A month of races

According to Strava, September has been my most active month yet with 321 km of running and 2,281 meters of elevation gain. With this behind me, it feels good to have 40 days of calm training before my next big race in Beirut.

Today, my long-term co-author Jon asked me if I wanted to write a piece about the ethics of aviation with him. Though the topic definitely interests me, I know I make a terrible co-author these days, between being a parent and running around like a bunny. Still, by not writing, I feel that the field is left open to all those who only see one side of the story and fail to recognize how crucial aviation is for sustaining cosmopolitan values and physically bringing the world together.

For now, I make a butternut squash soup and wait for the forecasted 25 mm of rain to start falling.

Après l'effort le réconfort

With the exception of an evening class almost two decades ago, my French is practically non-existing. Nevertheless, after another run around the lake, I was starving and came to think of this expression. In addition, it is always great when you get a chance to twist the taco weekdays around as an act of civil disobedience :-)

Otherwise, I feel that a more serious blogpost is long overdue here on Rawls & Me. It is not as if there are not topics, ranging from that the Left may finally be softening on carbon removal to the hope that nuclear energy may be included in EU’s new taxonomy of sustainable investments. Yet, with almost two hundred exams waiting to be marked, I am afraid I will have to save those topics for another day. At least, I was happy to see that Seth James DeMoor ended up in third place in the US Mountain Running Championship in New Hampshire.

Two Rivers

With the skies clearing, I got to race 28 km through the most beautiful of forests, from the river Vindeln to the Ume River, thus the name of the race. Finishing in Granö, famous for its tree-top houses, I was immensely grateful that my knee held up and for the hot tub waiting down at the river. Thanks to a kind medical doctor, I was also able to finally get a proper exam of my knee at the finish. She suggested that it was not bursitis after all but that I need to do more stretching and work on my flexibility. So, if not before, I am afraid it is indeed time to sign up for that first yoga session.

During the more technical parts of the race, I kept hearing Seth James DeMoor’s voice somewhere in the background; “easy does it”, “do not fight it, float it” and “pump your arms”. I also tried to increase my cadence as much as possible to avoid landing too hard in each stride. And while Seth himself is still busy with the USATF Mountain Running Championships in New Hampshire, I get to eat a pizza from Ruccola :-)

Golden autumn day

While far from Berlin, I get to take a walk through the golden autumn with William in the stroller for what may be the very last time given how big he has become. I have to admit that I get slightly sentimental when thinking back on all that has been.

This morning, I paid the $60 registration fee for Beirut Marathon so now there is no going back. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a pair of Hoka Rincons in size 47 which means that I will probably run the race in my Craft V175 Lite II or, if I want to play it safe, in my old Asics Nimbus 20 that I used in Stockholm. But for now, time to read some more Bamse for William.

The Escape Plan

In true escapist fashion, I started off Strava’s “The Escape Plan” on 2 September with a pre-dawn run to the airport. Today, 28 activities later, I completed the same challenge, having been active 5 (or rather 6) days a week for 4 consecutive weeks.

William is feeling better today but he still gets to stay at home. So while he is building with the Duplo, I am preparing the upcoming exam for my police officer students.

Chili chocolate

It has been suggested that much of what we eat today in Sweden would simply be inedible to people only a few generations back. Chili pepper is of course the one ingredient that has been leading this revolution of species and today I picked up some chili fruit chocolate from Malmö Chokladfabrik in order to celebrate the fact that I received a final notification of acceptance on my book chapter based on the revisions that I submitted back in June after attending the Breakthrough Dialogue.

In other news, William came down with a fever this afternoon so tomorrow I will be working from home. Hopefully, I will still be able to start the day with a lake run so that I can complete the last day of the “Escape Plan” in Strava. Despite my earlier promises, I have to admit that I have been sinning and in fact gone running around the lake every morning of this week. At least, I have tried to keep the volume down a bit to save my right knee so right now my accumulated distance for the week stands at a mere 33 km. However, since Tvåälvsloppet alone will add another 28 km, I am not out of the woods just yet so to speak...

