What is "second wind"

n. A renewed feeling of energy after a period of activity.

1. n. renewed energy or strength to continue an undertaking; "She had dinner and got a second wind to finish painting"; "the employers, initially taken by surprise at the pace of developments, regained their second wind"

2. the return of relatively easy breathing after initial exhaustion during continuous exertion

Second wind is a phenomenon in distance running, such as marathons or road running (as well as other sports), whereby an athlete who is too out of breath and tired to continue suddenly finds the strength to press on at top performance with less exertion. The feeling may be similar to that of a " runner's high", the most obvious difference being that the runner's high occurs after the race is over. Some scientists believe the second wind to be a result of the body finding the proper balance of oxygen to counteract the buildup of lactic acid in the muscles. Others claim second winds are due to endorphin production.

Documented experiences of the second wind go back at least 100 years, when it was taken to be a commonly held fact of exercise. The phenomenon has come to be used as a metaphor for continuing on with renewed energy past the point thought to be one's prime, whether in other sports, careers, or life in general.

Second Wind was a firm which developed instrumentation and software for remote sensing in the wind energy industry. They were situated in Somerville, Massachusetts and had a testing site on Chappaquiddick Island. In August 2013, Second Wind was acquired by Vaisala, a Finnish manufacturer of environmental and industrial measurement instrumentation.

"Second Wind" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Darryl Worley. It was released in March 2001 as the third and last single from the album Hard Rain Don't Last. The song reached #20 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. The song was written by Worley and Steve Leslie.

Musically this song is somewhat unusual for country music in that the introduction fades in and uses an arrangement and instrumentation, such as synthesizers, that are unusual for country music. The fade out is similar to the introduction. The body of the song is a more typical country ballad.

Lyrically, the song uses the gentle Gulf breezes as a metaphor for overcoming the pain of a breakup. Thus catching your 'second wind' is both catching a fresh breeze off the Gulf of Mexico and overcoming the adversity of a breakup.

Second wind (or third wind, fourth wind, etc.), also occasionally referred to as the wake maintenance zone, is a sleep phenomenon in which a person, after a prolonged period of staying awake, temporarily ceases to feel drowsy, often making it difficult to fall asleep once it happens. They are the result of circadian rhythms cycling into a phase of wakefulness. For example, many people experience the effects of a second wind in the early morning even after an entire night without sleep because it is the time when they would normally wake up.

While most "winds" coincide with the 24-hour cycle, those experiencing extended sleep deprivation over multiple days have been known to experience a "Fifth day turning point".

Second Wind is a 1978 French drama film directed by Gérard Blain, starring Robert Stack and Anicée Alvina. It tells the story of a man in his 50s who leaves his wife and children to live with a woman 30 years younger than himself, only to discover an unsettling link between the woman and a man of his age who had been in a motorcycle accident.