Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 121, August 2019 | Page 68

ADVERTORIAL
The Elliptigo Effect
By Gordon Reid
distract me from the thought that I had never ever run
21km before. Six hours and 56 minutes later, Deon and
I crossed the line. We had done it!
S
ix years ago, I was a reasonably fit and
healthy 40-year-old, playing squash twice
a week and cycling a little. Fast forward 12
months and I’d had five operations under general
anaesthetic, after never having one my entire life –
two sinus operations, two operations to have cysts
taken off my kidneys, and I accidentally tried to cut
my hand off at work.
I remember seeing a picture of a friend of mine,
Delene, cycling with a huge smile on her face, but
dressed in a cow suit, complete with an udder! I had
to know more. Turns out she was a CHOC Cow, an
amazing group of people who do sporting events
to raise money for kids with cancer. I thought this
looked fun, competing but taking the competitive
element out of racing, and all for a good cause.
To cut a very long story short, there happened to be
a COW launch party in Durban the following week,
and I signed a serviette and committed to doing the
Midlands Ultra, a half Ironman distance triathlon. I
had never even run 10km, but now I was training
for a 1.9km swim, 90km cycle and 21.1km run! One
of my best mates, Deon, thought it was a great idea
and joined my crazy escapade. Game on!
Crazy Cow Power
Six months later, on a steamy February morning, we
lined up with hundreds of racing machines, feeling
very under-trained. We hadn’t done much structured
training, but we had our wives and kids on the sidelines
screaming for us, and we had “Cow Power.” That’s the
power of all the kids suffering from cancer as a stark
reminder that our pain would be a few hours, whereas
their pain lasts so much longer, which was enough to
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Through many chats during training, I knew that it
was Deon’s dream to do a full marathon, so we set
our sights on the Deloitte Marathon later that year,
which we duly completed in four hours 36 minutes.
However, a combination of no strength training and
no structured training regime took its toll, and we
both ran ourselves into injuries that we couldn’t
shake. I spent 12 months between my chiropractor
and biokineticists, getting all sorts of treatments,
but the moment I started running again, a niggle
in my left ankle would flare up. I couldn’t do my
beloved triathlons or run races with the rest of my
club, and I was going slightly mad.
Until one day I saw a guy on the beachfront riding this
crazy looking machine, halfway between an orbitrek
and a scooter, and we got chatting. Uday Raniga had
such belief in this crazy-looking machine, and said it
would help my plight, so he loaned me an Arc model.
I included riding it in my training, and low and behold,
within two months I was running pain-free again.
New Lease on Life
I now have both the Elliptigo Arc and 8C and love
riding them. Both give a solid workout and have got
my glutes firing again. It’s an intense workout, like
what you get from running, but without the impact,
and you cover more ground than running, so our
Durban promenade is perfect for it. Also, hill training
on the Elliptigo has added another dimension to my
running – the core workout is power, while the upper
body workout is nothing to sniff at either.
I’m convinced that using the Elliptigo on a regular
basis has massively improved my running, by
increasing my speed and hill-climbing ability. Also,
I’m convinced that I’m a better athlete because
of the full body workout I get from the Elliptigo.
Therefore, I highly recommend this for either
runners or cyclists who want to up their game, or
for the injured runner who wants to get back to
running again without the impact of running.
Oh, and while some may think it will be hard to ride,
I’ve given it to people of all ages to try, and with
very little instruction they all get it right first-time. I
also recently rode the new SUB MTB model, and
ISSUE 121 AUGUST 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
the intensity of the workout was amazing. Riding just 15km was
as intense as 30km on my normal MTB, so shorter rides mean
a great workout and then more time with the family.
I’ve now covered well over 4000km in races, including plenty of
half marathons, two Dusi Canoe Marathons, the Amashova and
947 on a 65kg ice cream bike, and loads of triathlons. I’m playing
second division squash and aiming for a sub-20-minute parkrun,
and I’m loving this fit life, thanks to the Elliptigo.