Freed in the forest

Surrounded by autumn colours, Anna and I took turns around the lake this morning. Currently at 2,155 km of running this year, almost all of it in the forest, I definitely get to experience the seasons first-hand. After running through the previous winter, I am even looking forward to taking out my VJ Sarva Xante with carbide steel studs, not the least given how soft it is to run on snow.

Right now, I am walking around and listening to the different groups as they are preparing their posters for the gallery walk seminar. To hear them thinking aloud about the future, about what could be possible and how to make political change happen is incredibly encouraging. As for that, I just have to share the link that Gabriel sent me last night about a Swedish social democrat advocating space colonization.

Pacing

As the sun rises in the east, I head out for a tempo run around the lake, trying to lock in my planned marathon pace of 4:50 min/km. While I still have some aerobic base building to do, I feel increasingly confident that a sub 3:30 marathon will be possible in Beirut.

Today at work, I will have the same seminar again but with a new batch of students. As much as I appreciate the tradition of an old school literature seminar, I am increasingly convinced about the benefits of more participatory forms of learning, such as my gallery walk seminar on political ideologies which is coming up tomorrow. 

Monkey Jacket

With the first frost, it is high time to resume the seasonal “kale craze” here on Rawls & Me, today together with roasted cauliflower and served with another glass of that red blend wine from California “Monkey Jacket”. In a world of random facts, it is worth noting that Thomas Jefferson grew kale at his plantation Monticello in Virginia.

Five hours of seminars have left me strangely exhausted. Sometimes, I feel like I live in a universe of my own and that all these texts by Mill, Habermas or Pateman do not correspond with anything that the students can relate to, that it is just an “academic” exercise in the worst sense of the word. Other times, I am of course more convinced about their universality.

Cool concrete minerality and a juicy expressive red wine. Most of all, California softening the edges; past, present and future.

London City Airport

After their visit to London back in February, the boys’ favourite Lego/Duplo project has been to build different versions of London City Airport. Maybe there was something with the combination of old docks, railway tracks and runways surrounded by water that caught their imagination.

My first trips to LCY were back in 2006 when SAS still flew there from Copenhagen. With its 5.5° steep approach, the experience of landing and taking off from the airport is quite different from your usual European airport (yes, I am still dreaming of flying into Innsbruck Kranebitten one day). In the picture above it is December 2017. I am in a Lufthansa Embraer 190 and about to depart for Frankfurt.

This morning in Umeå, the weather is in fact quite similar with cold blue skies and wet asphalt. Against better knowledge, I am thinking that I should seize the moment and go for an easy run around the lake.

North Coast

A purple medal later, I am making comfort food with a red blend wine from California's North Coast. Sometimes, the external world is just too much to take in with its degrowthers masquerading as "scientists" and tensions again rising in the Middle East. At least, I am very happy about my knees surviving today's 10k race even as I plan to stick to the elliptical for most of my workouts leading up to Tvåälvsloppet, however drab it may be.

Tomorrow, my parents are off by train to Italy for nine days. Fond of tradition, they plan to return to some of their favourite places, such as Alassio on the Italian Riviera. Thinking back, much of my own travelling has been like that, especially with my yearly summer trips to Breakthrough and Coastal California. Having "unsubscribed" to the Dialogue after five years straight is both liberating and sad as the Pacific with its redwoods are somehow always in the back of my mind.

Nature strikes back

Varvetmilen 2019 came off to a great start. I was pacing 3:52 min/km for the first kilometre and my knees were not protesting. On track to run at least as fast as I did three weeks ago at Umemilen, it all came to an end about eight kilometres into the race when I just had to go to the bathroom. But sometimes nature is nature and you have to accept that.

After losing two minutes and being forever grateful to the owner of that summer house, I made it into Campus Arena and completed the race on an official chip time of 46 minutes and 31 seconds which is still two minutes faster than last year so, in the end, I think I am fairly happy with the outcome.

