Dr. Mark Cucuzzella Writes Run for Your Life
This week we are rejoined by former guest, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, who recently wrote Run for Your Life: How to Run, Walk, and Move Without Pain or Injury and Achieve a Sense of Well-Being and Joy. This book addresses many of the common questions runners have about gear, motivation, running form, injury prevention and more.
Simple mechanics of running
In Run for Your Life, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella explains the simple mechanics of how our bodies have evolved and adapted to run. Despite our natural ability and our human need to run, each year more than half of all runners suffer injuries. Pain and discouragement inevitably follow. This book outlines the proven, practical techniques to avoid injury and reach the goal of personal fitness and overall health.
Having run for decades, Dr. Mark has set the record world’s longest active streak of running marathons for 30 years consecutively in under 3 hours. He is also a Race Director, owns a shoe store in W. Virginia, and helps with running camps all while still practicing medicine.
Walking relates to healthy running
In this episode he discusses the mechanics of the foot and the importance of walking as it relates to healthy running, the double-edged sword of the endorphins that give us our Runner’s High, the paradox of food-assistance programs and high cost of healthcare and especially the importance of community in the sport of running
Questions Mark is asked:
2:43 First Four:
- How old are you?
- Where were you born?
- Where do you live now?
- What is your favorite race distance or type of race?
7:12 What was the impetus behind writing Run For Your Life?
10:26 What was your life like as a younger runner and what was your experience with being injured?
16:28 How did you assemble the format of your book?
18:55 How important is walking to running?
24:37 What can you tell us about the chapter in your book called “Runner’s High”?
30:42 How have gender demographics changed since the 1930’s and where are heading?
35:05 How does the concept of “Ubuntu” apply women’s running?
38:19 Are we doing enough to discourage high-sugar beverages and food?
42:03 Is there another chapter you’d like to elaborate on?
46:37 What do you hope people take away from your book?
49:47 Final Kick Round:
- What is your favorite local training run (location, starting point, parking, distance, terrain and safety issues)?
- Favorite running book(s)?
- Words of Wisdom or Humor?
- Who or what would you like to have featured on the Run To The Top podcast?
Quotes by Mark:
“Think of all the races your audience has done; they’ve grabbed a cup from somebody or picked up there number at an expo. Go volunteer; your next race is a volunteer experience.”
“I can give you a hundred articles about how high-sugar drinks, even in 2 weeks, can cause direct harm to kids’ livers which is the first step to diabetes.”
“I want to slow people down. I really don’t care how fast they move.”
“If you walk wrong, you run wrong.”
“You could read a paper to defend any position you want, but you have to go try things yourself because there’s not ‘one road to Rome’. You have to tailor things to different people and let them try it as long as it’s safe.”
“I don’t think there’s anything that you learn from a textbook that actually is real. You can learn some theory, but you learn what’s real when you apply it to people.”
Take a Listen on Your Next Run
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Mentioned in this podcast:
Run To The Top Winners Circle Facebook Community
Book: Run For Your Life – By Dr. Mark Cucuzzella
Two Rivers Treads – Running Shoe Store
Freedom’s Run. An Event for Health and Heritage
Follow Dr. Mark Cucuzzella on:
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