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The ultimate endurance test

Runners are accustomed to testing conditions but the current pandemic has thrown up unimaginable defiance. We’ve missed the community – the parkruns, the weeknight training groups, the thousands towing the line at a major city marathon - these are what make our sport thrive.

But running has also acted as a panacea to millions of individuals who have taken it up throughout the year and, at times, has given us a reason to get up during lockdown.

It's not just because running is accessible and low cost but notably, people have chosen to run for its cathartic effects in the regulation of stress and for the feeling of connection is gives our body and mind.

 

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper"

W. B. Yeats  

This season is about the distance

The absence of a target can hinder the motivation to train but challenges can be found outside of competition. This spring season we want to encourage you to go further.

 

To some the ‘Long Run’ is viewed as an act of transcendence, something that can take you beyond your normal boundaries to find out what’s there away from our familiar thoughts and feelings - something we have been close to throughout lock-down.

 

Going further on a run isn't a competition with others, instead a one direct with ourselves and the joy can be found every time we surpass a previous achievement and experience something more authentic.  

 

"Run and become. Become and run. Run to succeed in the outer world. Become to proceed in the inner world"

Sri Chimnoy  

Mindful miles

Running is a feeling sport, more than anything else. You're only as good as your training, and your training is only as good as your thinking and feeling.

When we focus our attention on breathing and mindful sensations like smells, sounds and tastes, we begin to notice the connection between our emotions and our body. Simply noticing what you feel encourages emotional regulation.

Deena Kastor, an Olympic Marathon bronze medalist said "a mindful approach to running is the bridge between body, mind and surroundings whether you want to be running more comfortable, faster, longer, or to de-stress"

"To endure what is unendurable is true endurance"

Japanese proverb

Time on your feet

Body awareness also changes our sense of time. The thought of running further than what you have done already can be met with a sense of defeat or resistance but to overcome this notice any tensions whilst timing and controlling your breathing.

 

This helps anticipate the end of discomfort whilst strengthening the capacity to deal with the physical distress we go through when we run.

Practice turning inward for an embodied running experience and the distance and hardship will take care of itself.

"There are many challenges to distance running, but one of the greatest is the question of where to put one’s house keys”

 

Gabrielle Zevin

Runner's High

The 'runners high' refers to that feeling of elation that is experienced after a long run, which often people describe as relaxing and mood changing.

Whilst sports scientists produce endless physiological data to explain what happens to the body during a long run, there is really only one way to understand how it feels, and that’s by doing it.

As Alex Hutchinson, author of Endure, notes, these aren’t necessarily phenomena that can be explained in terms of ‘unambiguous physiological changes’.

In fact, they are more likely to be linked to neurochemical or psychological factors

"I think I get addicted to the feelings associated with

the end of a long run”

 

Kara Goucher

Comfort kit

Developing the ultimate running kit has, fittingly, been an endurance test. Every part of this deceptively simple piece of kit has been carefully considered to help you go the distance.

When you’re racking up the big miles stretch, softness, fit, and comfort all have to be perfect.

This seasons Marathon and Ultra-Marathon kit is no different. Read our latest blog piece for the design and development processes that went into making it.

Read Blog here.