If all the snow and cold recently have been making you feel unmotivated, then Running Unlimited have just the piece of escapist kit for you.
Kind of like a mini wrap-around cinema for runners, the Zone Dome features a 1.5 metre wide dish-shaped screen, which you can clip onto a treadmill and transport yourself to wherever in the world you wish. The dish hooks up to an app on your iPad, allowing you to choose your location, distance, and speed.
We’re back! Sorry for the Easter hiatus, but sometimes the lure of holidays and chocolate is too strong…now its time to work it off though! Here is some reading to get you in the mood:
Deckers Acquires Hoka One One Shoes – In a great sign for minimalist runners everywhere, Deckers Outdoor Corporation, the parent company of such popular footwear brands as UGG and Teva, has fully acquired the upstart running brand Hoka One One. The acquisition is a sign that Deckers thinks Hoka’s unconventional shoe design will continue to attract more runners, and should signal a good amount of investment in the brand. (Runners World)
Deconstructed: The Rise of the Minimalist Running Shoe – Following in our minimalist trend, this handy list shows the development and evolution of minimalist and barefoot running shoes over the years, right from Abebe Bikila’s Olympic triumph up to the launch of Vibrams Five-Fingers in 2006. We’ve come a long way baby… (Outside Online)
Laura Trott and Jason Kenny talk cycle tech – Pocket-Lint grab ten minutes of interview time with Olympic medalists Laura Trott and Jason Kenny to talk Adidas Adistar, their sponsor’s new top-of-line cycling apparel range. (Pocket-Lint)
Well the weather outside is frightful – with many races and meets being cancelled this weekend due to the snow and freezing temperatures. TR recommends staying in and keeping warm with these articles which will hopefully have you raring to go when the conditions improve!
High-tech marathon training kit – With just over a month to go before the London Marathon, entrants should be reading a peak of their training before the taper begins. MSN Tech offers some of the best technology gadgets and gizmos, from watches to headphones, to help the final stretch – our favourite is the FitBit One, which syncs with your smartphone or PC to act as a personal fitness assistant. (MSN Technology)
How to discover your true running potential – On a similar vein, the Guardian’s running blog offers this advice on how to discover your real running potential at the Asics Running Labs facility at the company’s flagship Oxford Street store. The project offers four methods of analysis; Physique (Leg alignment, foot shape, and body composition), Strength (Leg strength measurement), Form (Running form analysis) and Endurance (Aerobic endurance measurement) and a full explanation of where you can improve. (Guardian)
Top 10 tips for the London Marathon (or any marathon after that) – And in a further blast of London Marathon preview, the Metro offers up its top 10 tips for first-time and experienced runners from Lucozade Sport scientist Chris McManus, including advice on last-minute training, routine, and diet before the big day. (Metro)
Jogging Archbishop surprises media – And finally, proof that running really is the best kind of exercise, Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, surprised reporters and camera crews setting up to await his annunciation by jogging past them in, “a yellow lycra top and black leggings” at 6.30am this week. (Belfast Telegraph)
The world’s love affair with barefoot running shows little sign of abating, with Nike and New Balance this week announcing new shoe lines to try and grab a slice of the market dominated by Vibrams.
Both companies already have previous offerings in this market, with Nike’s existing free-running/parkour shoes being unveiled to great acclaim, and New Balance’s trail running shoes widely recognised as market leaders.
TR went for probably its coldest run ever coming back from the office this evening – where did this cold come from! Here are some interesting reads from around the web to keep you motivated:
Parkrun, the running revolution coming soon to a park near you – Examining the history and appeal behind Parkrun – the 5k race series that’s booming in popularity and is probably already happening in a park near you! (Guardian)
The Running Man: in praise of Ashmei – Some uber-lustable kit from Ashmei featured in this month’s GQ – definitely worth investing if you have the pennies! (GQ)
The history of running trainers – We’ve come a long way baby – the Metro provides a nice pictoral reminder of the recent strides of evolution of the running shoe (Metro)
Happy reading!
In the same Metro article as mentioned below, the Metro also has a short review of Adidas’ new running shoe line, the Boost (which you may remember us drooling over on its New York release a few weeks back).
There’s no doubt that these shoes are a beautiful piece of kit, and will definitely draw admiring and envious glances if you’re out running around the city or a popular park. They keep the classic Adidas “3 stripes” design which has been so so timeless for the brand, and then tops it off with its new foam technology on the sole.
Writing for the Metro, Vicki-Marie Cossar, herself an experienced runner and reviewer, seems impressed, praising the stability of the shoes, whilst also remarking on their flexibility. She takes them for a two-hour spin around a recently-snowed in New York and Central Park, and finds the whole running experience pretty positive, especially on hills, where she says that, “there’s no denying I feel more energised while running”.
Overall, Cossar’s glowing views back up our own fanboy raving, and we can’t wait to get our hands on them. Cossar states that, “I’m not a fast runner, and I’ve never done a marathon, but I manage a two-hour run around the city. I don’t feel tired and could easily continue. I had none of the usual aches and pains in my legs afterwards, which could be down to the good cushioning of the trainers. I’ll definitely wear them on future runs and am hopeful they might help me achieve my first half-marathon distance.”
Encouraging signs for us all!
A few weeks ago, The Guardian reported that Nike was facing some rather awkward difficulties relating to the sustainability and shelf-life of their products, and the company was now looking to repair their image and consumption statistics.
Fitting then, that this week saw the release of the company’s newest shoe offering, the ultra-minimalist Flyknit Lunar 1+. Apparently the result of four years hard R+D, Nike say that these shoes reflect what athletes really want from their footwear- “a snug and agile shoe that fits like a sock and is as light as a feather”. And they’re not far wrong there – a men’s size 10 apparently weighs just 8 oz!
The new super-lightweight Nike Flyknit Lunar 1+
First impressions are that the shoes do look great – you can almost see straight through them! Nike says that the shoes feature an upper part constructed entirely of a tightly woven polyester yarn that varies in density. This means that it is more open in targeted areas of your feet that may need greater flexibility or ventilation, and also tighter in areas that demand support.
So, so pretty…
Announced just over two weeks ago in New York, the Adidas’ new family of shoes is promising to revolutionize the way you run – and the speed at which you do it.
Called Adidas Boost, the new range of shoes will be made of a new material that delivers greater energy response, made up of dozens of mini capsules that will increase the ‘bounce’ produced when your foot strikes the ground. Adidas’ rather odd promo video shows this material bouncing a metal ball higher and for longer than that of a competitor and the floor.
The technology works by absorbing the energy and then pushing back to return it, helping to propel you forward, as the shoes material delivers a much greater energy response per stride. Adidas believe that the shoes will deliver a performance boost of around 10 seconds per km if ran at a 5min/km pace, a bold claim which we look forward to trying out. Adidas had running titan Haile Gebrselassie speaking at the launch, who said that he believes over a 26 mile run, trained athletes could see anywhere up to 40 seconds’ improvement.
Tech Runner 