Record (temperatures) at Badwater

Tomorrow sees the start of one of the most extreme ultras: The Badwater Ultramarathon.

Of course the distance of 135 miles, or 217 kilometers, can be considered a challenge. Or the altitude gain. Starting at  -86 meter, in Badwater, the lowest point in the US. The finish is at Mount Whitney at 2548 meter in the Sierra Nevada.

The challenge is the temperature. The temperature can hit 54 degrees centigrade. The record is from July 10th 1913 when it reached 56,7 degrees centigrade.

This extreme temparatures are of course caused by the burning sun over the dessert. The valley is a kind of bowl in which the air circulates  so it will not cool down during the night. Something I learned from this Polish Newspaper thanks to Google Translate ;-)

By the way looking for a record of your own. You have to beat::
Men: Valmir Nunes (Brazil), 22:51:29 (in 2007);
Women; Jamie Donaldson (USA), 26:12:16 (2010).


 
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Burn Fat Fast!

Burning Calories. Burning Fat. How tot loose weigth in no time? Avoid the intake of harmful calories. Resist the fastfood temptation.

It is a 'hot topic' given that a search on 'burn fat' results in over 20.000.000 hits in a tenth of a second on Google.

It is this kind of food that has more calories than you can burn in one day. And what does your body do...store it as fat.

This can easily be avoided. How? Burn the calories on your plate! Set the burger ablaze!

And that is exactly what photographer Henry Hargreaves did. Creating this stunning images in the proces. Just consider why the food doesn't look that burned....the fat in the food is burning. The photographer says this is not an anti fastfood action but I can't say its pro fastfood either;p. Just enjoy the food....as eye candy!




















inspiration and images: fastcodesign.com

Sneakers with head lights

From time to time at Kickstarter you come a across an initiative related to running. Like one for the very minimalistic shoe (see my dutch blog), Strapless Heart rate Monitor of the funny bottle.

This time the idea to strap headlights on to your running shoe so you can safely run in the dark en monitor the road ahead of you.

To be honest I don't think it will work as good as they tell you in the video.

As a runner you should look ahead of you. So I think a strong head mounted light is better as this will cast its bundle where you are looking. It also a more constant source of light shining ahead of you. They argue such a light will not enable your eyes to adjust to the dark for 'night vision'. I on the other hand think that this flickering light around you feet is as bad for your night vision and only provides light just around your feet forcing you to look down which is not good for your running posture.

The solution offered in this video is a good idea when it comes to visibility. I have to admit they promote it with "See and Be Seen" on the kickstarter website.
As your feet move, the light is constantly moving as well, attracting attention from drivers and other people out on the road. But for this purpose they have to provide tail lights as well as head lights. Or maybe even focus on tail lights as the hazard in the night is behind you because you see other traffic coming towards you.

Then again: you can buy jackets with led light, arm straps, vests and all with led light and reflecting strips.

So I have to admit that to me this not an innovation but a gimmick. Lets see if they can prove me wrong and raise the capital needed. So far, 3 days going in a 4 week campaign they have raised ~$700 from the $38.000 required...

Easy to use fitness app

There are numerous apps that enable you to track your activities. Apps like runkeeper, map my run, my tracks. These apps require you to configure it before use, activate it when you start and stop it when you, well, stop with the exercise.
This annoyed the designers off this new fitness app 'Moves'.

Moves automatically registers all day long you activities. walking, running, cycling. And this all day long as displayed in the time line below:

It was never so easy to keep track of your activities and learning at the end of the day to know how much you moved....hence the name 'Moves'. More info on the site moves-app where you can download the app currently only available for iPhone.

Feet in the Clouds: Serious warning

In his twitter time line Scott Jurek posted this picture from the cover of Feet in the Clouds: A Tale of Fell-Running and Obsession

Sounds like fun reading.

And of course for the average runner this warning is to be neglected.

Professional fit?

Sometimes inspiration for a posting is right there in front of you. For example while waiting for a train looking at the poster (pictured next to this text) on the platform. OK, this looks like a running shoe but why offer a free hairdryer along with it? Because it is supposed to help you to create a perfect fitting shoe.

This poster introduced to me the U form technology from Reebok. This technology makes it possible to create some form of custom made fitting shoes just like te professionals have.

How? Thats where the hairdryer comes in.

You'll heat up the shoe for two minutes en put in on. After 8 minutes of colling down on your foot should offer a custom made fit.
De U form logo is an indicator if the shoe is heated enough when it will turn red (200 degrees Fahrenheit, or 93 deg. Celcius).

Next to the U form technology the shoe has another feature to offer: Realflex.
The shoe on the poster looks like a running shoe but it might be a (cross)fitness shoe.
The running shoe with U FORM  displayed next to this article does not have the realflex sole.
However a wide range of running shoes with Realflex technology are available on amazon. But these are without U form.

You can take a look at thev video for an illustration of creating this professional fit with the simple use of a hairdryer.
To me the use of this simple tool takes away a bit of the marketing value of the shoe. To me they should have created a bit more high tech approach to heating the shoe.