Running, My Way to Disconnect

By Adnane Ouahabi, Director of Engineering for Logistics at Glovo

Hello there,

Adnane here, I am the engineering director of the logistics cluster. Our cluster (group of teams) builds systems that increase couriers’ productivity while enhancing the UX of our customers which brings more orders to our partner stores.

One of my hobbies is running, and that is what I am going to talk about today.

It was in middle school when by chance I discovered that I am into running, I found it a simple sport with no physical contact needed and you always can compete against someone, yourself… over the years running became a way for me to disconnect from the daily stream of thoughts, it clears my fog and allows me to zoom into the things that matter, interestingly the longer the run the clearer my thinking goes… I consider it meditation.

Since 2020 and after “You Know What”, Running became an essential piece of my lifestyle… and given the flexibility that we have at Glovo, time and location were not constraints, I can just finish a call and use the next 30 minutes break for a 5km run or sometimes closing the day with a good half-marathon.

In the last year, I have been running 4 times a week on average, I do it both on fasted and fed modes, and by the way, I am a huge fan of intermittent fasting which something I have been experimenting with for a year now, thanks to both running and fasting my mitochondria (our cell engine) gained enough flexibility that now I run while doing Ramadan.

Finally, I want to share 3 tips that helped me stay consistent with running.

• Double down on what brings joy and peace for you, running or other activity, discover what works for you, and make it part of your lifestyle.
• Build tiny habits, it is important to start with baby steps and build on them, that said, better to start with 20 minutes a week than trying to run a marathon and be on the bed all week, train but don’t be a hero.
• Take advantage of the flexibility we have at Glovo and generate a routine that maximizes the practice time of your activity.

Stay well, stay balanced.

Thanks