Bubbadeeboo wrote:
The body senses the change of surface, adjusts muscle tension accordingly and the impact profiles are fairly consistent... Ceteris paribus.
That may be true to some extent, but I don't come close to buying that entirely.
So....you are saying that if I ran on a trampoline, or on a giant wet sponge, there would be no absorption of impact by the surface, and it the impact forces to my body would be exactly equal to running on cement? When I throw a rubber ball on cement and it immediately rockets back up skyward, but then I do the same thing on grass and it comes back more slowly and not as high.....what happened there? My body is not a rubber ball, no, but is it magic or something?
I also understand that if the surface is "too" soft (like deep sand), then one loses potential energy and has to work harder (of course) to leave the ground on each step, thus the muscles work harder (concentrically). This could be a training advantage or disadvantage. (a stimulus of course, but a strain possibly, and not running as efficiently as possible). But there is still certainly absorption of impact forces by the surface, the body it is not having to absorb almost of all those forces being returned immediately by the impact as it would on cement.
I can take my shoes off and immediately run comfortably on grass without any "practice." I can not do this on the roads, and instead immediately feel shock to my feet, quads, and knees. This is not in my head, this is not because of lack of practice, this is not because my body is not working correctly (as you seem to think the body can work). This is because of the lack of absorption of impact by the surface I am running on.
Not exactly rocket science if you ask me.