Yes. Running a startup is hard. Running a startup in sports, however, is literally going to make you sweat. That’s not a bad thing, however. Here is what you can learn from the effects Keenvibe had on my sports routine, even if you don’t plan on launching a start up in sports.
What is Keenvibe?
Keenvibe
offers a way to quickly and spontaneously get together for sports sessions with friends and like-minded people. It’s about no frills sports sessions that do not require memberships or complicated sign ups. Anyone can suggest sports sessions with just a few clicks on their smartphones. Nearby users who indicated an interest in the suggested sessions will then be notified so they can join. While you may also use Keenvibe to meet exclusively with your friends, quickly finding new people for a sports session is Keenvibe’s true strength. You will quickly find like minded people to join your sessions simply based on location and interests – regardless of whether or not those people are already in your social circles.
Why it had an effect on my routine
If you want to continually improve and further develop a product such as Keenvibe, you’ll want to know how people experience the product, what they are annoyed with and what they would love to see in future versions of the product. While monitoring usage on a technical level helps answer these questions to a certain extent, it simply does not offer the same quality feedback that you get from simply talking to users and using your own product. With a product like Keenvibe, this means you’ll do a lot of sports. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining or anything. In fact, quite the opposite is the case.
The effects on my routine
Before Keenvibe’s launch, my routine used to revolve around gym and running. Through Keenvibe, not only have I picked up many new sports, but I also do sports more frequently and certainly with a lot more variety. 
In a single week, I’ll try and find out how the product is received by swimming, running, cycling, climbing, doing yoga and body weight training with other sports people. These people have opened my eyes to new types of sports, new running trails, different techniques for performing exercises and suggestions regarding nutrition. I now feel that I have become more well rounded as an athlete. I realized that solely hitting the gym for strength and running for stamina is not going to provide the same health benefits as a truly varied mix of sports.
How can you improve your sports routine?
N
ow, I won’t tell you to go found your own start up in sports, obviously. What I will do, however, is recommend to you the benefits of adding more variety to your sports sessions. You’ll simply become more wholesome as a sports person. Obtain balance on the slack-line, flexibility in your yoga session, mental strength through climbing, endurance through running, good posture through swimming, … the list goes on. But don’t get stuck with a single set of sports. Swap out each type of sports every now and then to target new muscle groups, wire new connections in your brain and pick up more transferable skills.
By the way: Picking up new sports gets easier with every activity you can add to your list.
Last week, I explained how I got myself ready for the Olympic distance
My swim training paid off. I went from struggling to complete a 50m lane to comfortably swimming 1.5kms. While I was not among the fastest swimmers, it goes to show how quickly even a total beginner can become reasonably good in a new discipline. Really, there aren’t any good excuses as to why one wouldn’t just try a new type of sports.
Eat sufficient amounts of carbohydrates at least on the last couple of days leading up to the competition. I only had a salad the night before. As a result, although I had cycled more than 40kms at a personally challenging pace before, I simply lacked the necessary energy during my second lap of cycling on the day of the event. Salad may be a healthy choice, but it’s not going to give you the energy you need for an event like this. Go for pasta, rice and potatoes instead.
Despite occasional training sessions to improve the transitioning from cycling to running, I still struggled with that transition on the day. My take away from this is to simply incorporate more cross discipline transitions into my training.