Heya and welcome back to Five Things Running!
We are approaching the end of October and the weather has been gorgeous here in Northern Germany with crisp cold mornings and some sunshine during the day. I got to run six times last week and it felt amazing. I ran around the local park five times and then did a longer run around the airport on Sunday, which is just a wonderful route for a Sunday morning.
I finally feel that I am getting back into shape and I see my running form improving gradually.
Remember to get your Waldlauf apparel - it’s ideal for fall days!
Here’s this week’s Five Things Running!
A revolution is happening in endurance sports. Athletes over the age of fifty are breaking records at an unprecedented rate, performing at levels that were unimaginable ten years ago. This is true not just in running but in all major endurance sports from rowing to triathlon, and the numbers prove it.
If people my age break records, then I feel like this really puts some pressure on me…
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Fast forward to today, and it’s quite obvious that trail running is getting more and more dialed and scientific. We have coaches dishing out training plans, dietitians explaining what to consume and when, strength coaches, mobility routines, sleep aids, heat training chambers, and gadgets galore tracking all of the metrics, and then some. I’m sure there are still people going about it the old-fashioned way, doing workouts on feel at the click of an old Timex watch, but more and more, this seems to be the minority.
Such trends raise some important questions: Are we taking the wildness out of the trail? Are we killing the sport by dialing it in? Are the dietitians, coaches, sports psychologists, apps, and gadgets robbing the sport of its soul? Are we making science instead of art?
The sport is evolving and there will be many ups and downs along the way, just like a trail race…
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Visiting Chamonix during UTMB week means I have a week of cheering, a week of celebrating, a week of soaking up everything I can from the front, middle and back of the pack - year on year this week fuels and grows my love for the sport of trail running - it winds me up and keeps me going for the rest of the year. I smile widely, I lose my voice and I feel bereft once it’s done, and I wouldn’t change a thing about this.
I’m only scratching the surface about how much this week means to me - those that have seen me there know how alive it makes me feel. Those that see me before and after know how it brings out the best in me. I obsess over every little detail when on the ground and beyond - the kit, the events schedule, the courses, the splits, the podcasts, the content - and it makes me fall that bit more in love with the place UTMB calls home.
It really sounds like the circus is in town and I can totally understand the allure.
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Fell runners thrive in uncertainty. The terrain shifts. The weather turns. The line disappears into mist. You can’t plan your way out of it — you have to feel your way through.
That kind of running builds a mindset founded on adaptability rather than control.
Fellrunning builds character, I’m sure of it. I also like that it is so non-commercial still.
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I’m not exactly known for my running prowess. My PRs would impress absolutely no one. But that’s not to say those times didn’t matter to me. I internalized every disappointing run and turned it into a bad day. The sun might’ve been shining, the foliage blazing with color, but Strava would remind me I was ten seconds slower per mile than last week, and that was all that mattered.
I’ve been trying to change that. I still care about numbers, in a gentle way, but I’m learning to define a successful run differently. It’s harder than I thought.
I also kind of hate Strava, but for different reasons. I always slow down or stop when I see something. Today when I ran around the airport, I took photos of airplanes taking off, which is not like spotting a deer at all, but still something I like to look at every once in a while.
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If you missed last week’s edition, you can read it here:
Now, go running!
— Nico
🏃🏻♂️
