Five Things Running: Issue #103
Run more. But read this first!
Heya and welcome back to Five Things Running!
Last week I focused on recovery. Or to put it differently: I ran 10 km on Tuesday, then 6 km on Wednesday and then I didn’t get out of the door in time on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, only to feel not in the mood for running and turning around after a few hundred meters. This week will be better.
I really hate it when I don’t get to run. I’m really grumpy when this happens.
On the other hand, I did manage to read a bit more about running and I picked out five wonderful articles for you!
Here’s this week’s Five Things Running!
The Overlooked Aspects of Ultramarathon Training
“Race day comes and you line up feeling optimistic because training went perfectly. But then reality hits. The sun is stronger than expected sapping your energy early on. By the halfway point, you have stomach issues and you can’t keep anything down. To make everything worse, after 20 hours of running, your eyes feel heavy and you’re struggling to keep them open. Only a few hours left but you can’t take it anymore. You hobble into the aid station and you sit down, head in your hands. You call the aid station volunteer and, destroyed, you hand over your bib.” - why do runners not finish an ultra and what can you do to prevent this?
The Finish Line I Didn’t Cross
“We love the stories of triumph, the comebacks, the gritted teeth and last-minute surges that defy the odds. We love the runner who collapses in exhaustion after they’ve finished, not the one who missed a hard cutoff with miles to go.
But the truth is, failure is stitched into the fabric of endurance. If you push yourself long enough, hard enough, you will fail. Your body will break down. Your mind will give in. You will have a day where nothing goes right, or worse: where everything goes right, and it still doesn’t add up to what you wanted.
And it stings.” - yes, it does.
Lifting the heart of Bali’s run club culture with coffee and community
“Flowerboy is a run club in Bali, Indonesia. Or is it a creative design studio? Or is it a… coffee shop? Surprise, reader, it’s all three.
As you can already tell, Flowerboy is not your traditional run club. When Canadian artist and skateboarder, Jaryd Adair added a coffee shop to a co-working space near Bali’s most boisterous beaches, his next, less-logical step was to start a run club.” - this is cool. Also, I didn’t know anything about running in Bali. I love it how
brings different perspectives from the global running culture into the mix.Why Training Beats Casual Jogging
Chris, ever the German, needs structure for his running. It’s the levelhead demanding a training plan. Me, also German, I don’t need this, I just run. It’s the punk who doesn’t like to have routines and just wants to get away from it all by running.
It's okay to celebrate yourself.
“Celebrate your way. The method doesn’t matter as much as the intention. It can be a simple acknowledgment—a deep breath at the end of a run. Or, it might be more tangible: a journal entry, blog post, saved race bib, or lunch with a friend. Lisa and I get cake and a big foil balloon on our sober-versary.” - it really is. Just do it.
I’m grateful for the partners of Five Things Running: Acid Running, New Balance and Coros!
If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:
Now, go running!
— Nico
🏃🏻♂️
I love how all 5 of these are on Substack