How to running Information

Running can be a great pastime. It’s an activity that allows you to be in touch with your environment, get a nice workout, and have a great time. In this article, we’ll discuss some general tips on helping to improve the quality of your runs, either through aiding your comfort or increasing your intensity.

It’s important for any serious runner to have a good pair of running shoes. To choose the best shoes for your runs, you need to get form-fitting shoes that support your feet. To do so, try shopping late in the day. Your feet swell throughout the day, with their greatest size being achieved in the evening. If you shop for shoes in the morning, you may find yourself with some tight-fitting shoes that can cause blistering and other uncomfortable side-effects. Don’t just try on the shoes that you’re thinking of buying; walk around the store in them to ensure that they don’t strain your muscles in a weird way. Also, make sure that your toes have room to wiggle around in the tip of the shoe. A shoe that gives your toes a tight fit can lead to painful friction when running.

Do your best to not wear the same shoes jogging for two days in a row. Your feet sweat when you run, and the perspiration drains into the shoes a lot of the time. If you don’t give the sweat in your shoes enough time to dry out, bacteria can grow, causing odor to permeate from your shoes. Also, wearing the same shoes day after day causes any troublesome pressure spots in the shoe to rub against the same part of the feet every day, possibly leading to blisters.

Stretching is of the utmost importance to runners. A study conducted showed that runners who stretched three times per day reduced their risk of leg injury by 12%. To help keep your running muscles flexible, it’s important to perform calf, hamstring, and quadriceps stretches. In addition to helping protect yourself against injury, having additional flexibility in your muscles helps you to avoid painful cramps.

Be sure to stay hydrated when running. One of the biggest threats of running is the chance of dehydration faced by those who are unaware of their body’s needs. Perspiration causes the body to lose much of its water content, and you need to counteract this factor by regularly drinking water before, during, and after your run.

Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles on many topics including Sports, Golf, and Fitness

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Long distance running commonly creates a suspension of knee-jerk judgments and creates a sense euphoria that is sometimes also referred to as an “altered state of consciousness.” As an amateur runner who averages only about 10 to 12 miles a week, I still concur with that statement.

Actually there are quite a few religious orders which use long-distance ultra-marathon running (anything over 26 miles) as a tool to transcend the body consciousness, to eliminate the mental limitations and biases, and to open up the mind to a new “floating” awareness which looks at the world from a brand new objective point of view. There are actually reports of out-of-body experiences among some ultra-runners as well.

The Shri Chinmoy Order headquartered in New York City, for example, is well known for the fantastic running feats it encourages its members to tackle in order to transcend the mind’s concepts about “physical reality” and the “body’s limitations.”

The Shri Chinmoy Marathon Team regularly organizes and participates in 50K and 100K races.

The “Running Monks” present another amazing fusion of running ands religious discipline.

In order to gain access to higher levels of consciousness through running, a certain Buddhist sect in Japan allegedly run (are you ready for this?) 100 marathons on 100 consecutive days!

Waking up at 1:30 a.m. in the morning, the monks pray and meditate for an hour. Then they hit the road and run 26 miles. After the marathon they are back to their normal daily chores and prayers, and then to bed early in the evening.

The next day they do it all over again, for 100 days straight.

The monk who fails in the task, is asked to “end his life with the belt of his robe,” according to the Shri Chinmoy web site.

I’m all for pushing my body a little in order to reach a somewhat more elevated state of consciousness, humility and kindness.

But I don’t think I’ll ever reach a stage where I’d be going for the belt of my robe just because I can’t run 100 marathons in a row. I hope not anyways.

Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases, movie reviews and hi-tech documentation. He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 companies for the last 7 years.

In addition to being an Ezine Articles Expert Author, he is also a Senior Member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), and a Member of American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI).

You can reach him at writer111@gmail.com for a FREE consultation on all your copywriting needs.

You are most welcomed to visit his official web site http://www.writer111.com for more information on his multidisciplinary background, writing career, and client testimonials.

While at it, you might also want to check the latest book he has edited: http://www.lulu.com/content/263630

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If you are a runner and a jogger you generally will work out in training shoes, which have lots of cushion and prevent you from injury. This is a good idea to protect your knees and prevent you from getting shin splints.

However, if you are involved in running races such as 10Ks or marathons you will need to get some racing flats. Those are running racing shoes, which do not have much cushion and are made simply for light-weight and speed. They are the types of shoes you must wear if you expect to win.

They do not have anywhere close to the level of comfort or cushioning that you are use to in your jogging shoes. When buying running racing flats there are a few things you should be aware of;

1.) You need to find a shoe, which is completely stiff on the back heel. You should be able to take your hands and put your thumb on the sole of the shoe and your fingers on the back of the shoe and have a tough time crushing the back and towards the front.

2.) Another thing you need to look for when buying racing flats is that the area of the shoe where the ball of the foot is; is completely flexible and you should be able to bend it all the way back towards the laces extremely easily.

3.) The last thing you must consider when buying racing flats if you intend to win races is to make sure that they are extremely light weight and comfortable to wear.

Racing Flat running shoes may not be so comfortable to run in for a whole marathon but they should fit your foot snug and be somewhat comfortable and you need a pair if you are to win. Please consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow, a retired entrepreneur, adventurer, modern day philospher and perpetual tourist.

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