How should I run? Where should I start? What’s the secret to sticking with it? As a new year arrives the same question comes pouring in again: How do I run? People never want to hear the simple truth: run slower. Most of us are blessed to move daily in some form, but our ego often is not prepared for the low rate at which our body can stride after time off.
There is a special pleasure in embarking on a run of unknown duration or undetermined distance. It brings time closer. When I set out on a long run, I check the clock and calculate progress. During speed workouts, my mind is focused on the intervals that are yet to come, and even easy runs sometimes have me ticking off sections, with each turn becoming an item on a to-do list. In recent months, I had decided to discard these preconceptions in favor of open-ends, curiosity and adventure.
The experience of not seeing progress as fast as I would want to can feel frustrating. While can borrow someone’s idea or dream, but you cannot borrow their conviction. Conviction is the glue that holds your dream together when everything is falling apart.
There is something special about this trail running community that is hard to put into words. Never mind your background and life outside of your running shoes, the sports brings people together.
During the course of 2020, all of my planned events had been cancelled for obvious reasons. Even when I had that I had an UTMB qualifying race, a few weeks later, the prospect of running the Camí De Cavalls in Menorca had also been erased. So, after a few months of waiting, I finally found myself at the starting line in Cituadella in the middle of May 2021.
One cannot deny that it has been a year filled with plenty of ups and downs, and a need to adjust, requiring patience, while facing the unknown. I began to note a number of similarities between running an ultra-marathon and living life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It has become clear to me that having a defined goal, offers purpose and direction, while navigating towards an unknown future.
All of my 2020 races have been cancelled or postponed for obvious and good reasons. It started with the Paris Half Marathon back in March, followed by The Speed Project, Mozart 100 as well as my plan to run the 150 kilometer-long Jebel Shams trail in Oman. While searching the UTMB website for potential qualification races, I stumbled upon Camí de Cavalls on Menorca.
Community building, self-optimization, digital gadgets and lifestyle aspiration, all targeted on the mass market. As an amateur sport, running combines every aspect of creating brand relations in a modern way and serves as perfect role model for other sports categories.
The world’s leading brands in sports, gaming and technology starting to come together to give players and fans a more connected experience. Emerging technology is changing the way we engage with sports and converts supporters into avid fans through unique digital experiences and hyper-personalized content. As more immersive experiences become available, sports are attracting more people to experience it live and in the virtual world.
As runners, we are constantly setting new goals, whether it is signing up for a race or just moving our feet a bit more each day. Regardless if you’re a newbie or a 100-mile race finisher, there is always a new goal in sight. Maybe it is simply to start running, beat your last marathon time or best your brother’s or coworkers’ mile record. Now comes the work to make sure you achieve your goal. Gear Patrol tapped nine ultra-runners professionals to learn their secrets for setting big goals, and achieving them.
Running has gained tremendous popularity as a means of getting away from it all and re-connecting with your body and surroundings, while getting fit and sweating out the pressure of the daily life. On the other hand, meditation has also gained a huge foothold, as people turn inward to try and calm their racing minds, regain control, and let go of an overwhelming flood of thoughts.
Virtual challenges and runs are part of a growing trend in recreational running: doing a race whenever you can, wherever you can, and still feeling as if you are part of the crowd, even if you are running alone.
This might be your first try at running or an attempt to improve on what you already do. The less sport you have done recently, the more you can expect to improve your distances and speeds. The following words should give you a little overview of the importance of the heart rate to your training and give you an introduction to different training types.
Strava, the activity tracking and social community platform used by more than 100 million people globally, has acquired Fatmap, a European company that’s building a high-resolution 3D global map platform for the great outdoors.
Whichever type of cold weather enjoyer you are, a new collaboration from Jil Sander and Arc’teryx is taking sportswear-infused mountain gear to stylish new heights. Arc’teryx, the Vancouver-based outdoors company with a cult-like following beyond its mountain athlete customer base, has paired up with Jil Sander+. That's the line launched by Jil Sander creative directors Luke and Lucie Meier in 2019. It's intended to complement their monastically pure mainline with clothing designed for life outside the city.
When Swiss-based footwear company On Running debuted on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday morning, it did so in style—while also staying true to its mission and brand. On’s founders, along with about 100 other runners, jogged along the Hudson River en route to Wall Street, where the company’s leaders rang the NYSE’s opening bell, officially making their business a publicly traded company.
adidas has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Reebok to Authentic Brands Group (“ABG”) for a total consideration of up to EUR 2.1 billion, with the majority to be paid in cash at closing of the transaction and the remainder comprised of deferred and contingent consideration.
