Good Morning! đđťââď¸
I need to run more. I really do. But this last week I was just not in the mood and too exhausted from work and watching the winter olympics in Italy too long into the evening. So even though I want to run more right now, I feel as if I need to slow down right now. Also, the weather is just yucky right now, itâs around 0 °C here with little sun and some rain or snow and honestly, I am not in the mood for that right nowâŚ
Isnât there this thing about winners are being made in the winter? Well I guess I wonât win anything this summer thenâŚ
It could be worse, right?
Enjoy these five articles and then go running! đđťââď¸
How ex-con turned hobby into âbiggest run clubâ
When Hermen Dange was an inmate at HMP Manchester, he used running as a way of getting extra time out of his prison cell.
He took part in the HMP Hindley Parkrun, which involved 11 laps of the prison football pitch.
But six years on he has turned the hobby into a successful brand, which has helped thousands of people.
Iâm a sucker for these kinds of stories. Formed a run club, built a brand.
On Running
The best runs silence my endless internal dialogue, my constant self-debate. The worst amplify it. The best runs are effortless, a body hurtling through time and space; they require no persuasion. The worst runs require a commitment to self-coercion: to talking myself into every step, every tenth of a mile, to believing that two miles is actually almost ten, if you think about it right. I never know whether a run will be the best kind or the worst until Iâm at least a mile into it.
I recently read Haruki Murakamiâs What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and I agree with his sentiment that there are some things only runners understand. I think, if you run long distances, there are things I fundamentally know about you. We share something. But I donât consider myself a serious runner; usually, I donât even call myself a runner. I just go for runs. I donât know why I care about the distinction. Being committed to something Iâm not good at is uncomfortable, I guess. Mildly embarrassing for no reason.
I love the commitment to running and I totally accept the fact that I wonât ever be on a podium. It is still a wonderful thing to do.
Unconventional Things Iâve Done to Improve as a Runner
Maybe it was just maturity and age that helped me to slowly change my ways. Maybe it was burnout. Or maybe it was the more laid-back culture of ultrarunning that I was drawn into when I began competing on the trails. Either way, Iâm certainly not the same runner today as I was in high school or early in college. Donât get me wrongâI train more, longer, and harder than I ever did back then; by most standards Iâm far more âdisciplined.â But it rarely feels that way.
Itâs important to find your own approach to running and training - and this should always involve listening to your body.
Why Your Favorite Cycling Brand Is Now a Running Brand, Too
Ignoring the market potential of expanding your sales to include both runners and cyclists would seem unwise, considering the Venn diagram overlap of runners who cycle and cyclists who run is pretty large, and potentially growing. This is something that upstart brands like Portal have been able to tap into without needing to go back to the drawing board. Itâs in their DNA.
I assume they do it because running is just so much cooler. hehe.
Dressed to Hurt
For a long time, running gear was basically fluorescent plastic: practical, reflective, anonymous. High-vis yellow, generic logos, fabrics that felt like they were designed by road safety engineers, not people who actually loved this sport. One of the reasons I started my running brand Willpower ten years ago was because I couldnât stand that faceless neon polyester universe anymore. I wanted shirts that felt closer to 90s band merch than to emergency vests.
Fast-forward and running hasnât just become âstylishâ, it has become fashion. Real fashion.
Capsule collections. Collabs. Catwalk shows. Limited drops you have to âcopâ in sixty seconds. Seamless base layers that look like they belong in a gallery. Silk scarves. Oakleys that make you look like an insect. Shorts with a backstory and a waitlist. Tights made for a runway instead of a hill repeat.
The pendulum didnât just swing away from neon. It flew right through it and crashed into a different kind of costume.
While I am not a fan of the all-black attire Chris likes so much, I am very happy to see less and less neon. The world is a better place when people do not run in neon.
If you missed last weekâs edition, you can read it here:
Now, go running!
â Nico
đđťââď¸
5 things neon đ¤