conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a description for a book titled Running to the Top about Zealander, Peter, Snell with the genre: Sports & Outdoors, Individual Sports
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The New Zealander the author was the most successful trainer of middle and long distance running in the world. He coached runners from different countries such as Peter Snell (3 times gold) or Lasse Viren, who reached 4 times gold. In the 50s and 60s the author not only revolutionized the middle and long distance training but parallel to this development he may be considered as one of the founders of the jogging-movement.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the first five paragraphs for this book
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Running to the Top
  The Oxford dictionary defines running as the act of progressing by advancing each foot alternately, never having both on the ground at once. Chambers says running is the act of proceeding by lifting one foot before the other is down. Neither definition is particularly complicated and neither places any limitation on the degree of forward momentum attained.
  The art and technique of running and the processes of talking and writing about running should be equally as simple. Running, after all, is as natural as walking. Once a child has learnt to walk, no one has to teach it how to run.
  We set out the guidelines, the rationale, the simple principles behind the art and pleasure of running better; we offer schedules upon which to base your own programmes of training for whatever you aspire to.
  Like none other, Arthur Lydiard's philosophy of running training touches everyone who pulls on a pair of running shoes. He devised the principles of training now employed by leading coaches and athletes all around the world, in track and field and in many other sporting spheres; he invented the pure and simple exercise of jogging which has infected millions with its benign bug.
  First tested and found successful in the 1950s, the Lydiard system has undergone some subtle refinements through the years. But it remains the same elemental theory that first placed a small handful of ordinary runners, from Lydiard's immediate neighbourhood in an Auckland, New Zealand, suburb, at the forefront of world middle and distance running for more than a decade and then, as Lydiard advanced from being a coach of runners to an international coach of coaches, spread around the running tracks and training centres of the entire world.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: five more paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I didn't get much of an answer from him on that one but I got an answer from those joggers because some of them, including men in their seventies, very quickly were able to run very well, regardless of the state of some of their arteries.
  The construction and functioning of the human foot are what uniquely set us apart from all other forms of animal life. Evolution has adapted a foot for the specific activities of the human, although no two pairs are exactly alike and some are naturally more efficient than others. Once we pass the crawling stage, we use our feet relentlessly and for a wide variety of purposes, usually with very little regard for their maintenance.
  Between them, our feet do a remarkable job but, like the rest of us, they are only human; so, before we commit them to yet another role by taking up jogging, or running, let's pay them the attention they deserve.
  Since the jogging boom spread from New Zealand and round the world in the sixties, it has spawned huge industries to supply all the gear runners need and a great deal they don't need but which look nice, give the sweaty activity a touch of fashionable class and make their designers and manufacturers comfortably rich. Aggressive shoe companies, mostly American, are locked in an endless battle for our attention and our dollars.
  Since jogging took off, footwear to jog in has advanced from a basic sandshoe type of covering with a somewhat thicker sole than normal to provide protection between foot and running surface. We now have a staggering range of name-brand shoes with an even more staggering range of so-called aids to more traction, more cushioning, more recoil, less weight and a range of inserts and additions to counter pronating and supinating ankles – and, if the advertising claims are to be believed, generate greater speed.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: the last five paragraphs
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The warm-up has two functions: To increase the pulse rate and blood circulation; and to warm muscles and reduce their viscosity so they will function better. To achieve both these objectives, you have to run on the spot or jog at reasonable aerobic effort for about five minutes and your body should be kept warm. A track suit over the playing gear, for instance.
  The warm-up should include suppling and stretching exercises to relax the muscles and stretch the sinews. Some short sharp windsprints are desirable. The team should be taken outside and pushed through two or three 30 to 50-metre windsprints and then left to run or jog quietly until the game is called. This gets the players into the 'second wind' stage and keeps them there. Remember that the average fit athlete has enough oxygen for a 133-metre sprint and the 'second wind' stage, as it was once called, is not reached until the body begins to work to cope with the demand fo anaerobic exercise. This usually takes about 15 minutes and it is a most-essential safeguard against straining tendons and pulling muscles. It is not to be achieved in the first 15 minutes of the match you are playing.
  Playing seasons are tending to become longer and players, especially the elite, are being called on to compete in extremes of both hot and cold weather. This means, that, in winter sports, they can be affected by heat so they must develop the arterioles in the skin to enable the blood to be pumped adequately out to skin level to keep the temperature down and reduce the drain on working muscles. You can use a sauna to condition for this or deliberately train in the heat in the early season – long steady runs will very quickly develop this surface arteriole condition.
  If you prefer saunas, do not use them near actual competition. A Thursday sauna is all right but a Friday sauna would be unwise because it could dehydrate you too much and remove too many salts and minerals which cannot be replaced in time by normal eating and drinking.
  Now you are conditioned, you have used your fitness to absorb the finer points of technique, you are warmed up so get going. Get out there and win and enjoy the process.