey in the hot mid-day savannah sun by basically running
> somewhat of a marathon.
> ------------------------------
I have read that Australian Aboriginals did this with the
big kangaroos. They would chase the thing all day, sleep
through the night, then kill it the next morning when it was
too stiff and sore to hop away or fight back. Don't know if
this is true or just fable.
In another forum, the primitive archer web site, there was a
discussion of deer hunting this way. One guy claimed to have
done it in the winter snow. Said it took what he thought was
about ten miles of steady jogging to exhaust a deer. That
would not surprise me if true (deer hunters stories are not
to be trusted;-). Deer are great sprinters, but not long
distance runners. They tend to sprint away a few hundred
yards then lay low watching to see what you do. This is
where a dog with a good nose would come in handy, a beagle
would be ideal. By the way, the guy claimed he caught up
with the deer, but got too close, and it kicked the s__t out
of him and got away.
>
> Possible, no other land animal can out distance a
> human
> in total miles,
This is an often repeated factoid, but I do not believe it
can be true. I believe a well trained and talented human
runner can outrun an average, out of shape horse. I do not
believe a human can outrun a well trained and talented horse
in any race. (There have been runs across America races with
human runners and with horses. Anyone know which was faster?
I don't recall the figures for either.) There are races that
pit humans against horses CARRYING RIDERS, and the horses
win, even on courses designed to favor runners. I have never
heard of a human running down any distance running animal
such as a pronghorn antelope, caribou, zebra, wild horse
etc. I simply do not believe it is possible unless the
animal is wounded somehow. I suspect humans did hunt this
way, AFTER hitting the animals with rocks or spears or
whatever. On the paleo nutrition site there is an article
that discusses the paleo frisbee theory. I like it.
I had an experience once that bears this out. I was training
for a marathon, out on a seven mile run. A young beagle,
half grown, was on the road and it decided to join me. It
ran ahead and fell back, sprinted to come up to me again,
chased here and there in the ditches and fields alongside,
all the while I was running steadily at a good pace. That
dog ran with me the whole way, and didn't seem tired. I
doubt that his owner was a long distance runner who took
this young dog out with him to train him, but he had no
trouble keeping up with me for probably five miles, and he
ran a lot farther and faster than I did. I guess an adult
dog from a running breed, trained to run distances, could
easily outlast any human runner.
There are a lot of animals humans can run down, but it is an
exaggeration to say _all_ animals.
although my gut says that we probably
> used our big brains and took a less painful approach
> to hunting.
Here I tend to agree.
>
> --- Hilary McClure <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > long-duration, steady-state,
> > medium-level activity of the modern "aerobic"
> > jogger.
Which does not explain why we are so good at it.
Recently I've been
> > reading how bipedal movement is much more energy
> > efficient than
> > four-legged,
I read that bipedal is more efficient for walking, but not
running. I don't recall the reason why.
This is making
> > me wonder whether a
> > long, couple-hour jogging session might have some
> > benefit and whether it
> > might fit into the "evolutionary model" of physical
> > activity, as DeVany
> > puts it, if done only once or twice a week.
We humans are certainly damn poor sprinters, compared to
almost any animal you can name. Seems to me we are adapted
to jogging, which humans are good at, a lot more than to
sprinting, which we are abysmally poor at. Other than the
tree sloth, can you name any large mammal that is SLOWER
than humans at a full sprint?
That said, I am not a big believer in the idea that long
distance running is so great for health either. I love
running, and train 75 minutes or so three times a week. But
I don't claim it is for my health. I love to compete, and I
have to train hard to compete.
I ran a ten K last weekend, broke 40 minutes for the first
time since I was much younger. But some guy in his 50s ran
35 minutes! So I have a ways to go. I was very interested in
the final stats of the various age groups. The 20 year olds
definitely dominated at the highest speeds, but there was
little difference at all between 30s, 40s, and 50s. I placed
14th in my 40 year old class, but would have placed 17th in
the 30 year old class. Not much difference.
By the way, I ran this at very low carb, I didn't even eat
the berries this time, and only had a couple of oranges the
day before. It was great, I felt great the whole race (tired
of course), and ran my fastest time since starting to run
again. I even had a great sprint at the end, which is
supposed to be only from carbs, but obviously that can not
be true.
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