Louis Vuitton Möet Hennessy bought a 60% stake in Off-White, boosting LVMH deeper into the sportswear markets with ties to its unrivaled roster of brands. Abloh is one of the rare Black designers with a leading role at the top of the fashion pyramid as head of menswear for Louis Vuitton.
Foot Locker announced it is acquiring atmos for USD 360 million to give them a strategic foothold in Japan, a market it estimates to be worth USD 6 billion. Atmos, focused on a niche of young, discerning shoppers, owns just a slice of that. Its sales last year were approximately USD 175 million. But the deal will still help Foot Locker expand in the fast-growing Asian market, and further into the premium end of sneakers and streetwear.
Montreal-based retailer SSENSE has received minority investment from Sequoia Capital that values the ecommerce platform at more than CAD 5 billion. This marks Sequoia Capital’s expansion into the fashion industry, and comes after the company took a controlling stake in AMI earlier this year. The company, which specialises in high-end fashion and streetwear, said it’s the first round of external funding in its 18-year history. The capital will allow the company to focus on its global growth strategy, especially it will help to further accelerate its trajectory in China.
A Bathing Ape has now undergone the successful completion of investment from private equity firm CVC, looking to accelerate BAPE’s global expansion. With the official delisting of I.T from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, BAPE went on to become an independent company, but will now be co-controlled by CVC with its recent investment into the fashion brand.
Strava, the activity tracking and social community platform used by more than 100 million people globally, has acquired Fatmap, a European company that’s building a high-resolution 3D global map platform for the great outdoors.
Whoop has won over investors and quickly became commonplace in pro sports, with early fans including LeBron James and Michael Phelps, and recently raising a USD 100 million Series E at a USD 1.2 billion valuation. Whoop is a monthly subscription for 24/7 health monitoring across sleep, recovery and strain, including free hardware (Whoop Strap 3.0) and a coaching platform designed to optimize behavior.
After raising a USD 66 million Series D funding in August to expand access to creative courses globally, Skillshare that it has raised new funding from Adobe, the global leader in creative software. The total amount of funding was not disclosed, but this latest raise is part of Skillshare’s Series D round announced this summer.
Digital fitness is on a run, literally, as training at home becomes the new normal. Peloton’s Q4 earnings showed a 172% YoY jump in revenue, and its connected subscribers were up 113% YoY, Apple announced Fitness Plus, its new virtual fitness product, and Zwift, an indoor training app, reached unicorn status after a USD 450 million funding round.
As the internet economy grows, so does the importance of last-mile delivery, which is the final step in the increasingly competitive and costly process of moving items to customers’ homes as quickly as possible. Quick commerce (“q-commerce”) offers significant growth potential expecting to reach a global market size of around Euro 448 billion by 2030.
The world’s leading brands in sports, gaming and technology starting to come together to give players and fans a more connected experience. Emerging technology is changing the way we engage with sports and converts supporters into avid fans through unique digital experiences and hyper-personalized content. As more immersive experiences become available, sports are attracting more people to experience it live and in the virtual world.
Zalando continues to push its Connected Retail program and has signed its first partnership with a mall specialist. The mail-order company has signed an agreement with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (“URW”), which is Europe’s biggest mall owner after its acquisition of Westfield around three years ago.
Apple’s Research App will allow anyone to opt into research studies and may help the company cement its place in the health ecosystem in the long run. The new app is a part of Apple’s big push into healthcare. Researchers have made no secret that they see big opportunities to learn about human health through all the data being collected by technology devices, such as Apple’s iPhone or Apple Watch. But rather than doing one-off studies, which Apple has done in the past, the Research App allows the company to operate multiple studies at once for a variety of organizations.
Google parent company Alphabet will buy Fitbit, putting the tech giant head-to-head with Apple in the fitness tracking and consumer health space. The deal values Fitbit around USD 2.1 billion at a fully diluted equity value.The acquisition makes a lot of sense as Google has spent years trying to break into the wearables market with its Wear OS platform, but it has struggled to make a real impact. Fitbit is offering Google an opportunity to invest even more in Wear OS as well as introduce Made by Google wearable devices into the market.
Thanks to technology consumers are spoiled for choice and access at ease. As users create a lot of data points, it offers companies valuable insights to better understand their customers and improve future experiences, in turn boosting their image, client loyalty, and reputation for the brand. The key is to balance experience management with intelligent enterprise technology.
