Nowadays, people run for fun and fitness, but historically running always had a purpose. Hunter-gatherers probably only ran when chasing game, being chased, or perhaps when just playing around with others. But the nature of their running was quite different from modern training methods.
Today, most people know how long they will run before they start. A person may set out to run a certain number of minutes or a certain distance. But for an ancient hunter-gatherer, running would have often been "open-ended". A hunt may have lasted a mile or five, a half hour or several hours, continuous or stop-and-start.
From this, some people theorize that humans are designed for such open-ended running - being able to run a variety of paces for various segments of time, even within one training/hunting session. I think this is a good insight - one that can be used to design better running programs.
One idea would be to randomize each training session. A person could roll a die or something similar to determine the paces and distance for each session. Besides leading to improved performances, this might also be neat from a psychological perspective. It would provide the element of surprise in training and keep things fresh.
Nowadays, people run for fun and fitness, but historically running always had a purpose. Hunter-gatherers probably only ran when chasing game, being chased, or perhaps when just playing around with others. But the nature of their running was quite different from modern training methods.
Today, most people know how long they will run before they start. A person may set out to run a certain number of minutes or a certain distance. But for an ancient hunter-gatherer, running would have often been "open-ended". A hunt may have lasted a mile or five, a half hour or several hours, continuous or stop-and-start.
From this, some people theorize that humans are designed for such open-ended running - being able to run a variety of paces for various segments of time, even within one training/hunting session. I think this is a good insight - one that can be used to design better running programs.
One idea would be to randomize each training session. A person could roll a die or something similar to determine the paces and distance for each session. Besides leading to improved performances, this might also be neat from a psychological perspective. It would provide the element of surprise in training and keep things fresh.