mihlbach

You need to ease your way into it. It takes time to toughen the sole of your foot. But yes, stepping in broken glass would suck.

Squirrelli

These are pretty darn good.
https://www.fivefingersshoessale.com/

Dr. Banzai

Prefontaine ran in what we would call slippers:



Nike single handedly invented the running shoe and has caused undue pain worldwide since the 1970s.

mihlbach

Yes, I have a pair. I haven't attempted to run in them, but I wear them when I have to wear shoes, such as when grocery shopping or going to the doctor. I can't imagine trying to cycle in those things!

JohnDThompson 

A mere "blink of the eye" in the evolutionary time scale.

That said, even the great apes are not strictly vegan, so I concede your point that our digestive systems should be able to handle at least some meat. (N.B. I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years now and have not felt it has compromised my health or strength).

This, I think, is the real issue. Healthy meat is hard to find, and like all meat is quite resource intensive. "Moderation in all things" is a good heuristic for healthy living.

solbrothers

i messed up my knee at work, and my physical therapist told me to ride my bike more. i doubt she would want me to ride a track bike, tho

hairnet

ugh, almost replied thinking you are the Dr.

solbrothers

haha why the ugh?

hairnet

I had posted, saw it's you, then quickly edited the post. It also reminds me of the time Operator had the same photo as Botto, that was confusing as well. The ugh? I say ugh a lot.

solbrothers

ugh, i get it

mnstr

Vibrams are awesome. I've owned the Bikila's since June and run/lift in them. The farthest I've gone in one session is 10 miles. I hear A LOT of good about the KSO's. Taper your mileage down A LOT initially so your feet/ankles/legs get used to them. Also, you might get a blister or two in your first couple runs. That was my experience, but after that it has been golden and feels great. They're a blast to use on trails, but I'm a trail junkie to begin with.

I eat a lot of chicken and fish. I try to stay away from all the chemical, improperly fed, hormonal meat. Most of my feelings about the 'don't eat red meat' have been expressed by other members. I think it's been taken too far in the other direction too with some of the Paleo/Caveman diet trends. I'm reading The Paleo Solution right now by Robb Wolf and it is giving me a headache even with my limited knowledge, but of course it is being spun in support of the diet. Different latitudes made different diets. You might be eating a lot of plants, you might be eating a lot of animals. If you're interested in that type of thing, the book Guns, Germs, and Steel touches on the Hunter-Gatherer, Horticultural, Agricultural stuff.

Knees? Also spent time in the Corps, but my back and hearing got more out of it than my knees did. I might get runner's knee here and there, but I've never had knee problems with my bike, even when other activities are causing it/them pain.

The Doc nailed it with Nike. Adding cushion to a natural lever system just made bad habits. It's funny how frees and low form shoes are being produced a lot more now. Running fans: Born to Run, Chris McDougall (just don't take the book as gospel)

sorry for being long winded.

Ken Cox

Riding a fixed gear bike that fits you will heal whatever ails your knees.

Corwings

+1

mihlbach

Evolutionary processes (speciation, adaptation, extinction) are known to operate on time scales of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of years. Naturally you see the cummulative effects of evolutionary processes over periods of millions of years. The more remote you get into the past, the more and more diminished the significance to your immediate biology. I mean, your fish ancestors from hundreds of millions of years ago could live in water...that doesn't mean you should. The past several million years or so, when human ancestors were most certainly carnivorous (or omnivorous), and under intense natural selection pressure, are more relevant to your immediate dietary physiology than what occurred millions and millions of years before.
People are entitled to live in a vegan dream world and believe that humans are not adapted to eat meat, but the fact is, we couldn't possibly subsist on a chimpanzee or gorilla diet even in the lushest jungle in the world. We aren't even remotely capable of masticating and swallowing the intensely fibrous fruits and other vegetable matter that other apes eat. Humans have been getting along fine eating large quantities of meat for at least a few million years. Living hunter gather populations subsist on diets consisting almost entirely of animal matter, to diets that are much more omnivorous with no chronic disease. Evolutionary nutritionists are gradually coming to the conclusion that humans are adapted to a wide range of animal and vegetable diets. It is also becoming abundantly clear that what we are not really adapted to eat are modern agricultural products...namely cereal grains and cereal-grain fed animals (particularly when heavily refined into products such as hot dogs and corn syrup) which both have detrimental long term health effects that are not present in preagricultural societies or modern hunter gatherers. These foods are prevalent today because they are cheap to produce, not because they are good for us. We aren't really designed to wear shoes or ride bikes either, but at least these things don't cause heart disease and obesity like modern foods do.

What was the original topic of this thread again?

James1:17

It's been hurting my knees lately....must be doing it wrong. I have been "mashing" the big chainring on my roadie and playing around with fore/aft a lot lately so I'm sure the problem lies therein somewhere. I'm going to do an at-home fit like suggested earlier in this thread, and then begrudgingly throw down cash for an lbs fit if it doesn't resolve the issue.