Pre-race pancakes

Feeling better in my knee, I started the morning with some very American pancakes with maple syrup. In about an hour, it is time to bike up to Campus Arena to pick up my bib for today's seeding race Varvetmilen. Running with number “5”, one can tell that I have been looking forward to this race for quite some time as I plan to run Göteborgsvarvet in May and want a good starting time. As for shoes, I plan to use my Adizero Boston just as I did with great success when racing Umemilen three weeks ago.

Bursitis

After visiting Löplabbet (our excellent running store here in Umeå), I think I have a better idea of what is causing the pain in my right knee. Given how localized the pain is and that they could even feel the inflammation through my jeans, it seems that I have developed knee bursitis. Of all the things that could be causing the pain that I have been feeling, I guess this is good news. I will try to rest as much as I can and shift my workouts away from running in the coming weeks, starting with a short session on the elliptical today. Still, I do not really want to give up on either Varvetmilen or Tvåälvsloppet just yet but, if it starts to hurt, I will of course stop running.

A moment ago, I wrapped up my last lecture of the semester, unbelievable as it may sound. While I still have tons of seminars coming up and, not to forget, an insane amount of exams to mark, it still feels good to have this behind me.

First freeze

Five days earlier than last year, my phone informed me that it was -4 degrees outside. Unfortunately, my right knee did not react gently to that half marathon yesterday so no running for Rasmus this morning. In fact, I am thinking that maybe I should cancel tomorrow's Varvetmilen outright.

In the medicine locker I found the topical analgesic cream that I bought at Walgreens this summer and, luckily, it gave some relief. Maybe it was not the running at all that caused this but rather the sudden increase in biking volume or some combination thereof. I do not know and I am of course afraid to make it worse by further exercise. Since it is on the inside of the knee, I have ruled out IT band and some other common running-related knee problems. If I am lucky, it may all just be overtraining and go away in time for Tvåälvsloppet on the 28th September.

As for races, I learnt yesterday that I was not selected for the Tokyo Marathon in February. Instead, I plan to see where I am with the running after Beirut and then look for a suitable road marathon later in 2020, perhaps Berlin in September? Knee permitting, my long-term training goal remains to run a Boston qualifying marathon (which Berlin happens to be one) in under 3 hours and 10 minutes.

Church of the Long Run

Long-time readers of this weblog are probably aware of my weakness for cheap commercial tricks. So when the New England-based running brand “Tracksmith” announced its “Church of the Long Run” challenge in Strava, I immediately jumped on it. While the official Strava challenge does not start until next month (i.e. when “The Escape Plan” ends), I thought that I needed a head start, especially now when I have the Beirut marathon coming up in just 52 days.

“there’s something magical about the long run, especially in those middle miles that blur together: step follows step, breath follows breath, thought follows thought”

After giving my knees two full days to recover and downing a booster dose of caffeine, I went for a 21 km long run this morning, bringing my total mileage for September above the 200 kilometre threshold. Once again, I ran in my red Craft V175 Lite II. What I especially like with these shoes is their wide toe box and the high energy return. The more I think about it, they may even be a contender for the Beirut Marathon, if nothing else as it would be cool to run in something unusual and Swedish. At the same time, I am not sure if the Craft shoes really have enough cushioning to support a full 42 km of running. Any input on this would be much appreciated.

Now, however, it is time to bike up to the university for a long afternoon of seminars and meetings with the rest of the senior faculty.

Ticketed

It has been a long time comin’ but finally Ally got her vacation approved so now Beirut is booked and ticketed. This means that I will end 2019 as I started it, by running a road marathon to the sounds of “Allahu Akbar” and “Bon courage”.

Lebanon. For decades have I dreamt of going there. After travelling with Ally to Tel Aviv last year, my curiosity only grew, and even if our time on the ground will be short (as it always is in the life of a parent), I am very excited to add another piece to my Middle Eastern puzzle following my numerous visits to the Arabian Peninsula.

