Running miles and miles

Was watching a guy run down the sidewalk today. He had a little backpack with water in it on his back.

So I guess he was going to run a couple of miles. And then I thought, “when in the history and evolution of mankind was that ever a good idea, or did that happen when it was Good thing?”

Like, I understand that we’re doing that for exercise now.

But 15,000 years ago, the only reason you would run, was to elude an animal or attacker. And even then, you didn’t run for hours.

Now, on the other hand, our natural history suggests that we walked fairly long distances to find grow or harvest food, and we worked quite hard whenever we got where we were going. There was also a lot of ‘physicality’ in surviving by way of food-preparation, game harvest, and shelter creation.

In other words, there was a lot of walking, and hard work.

But I don’t think that our ancestors ran for miles. In actuality I bet our bodies were only engineered to succeed in a 1/4 to 1/2 mile escape, OR be eaten. 

Survival of the fittest didn’t come down to running 5-10 miles in one long, terrifying dinosaur chase. Daily.

I think it’s unnatural. Unnecessarily concussive, disc-compressing, and heart straining. 

Fast walking? Great.

Swimming 1/2 mile? Sure. 

Walking 5 miles? Totally. 

Digging weeding planting or harvesting 400sq feet of garden? Yup. 

Running 5 miles with a heart-rate pushing “He’s almost got me, look at those sharp teeth!” 180bpm? That’s a No.