Heya and welcome back to Five Things Running!

Traveling on one day and drinking a few glasses of wine on the next day really is not good for my running. It’s not that I didn’t know this already, but I found this out again last week. But on Saturday morning I finally earned a crown for sleeping, at least according to my Oura ring. All that rest went down the drain for the remainder of the weekend due to having a family…

I did get one nice run in where I ran along the banks of the Alster river for an out and back run. This week will be better. How was your running?

Also, I don’t mind if you wear Waldlauf apparel while sitting on the couch or hanging out in your favorite café. We run, we don’t judge.

Here’s this week’s Five Things Running!

After sparking outrage Strava now enforces Garmin’s rules

With November 1 approaching, developers will be forced to implement Garmin’s attribution requirements whether they like it or not. That means every app showing Garmin data will now need to call it out explicitly. This could eventually result in other brands asking for the same treatment. If that happens, Strava might find itself building a product that simply looks like a sponsored feed of wearable brands.

Strava is a platform I use daily and I’m constantly surprised how they focus on shooting themselves in the foot instead of building the best platform for endurance sports out there.

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Finding Calm In Structure

Once I was aware of what I could do at a maximum, I could add pieces to my schedule. Endurance sport here, strength training there. I have to place everything into those hours.

Even though I’m just easing back into running (and endurance in general), I’m already doing roughly over 13 hours of training each week. Training also means doing mobility work in the morning, rehabbing my quad every other day, and doing general strength work on others. Half of my training right now isn’t spent running.

When I sat down last week to plan my week, I decided to create a template rather than an actual plan first. What does that mean?

This seems to be a good approach.

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The Success Delusion

Now I tell my story. I ran my fastest when I was 18. I never got better. It wasn’t for lack of trying. I doubled down on caring. Training more, finding coaches who could get me there, resting, and recovering more. I went to bed earlier, gave up sweets, and became more dedicated. The master narrative I held in my head was of ironically, the Nike icon, Steve Prefontaine, “To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.” I wasn’t sacrificing my gifts; I was going full bore for their sake. And, none of it worked.

This is sound advice. I also never got any faster after 18, I just could run longer…

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When Fitness Disappears, What’s Left?

So when I look back, I’m not angry at anyone. The decision was mine. And while sadness made it easy to point fingers at first, I can see now that it all came from me and that’s okay.

Then came the sadness again. The quiet kind. The one that shows up when the anger burns out and you’re just left with what is.

I let myself feel it, because pretending otherwise never works.

I’m far from being a pro athlete, but I can relate to the rollercoaster of being fit and then being injured again.

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Drone Considerations for Trail Runners

While not all sports are conducive to drone usage, trail running is particularly favorable to it. From epic mountain views, forests, oceans, plains, deserts, and other natural landscapes, trail runners routinely find themselves in wondrous destinations that can be captured by drones. From wide shots of expansive trail systems to aerial views of participants taking off from race start lines, trail running offers endless possibilities for content creators to imagine interesting shots.

A small drone has been on a wish list for quite a while, even though I don’t usually run in the most spectacular terrain there is, I still think it would be fun to have some video footage of me running through a forest.

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Thanks to COROS for supporting this publication!

If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:

Five Things Running: Issue #134 Oct 6 Read full story

Now, go running!

— Nico

🏃🏻‍♂️