As for the running, the course will mostly follow the Mediterranean with a total climb of about 300 meters. Right now, I am planning to use my Asics Nimbus 20 that I have used for my previous three road marathons but of course I am tempted to invest in a new pair of Hoka Carbon X or Nike Vaporfly. Instead of new shoes though, I think I will spend my money on going to the pool more often in order to save my knees and Achilles tendons.

Sommarprat

Every summer, Swedish public radio produces a weekly series called “Sommar i P1” in which different famous (and some less famous people) get to host a programme for 90 minutes and talk freely about their lives and play their favourite music. Over the years, several prime ministers have had their own programmes and so have a range of other celebrities, including the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad. From this summer, the programmes with the Oxford-based futurist Nick Bostrom and the musician Lisa Miskovsky stand out.

Anyhow, a colleague told me that she downloads these programmes and listens to them later in the fall to somehow extend the feeling of summer. I guess I had something similar in mind when I ordered a back issue of Monocle’s “Summer Weekly”. As such, I am happy to report that it works, from Strandbad Gänsehäufel to Oaxaca, I remain a hopeless escapist. For the real world stuff, I am afraid that Beirut is still hanging in limbo as it is unclear if Ally will get her vacation approved.

Suunto swimming

After a morning of salary negotiation and a two-hour lecture on conservatism, I finally got a chance to try out the pool swimming feature of my Suunto Spartan watch. While one may of course dream of rather using the “open water swimming” feature in Lago di Garda, swimming 1,000 meters was definitely a good break from all the running. Unfortunately, I had the wrong pool length setting so Suunto only registered 500 meters of swimming, otherwise it seems to have worked like a charm with heart rate recording and everything.

As I jump on the bike and head out to Innertavle to pick up Eddie from school, Jon is wrapping up his day exploring the Northern Territory of Australia. Long on my bucket list, it has been fascinating to see his photos from Nitmiluk National Park and the nearby uranium mines.

Dumb

Obviously, I am not Eliud Kipchoge. And it is kind of dumb to go for a 13k tempo run on asphalt the week after running an ultra marathon. But I did and today at USM, as I was running another 5k on the treadmill, my right knee told me that I should not have. So for the four days leading up to Varvetmilen, I think I will have to do biking or swimming for the Strava Escape Plan if I should have a realistic chance of setting a new PR.

In any case, autumn is definitely here with minus degrees expected in the coming days. Thus, time to drink some red wine from California and make chanterelle stews.

Time to play

This morning, William came down with a cold so right now he is taking a nap on the sofa. Outside it has been raining for hours so biking with the trailer with Eddie to the supermarket to buy a present for the birthday party that he is going to in the afternoon was a bit rough. But, as the Scandinavian expression goes, there is no bad weather, only bad clothes. As such, I thought this could be good time to take my new Salomon Bonatti Waterproof Jacket out for a short test run. I bought the jacket three weeks ago as an extra precaution in case there would be a lot of rain for Umeå Ultra 50k but mostly in preparation for South Devon Ultra in February. As expected, it kept me dry throughout the run but it was so warm that I am happy I did not take it for Umeå Ultra.

Italy

Twenty-two years ago, I was on the coast in Italy with my girlfriend at the time. Looking through old pictures, I found this one of her standing at the window. Though so long ago, I can still remember the feeling of being away from Sweden, of breathing lighter air somehow. As much as I love the relative isolation of Umeå, there is no denying that living here is also, as I once wrote, about foregoing, about enduring mad winters and being away from much of what ultimately matters. All these thoughts came to me as I was doing the interviews with the prospective PhD candidates last week, as if I could sense their nervous curiosity fresh off the night train.

Radicalized

Even if the signs have been there for quite some time, it is becoming increasingly obvious that I have become radicalized by all those hours in front of Youtube (not to mention getting to know Andreja). These days, I find it completely “normal” to run 100 km per week. Thus, I felt strangely unsatisfied when Strava told me that I had only run 52 km this week. So, after running 10 km and biking 14 km this morning, I went for 16 more kilometres along those famous dirt roads. Now, I can even better appreciate that expression of Seth James DeMoor, “butter my bread”...

