Step Back, Reset, and Review
Dear runner,
We're live on a new platform this week - Substack!
Its early days for us, but as we mentioned last week in 'The Start Line', its important to keep reading the body and adjust to the niggles and information thrown up in the initial stages of every long run.
In similar vein, we recently discovered Substack, which makes it easier to manage two formats online - a blog and a newsletter straight to your inbox every week, with a clean interface and easy social media integration; allowing us to spend more time on writing and compiling better content for you guys, our readers! So, we've moved!
We're sure you'll notice a few differences in this email, and we hope you like the new look! Don't forget to write in with your feedback, thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
This post can also be found on our new website, and if you like it, do share with your friends and fellow runners, and subscribe to our newsletter!
So let's dive right in.
Over the last month, regions all over the world have restricted public movement and encouraged social distancing, to slow down the spread of the virus.
As sales and services temporarily plummet for non-essential items, corporate offices have resorted to 'Work-from-home', to keep the wheels turning, until operations normalize.
Several teams are using this as an opportunity to Step back, Reset, and Review - Step back from the daily to-do lists and routine work, reset their annual goals for 2020-21, review progress over the last year as well as brainstorm and plan their strategy for this year and the next.
So, why not do the same as runners? Let us not fret about the spring and fall marathons in 2020 being cancelled or postponed, and the change in our training plans, now majorly restricted to the house.
Instead, let's take this opportunity to step back, reset, and review! Step back from our daily fitness routines, and switch them to indoor workouts, reset our goals for 2020-21, and review the progress we've made over the last year!
We, at Team Carb-Loading, are engaging in body-weight and dumbbell workouts, along with stair climbing with ankle weights, to substitute for outdoor runs. The aim is to keep the legs moving and build core strength, as a base to emerge stronger, well rested, and fresh, from this lock down period.
We're also using this time to evaluate our progress over last season, as well as what worked and what didn't in training and race strategy. You can expect snapshots of this in coming newsletters, along a brief on some of the popular fitness tracking apps used to record and analyze activities.
As for which race to run next, we are on wait-and-watch mode for developments on Covid-19 in India and other regions. (Some positive news on this below!)
Meanwhile, we wish all our readers the best of health.
Stay indoors, stay fit, and stay safe!
Home Workouts
Over the last couple of weeks, with Covid-19 forcing the closure of gyms and group activities, most fitness startups in India have taken this opportunity to pivot their offerings online, and are offering some classes free of cost!
Cult.fit is offering daily online classes on a new platform, Cult.live - across formats such as Strength, Cardio, HRX and Yoga, which can be streamed free of cost on mobile devices and desktops. Most of these are body-weight workouts, needing little or no equipment.
Similarly, HealthifyMe is hosting daily live sessions on 'Workout', 'Yoga' and 'Fitness', available to all users free on their app.
So go ahead, get on these platforms this week, and let us know what you think about them in the comments below!
TCS World 10K - New Date Announced!
Yes! You heard that right! Procam in discussion with the Indian and World Athletics Body, have announced a new date for the TCS World 10K - 13th September 2020 - five months from now. This is much needed positive news amid the dry patch for runners due to the Covid-19 lock-down!
Those of you who were planning the Procam Slam this year need not be disappointed. It is still on, and the TCS World 10K now slots distance-wise, into the preparation and run up to the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (October), with the slightly curtailed season continuing into the Tata Steel Kolkata 25k (December) and Tata Mumbai Marathon (January)
Registrations for the rescheduled event start 2nd July, and those who had registered earlier will be automatically transferred to new dates, subject to eligibility and confirmation. For those who have registered but may not be able to compete, Procam is offering a window from 12th May to 29th May to surrender your applications.
WTF! News of the Week
Its happened again. This coming in from England. James Campbell, a former Javelin thrower has run a ‘Marathon’ in his 20 foot backyard on his 32nd birthday. Thousands tuned in to the live stream to watch him run, which took him a little over 5 hours to complete.
He did this feat to help raise money for the U.Ks National Health Service and ended up raising over GBP 20,000. Respect!
To end this newsletter, we thought we’d leave you with a short poem. This is our bad attempt to bring some Hope (Hold On Pain Ends) to you runners out there.
Roses are Red,
April is Grey,
We hope we can leave our houses,
and ‘RUN’ in May
Cheers!