Speed, Time and Distance
Dear reader,
Welcome to Weekly Carb-Loading! Your Sunday morning dose of running and fitness inspiration.
We believe every run has a story, and we’re bringing these stories to you, with runner profiles, race histories, home workouts and a whole lot more!
Today we reflect on running and on life itself, and bring you a new world record from the Diamond League event in Monaco!
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Speed, Time and Distance
Let’s try going back to a vivid memory, a day you remember very well, one of the happier (or not so happy) occasions in life.
It is as if you were in control of a Youtube video. You can fast forward or slow down the memory as you please, switch from first-person to third-person, your own personal camera crew following you around.
There are moments in time so precious, you can practically pause the video, hear yourself breathe, acutely aware of those around you, with the commotion and background noise completely silenced.
You remember each emotion flowing through yourself at that moment - happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, hope.
You can soak in and revel in all these emotions once more, much like pausing a waterfall and walking around in it, feeling and tasting solitary drops before it comes crashing down, washing over you in a wave of reminiscence.
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There are moments like these on runs, when our perception of time and distance seems to change.
We may go through a few painful kilometres when, no matter how hard we push, mentally and physically draining ourselves, the next kilometre marker doesn’t appear in sight.
There are moments when every step feels like the ascent of Mt Everest devoid of oxygen, a burden to take each foot and place it ahead of the other. Time stands still.
At other times, kilometres may fly by without realization. The legs and body moving in perfect harmony like a well oiled machine, breathing steady, a slight breeze in the air, our mind far away from the road.
In what seems like a few minutes, we glance at the watch and realize more than a few kilometres and almost an hour has passed.
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There are moments in life, when the awareness of time and distance can be very different. Decades may feel like a week. Within a week, a decade may pass.
In March, we launched Weekly Carb-Loading just as we entered into (what was at the time) a three week lock-down.
Every day then was a new experience, stocking up on food and essentials, new surprises and cases in every Whatsapp message, several unknowns facing each of us, as we all stood upon the start line of this race.
In May, it felt like a year had passed since the pandemic hit.
We had all adjusted to the new normal though. Zoom calls, household chores, and a walk on the terrace were par for the course. We may have even felt (or hoped) we were at the halfway mark then, and things may take a turn for the better. But we were wrong.
In June, we gingerly hit the road, testing our legs once again on early mornings, slowly trying to build momentum as we would at the start of a season, bringing back the most important activity of our daily routine.
Now, at the end of August, the time seems to have flown by so quickly.
Almost six months since we went into lock-down, stepping out is no longer as harrowing an experience it once was, and 2020 starts drawing to a close soon.
Running and life itself, not very different after all.
New World Record!
A NEW WORLD RECORD has been set for the 5 km distance on the track by Joshua Cheptegei in an unbelievable 12:35.36 mins, at the Monaco Diamond League, the first completely in-person diamond league event post pandemic.
The previous record of 12:37.35 set by another legend Kenenisa Bekele in 2004, stood for 16 long years!
The record caps an amazing 12 months of running for Cheptegei - in December 2019 he set the WR for the fastest Road 10k - 26:38, topping Leonard Komon’s 2010 effort by six seconds.
In February 2020, he crushed the Road 5K WR by a massive 27 seconds and ran the distance in 12:51
Running Tech News
How many think this idea is insane!
Fun Feature
Everyone who has trained for uphill runs, will definitely understand the feeling! :D
That’s a wrap from us!
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