Marathon You Can Do It

Elliptigo is an outdoor bike that’s a cross between an elliptical trainer and a bicycle. This exercise machine promises to give you a running experience on a bike without running as we know it.

The bike’s pedals move in a forward motion emulating a runner’s stride, without the same pounding impact.

Benefit of Elliptigo

Elliptigo is an invention of former Ironman triathlete Bryan Pate. The eight-speed bike is meant to help runners avoid beating up their bodies through repeated impact.

How much does it weigh?

Elliptigo is made of light material and weighs 40 pounds according to Elliptigo Company

Elliptigo is selling at US$ 2,199 and is available in blue, green and black.

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Researchers are now reporting you can gain alot by listening to music in your Ipod / MP3 player while running.

From the BBC website

Dr Costas Karageorghis and Professor Peter Terry, sports psychologists from Brunel University West London and the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba respectively found music increased energy efficiency by 1-3%, meaning athletes could run further on the same amount of oxygen.

The researchers further found women seemed to benefit more than men.

Maybe this new find explains why elite runners are banned from listening to Ipods while running.

Read more at BBC Health

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The benefit of hip stretching is that it makes your muscles more flexible allowing them to extend back far enough behind you before it comes forward again. This flexibility allows you to run faster and stronger. It also makes you less injury prone.

The following images show types of hip stretching exercises you can do at home

Image Source : Warm Up Exercises

How To Do The Hip Stretching Exercises

Stretch until the muscle just begins to feel tight (stretch point). It is important to hold the stretch position for 20 seconds, relax for 10 seconds and repeat each exercise for each leg. The stretching program should last 10 minutes. A practical program is to perform each exercise 2 or 3 times on each leg.

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There is a lot of news flying around claiming that running barefoot is better than running on some fancy running shoes. Although am yet to try running barefoot there are many runners out there who swear by barefoot running, at least on grass. Running barefoot on tarmac is a big NO!

Research on Barefoot running

The latest research on barefoot running has been done by a team from Harvard University. The team studied runners from the United States and Kenya as they ran on tracks.

The researchers found that while people run in a variety of ways, most barefoot runners tend to “forefoot strike — land first on the outer ball of the foot before bringing down the heel.

Advantage / Benefit of Barefoot Running

By contrast, more than 75 percent of runners who wear running shoes land on their heels first. The study suggests this is more likely to cause running injury.

Detailed information is published on harvard univesity website on barefoot running.

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Researchers have proven black Chocolate is good for your health. Although white chocolate is not rated highly, I tend to believe white chocolate is also good for runners.

Black / Dark chocolate has 80 calories per serving whereas white chocolate has 916 calories per serving.

Chocolate as a recovery food.

I choose to eat a chocolate as my recovery food after my running work outs. Those 916 calories help to restore the spent calories.

The sugars found in chocolate are simple sugars the same that you find in a Soda. Eating a chocolate after my running exercise help me get a quick fix.

To get proper nutrition I later eat complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes and avacados.

A chocolate cannot be considered a proper food but it can be useful as a quick fix immediately after a marathon.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Benefit, Black Chocolate, Black White, Calories, Dark Chocolate, Eating Chocolate, Exercise, Health, Marathon, Proper Food, Proper Nutrition, Runners, Running, Soda, Sugars, Sweet Potatoes, White Chocolate, Work Outs