Colour me impressed

True to the spirit of my previous post, I laced up my red Craft V175 Lite II (which I am beginning to like more and more by the way) and went out for a morning run. While I can still tell that I did that 50k race last weekend, it felt good to at least bring the mileage for this week up to another 50 km before it was time to take the bike downtown with Eddie and go to the hairdresser. Both on the run and on the bike I could definitely sense that autumn is on its way.

Once at the hairdresser, Eddie really made me proud, as if every fight that we ever had was forgotten and that he was super cool with everything. In retrospect, turning seven appears to have been a milestone in so many ways. Afterwards, out on the street, I was approached by a guy from “Fridays For Future”. Normally, I try to avoid these kinds of situations but somehow I am angry with myself for never speaking up. So, very gently, I explained that I am also very concerned about climate change but that I think that Greenpeace et al. got the solutions all wrong. To my great surprise, he seemed to agree with basically everything I said, ranging from the risk that renewable energy locks in gas to that climate change is essentially about the right of development and the importance of finding globally scalable solutions. Colour me impressed.

Luck

One thing I like about running as a sport is that it is not about luck. With the possible exception of catching a cold on race day, how well you run is basically a function of how many kilometres you are willing to put in. While form may be important, and you may get some improvement through strength training, yoga or whatnot, what matters most is your mileage and the base of your aerobic pyramid.

Yesterday in class, we talked about justice, luck and desert. As often, some of the most interesting discussions tend to take place afterwards, when a few ambitious students stay to talk about the topic of the day. In this case, I for instance learnt more about Robert Nozick’s socialist youth and got to discuss global welfare provision. Thinking about my own life, I feel that I have been incredibly lucky, not only with parents who have been supporting me, but in what I have been able to experience and how often I have been able to duck danger. Last year in April, I was having coffee with Ally in the garden of the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem, after a long day of exploration, and I think we will need a few breaks like that if we do get to check out Beirut.

No rest for the wicked

I guess I have been watching too many documentaries about the INEOS 1:59 challenge, but at 5 a.m. I set out on a tempo run across the river and back through central Umeå. While I was slower on the climb back up from town, most splits came in around 4:45 min/km without making me feel exhausted so I have good hope that I will be able to run a sub 3:30 marathon if I do get the chance in Lebanon. I have written before about the pros and cons of tempo runs but, regardless of the science, it feels good to break a bit with the usual LSD lull. Now off to work for the final interviews with the prospective PhD candidates and then a lecture about, yes, you guessed it, John Rawls.

Overslept

Exhausted after their respective days, both boys overslept in an epic fashion as the residue of the hurricane Dorian (yes, the one that devastated the Bahamas) came blowing in from the Atlantic last night. Instead of waking up from their afternoon naps, the boys slept through until 5 a.m. this morning. Meanwhile, I was struggling to get my abstract for WPSA right, knowing that it could easily be misrepresented as somehow supporting climate inaction. Still, I think it needs to be understood that there are situations when the prescribed cure is worse than the disease and that this is one of them. The pursuit of a low-energy future would leave humanity much more vulnerable, not only to climate change, but to a range of existential risks in ways that future generations will probably not be particularly happy about.

On a happier note, there has finally been a breakthrough with regard to Beirut Marathon in November. As I have been invited to present my pedagogical research at Linköping University on Tuesday in the week after, I am now looking into combining the two trips. While nothing is booked as of yet, it does seem as if I will indeed be doing one more road marathon in 2019 so with renewed enthusiasm I went for 100 meters of treadmill climbing at the gym today.

Between races

With the sun having dried my Salomon Speedcross 4, I am slowly coming back to running again after Umeå Ultra 50k. Meanwhile at work, I am rushing between lecture halls and trying to fit everything into an impossible schedule as several important deadlines are rapidly approaching. Among them, abstract submission for WPSA 2020 in Los Angeles stands out.