The online clothing resale market has expanded 21 times faster than regular retail since 2016 and it is expected to more than double in size reaching USD 41 billion in the next three years, according to a report by online reseller ThredUp. With revenue increasing, brands and retailers that previously disliked resellers profiting from their wares are forced to act and acquire these up and coming players, in order to play a role in this market.
After the Stadium Goods takeover by Farfetch and GOAT merging with Flight Club last year, Foot Locker has announced a USD 100 million investment in GOAT entering the fast-growing USD 6 billion global sneaker reselling market.
Since deciding to run Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc (“UTMB”) in August 2015 and turning into my dream, I have come a long way. It feels like the journey in itself has turned into an ultra trail, filled with plenty of steep ascends and wild downhill sections, mental highs and lows. More than eight years into this journey, the most recent segment of this adventure best compares to a difficult, technical trail. Running countless races and accumulating thousands of kilometers by foot, I came to realise that it was time to hold my breath and pause. So, let’s take one step back and rewind my journey until today.
How should I run? Where should I start? What’s the secret to sticking with it? As a new year arrives the same question comes pouring in again: How do I run? People never want to hear the simple truth: run slower. Most of us are blessed to move daily in some form, but our ego often is not prepared for the low rate at which our body can stride after time off.
There is a special pleasure in embarking on a run of unknown duration or undetermined distance. It brings time closer. When I set out on a long run, I check the clock and calculate progress. During speed workouts, my mind is focused on the intervals that are yet to come, and even easy runs sometimes have me ticking off sections, with each turn becoming an item on a to-do list. In recent months, I had decided to discard these preconceptions in favor of open-ends, curiosity and adventure.
The experience of not seeing progress as fast as I would want to can feel frustrating. While can borrow someone’s idea or dream, but you cannot borrow their conviction. Conviction is the glue that holds your dream together when everything is falling apart.
One cannot deny that it has been a year filled with plenty of ups and downs, and a need to adjust, requiring patience, while facing the unknown. I began to note a number of similarities between running an ultra-marathon and living life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It has become clear to me that having a defined goal, offers purpose and direction, while navigating towards an unknown future.
Humankind is facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. To stop Coronavirus, we will need to radically change almost everything we do: how we work, exercise, socialize, shop, manage our health, educate our children, take care of our family. We all want things to go back to normal quickly. But what most of us have probably not yet realized is that things will not go back to normal after a few weeks, or even a few months, of staying at home. Some things never will. Facing such realities, it is tempting to press pause and question how we got here, but it feels prudent to retrace our moves in hopes of unearthing some explanation in the past. Hitherto, COVID-19 offers opportunity and reminds us of something we have lost long ago. This time gives us a chance to rebuild the broken parts of our world and create a life less hurried, but more conscious.
Things are changing fast with the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. While the The New York Times, Die Zeit, El País and all other media outlets continue to offer a wealth of information, this is my personal take on the situation. I am not a doctor, and the following post is not medical advice. It is, however, a summary of what I have researched, as well as I am sharing my thoughts on the current crisis that we are going through. If you do not have the time to read this post, the key takeaway from this piece of writing is to isolate yourself as good as you can, stay at home and follow further notice by authorities and governments.
In 2015, I visited Chamonix for the first time and witnessed the start of Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc (“UTMB”) - an experience that has changed my life ever since. Hooked by the atmosphere and the magic of this event, I turned UTMB into my life goal. I left the French alpine resort with the ambition to complete the course, turning this endeavor into a part of my everyday life.
We are living in a world, where people are losing sight of the process and the journey towards a goal, instead they are seeking its instant fulfillment and the gratification of such. It is contradictory to theory of the 10,000-hour rule, which says intense, dedicated practice makes perfect at that one thing.
Before arriving in Chamonix, I was digesting the words that my father had shared with me last year about making decisions and pursuing them. So, when I had decided to run Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc for a second time (Race Report: Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc 2018), I committed to the five steps and continued my journey to complete the course this year. Unfortunately, things turned out to be different than planned and for a second consecutive year I had to drop out of the UTMB (Race Report: Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc 2019). Another missed chance and shattered dream is heartbreaking. I was progressing through the mountains, but after more than 150 kilometers, my race was once again stopped by hallucinations.
Since deciding to run Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc (“UTMB”) in August 2015 and turning into my dream, I have come a long way. It feels like the journey in itself has turned into an ultra trail, filled with plenty of steep ascends and wild downhill sections, mental highs and lows. More than eight years into this journey, the most recent segment of this adventure best compares to a difficult, technical trail. Running countless races and accumulating thousands of kilometers by foot, I came to realise that it was time to hold my breath and pause. So, let’s take one step back and rewind my journey until today.