[thesamethrowawa]

It's eye-opening when a subject you have first hand deep personal knowledge of is posted on Hacker News. You realise how confidently people post about topics they know absolutely nothing about.

Yes, you've read born to run, well done. It it's a good story, not a handbook of practical advice. Telling 2:30 marathon runners doing hundreds of miles a week that running shoes are bad and they should be going bare foot. OK.

[angiolillo]

Some of the disagreement I've seen seems to boil down to the fact that different runners have different goals. Advice for a number-chaser trying to crack 2:30 isn't helpful for minimalists who want better foot stability and ground feel and vice versa.

In my case I get a lot of well-meaning but misguided advice from fellow runners who can't understand why I don't focus on optimizing my race times. But my goal is to continue running marathons in my 80s and beyond like Fauja Singh or Ed Whitlock, so I make different tradeoffs.

[thesamethrowawa]

Oh 100%, and that's the brilliant thing about running, it's a very personal sport and you take what you want from it, which can also change as you get older or life changes. But-

A 2:30 runner giving a more recreational runner advice about improving times is trying to be helpful and supportive sharing their learnings and expertise, even if misguided.

A HN-er that has never ran before throwing out stuff about barefoot running since they read Born to Run a few years ago is just plain ignorance.

[angiolillo]

> A HN-er that has never ran before throwing out stuff about barefoot running since they read Born to Run a few years ago is just plain ignorance.

This seems uncharitable. I see only one comment that favorably mentions Born to Run and a couple that favorably mention minimalist running shoes but none of these give any indication that the poster has never run before.

It seems like a barefoot-style runner giving someone advice about training barefoot to strengthen stabilizing muscles or improve ankle proprioception or something is similarly trying to be helpful and supportive, even if misguided.

I agree with your underlying point though -- it's a very personal sport. That's why it's hard to specific advice about shoes or training unless you know whether someone is running to improve their race times, cardiovascular health, mental health, age gracefully, physical therapy, lose weight, or something else. Because the right approach for one goal might be counterproductive for another.

[mikestew]

Yeah, but Winlock was running sub-3:00 in his 70s. :-)

[angiolillo]

True! Though if I were to pick an aspirational target it would be his sub-four at 85 :)

I should clarify that it's not that I don't pay any attention to race times, just that it's not my primary focus -- I regularly sacrifice PRs to make sure I feel good and avoid injury.

“We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with emphasis on “good” rather than “time” and when you make that shift in emphasis the whole approach changes.” — Robert M. Pirsig

[mikestew]

Oh, I get you. I’ve raced at a high level for years, but as a senior runner I’m lately starting to think about going from “do well at XC nationals” to “stay in good enough shape to keep up with the ‘kids’ on the Sunday club trail run”. :-)