After attending a string of conferences this year, I sort of decided to stay low with conferences for a while but somehow I feel that I need to be part of these debates. Right now, I am playing around with an abstract for a paper with the preliminary title “Avoiding the low-energy trap: how climate inaction may end up saving the climate” that would go something like this:

“There is no longer any meaningful debate about the physical reality or the urgency of the climate crisis. There is, however, deep and reasonable disagreement about what an effective response to that crisis would actually entail, especially when considering a world of competing material interests, fractured epistemologies and lingering geopolitical conflicts. In more radical literature, it is often suggested that climate change calls for a rapid transition to an all-renewable future of degrowth and the relocalization of the economy. Beyond the obvious problem of political realism, this article explores the possibility that the pursuit of such a low-energy future would risk leaving humanity without the technology needed to return atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to pre-industrial levels. In addition, a possible breakdown of the world trade system would worsen situations of local scarcity and increase vulnerability to extreme weather events. As such, the present state of climate inaction may paradoxically be more conducive to achieving a long-term sustainable trajectory, especially if political momentum can be summoned to accelerate the rate of low-carbon innovation.”

Suunto mornings

Inca Dark Blend

Waking up this morning, I felt like I had been overrun by a steam locomotive. While my legs are all fine, my chest apparently took a bit of a pounding out on the trails so today will be a slow day with French press coffee and waffles while reading Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

Tomorrow, I will be thrown back to classical antiquity as it is again time to give my lecture on Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. Through the week, we will travel down the history of ideas, a journey that tends to be as captivating for the students as for myself.

My first ultra

When I registered on the day after Stockholm Marathon, I knew that Umeå Ultra 50k would be a challenge of a different magnitude. After reading Adharanand Finn’s The Rise of the Ultra Runners, I nevertheless felt that I had a fairly good idea of what to expect when the starting signal went off at 9 a.m.

To my surprise, I did not have any pain whatsoever during the whole race but, as expected, it was a daunting psychological challenge to run 50 kilometres on trails filled with stones and roots, not to mention running through a couple of deep moors, especially with the rain pouring down. In the end, I finished all 50.3 kilometres (plus a detour or two when I briefly lost track of the course) in 6 hours and 8 minutes. With this behind me, my next chance to get Strava to label something a “historic relative effort” will probably be the 55k "South Devon Ultra" in February. Before that however, I have a few shorter races, one seeding run for Göteborgsvarvet and one 28k trail run a bit into the country.

Unfortunately, I did not get to take many pictures myself during the race as I was afraid that the battery in my three-year-old Samsung S7 would run out and it would no longer be possible for the race organizers to track me. But I did take one as I passed the magic marathon milestone and my run offically became an "ultra".

New territory

After blogging almost daily over the summer, the time has simply not been there since the semester started. Even keeping up with Strava's “The Escape Plan” has turned out to be difficult but, thanks to a few absurdly early mornings, I have so far been able to continue to upload those ten kilometres per day. Luckily, all of the stress has been more than offset by the students’ sheer enthusiasm and excitement about starting their university studies.

This time a year ago, I have to admit that I was frightened by the thought of my first marathon. Prior to running Amsterdam, the longest I had run was about 26 km so it was all new territory for me. Since then, I have done two more road marathons and I feel like I have some idea about what to expect at least. Still, I get a bit of the same feeling when thinking about Umeå Ultra 50k now on Saturday, especially as the rain keeps pouring down and the forecast suggests that I will get pretty soaked...

Umemilen 2019

I had almost forgotten how much of a mental game it is to run even a 10k race. Halfway through, I was getting all these reasonable thoughts about that I should slow down, that my time does not really matter anyway and that I would still be improving compared to last year. Luckily, I was able to push through and complete Umemilen in 44 minutes and 27 seconds which is in more than five minutes faster than last time around. With 97% of the run in the highest heart rate zone, I have to admit that it did not come for free though but now I am just very happy that I kept going.