Fudge

After a week with blue skies, I woke up to a fresh layer of snow. Taking two days off from running, I did not head out around the lake but rather settled down in front of the computer to mark a new batch of police exams. Since South Devon Ultra, I have had some Belgian chocolate fudge from Yorkshire in store which is very useful when it comes to this kind of tasks.

Once done with the marking, I feel ready to summarize my race schedule for 2020, all assuming that covid-19 does not intervene. Sadly, I was unable to find any suitable 75+ km ultras but I promise to make that up in 2021.

16 May: Göteborgsvarvet (21 km)
23 May: Warsaw Half Marathon
13 June: Urskogsloppet (20 km)
5 September: Höga Kusten Trail (43 km)
13 September: Tallinn Marathon
19 September: Bergslagsleden Ultra (48 km)
4 October: Tvåälvsloppet (28 km)
24 October: STHLM Loop (10x5 km)
1 November: Kullamannen (12k)

Gone fishing

With the rapidly evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, I guess we are in for a homebound and uncertain spring. This morning, Anna’s mother arrived with the night train from Gothenburg as the schools will be closed next week due the winter break. Since I still have loads of teaching and Anna herself is off to Tennessee, it is a most welcome reinforcement on the home front. To make her feel welcome to the Arctic despite morning temperatures close to -20 degrees, I made a warming fish soup with saffron for dinner together with a quintessentially antipodean take on the Galician Albariño grape.

After dinner, I signed up for the Höga Kusten Trail Marathon in early September so, with Tallinn the week after, I suddenly have two autumn marathons to look forward to...

Reducetarian

In my life, I have found myself on both sides of the black-and-white identity politics of meat eating. I have lived with people who would panic if they discovered that they had eaten fish stock but also with people who would wake up in the middle of the night with almost sexual fantasies about steak tartare. Personally, I could never really identify with either camp, after all, I was long ago persuaded about the immorality of meat eating but I have also found myself eating more than one prosciutto sandwich in my life. In a recent podcast Marta Zaraska talks about meeting meat eaters halfway and adopting a “reducetarian” philosophy that celebrates incremental progress. Somewhat along those lines, I made Lebanese-inspired wraps with chilli hummus, cabbage, pomegranate seeds, mint and halloumi for dinner.

Jante Lager

Sofi repeatedly suggested that I tried a local beer called “Jante Lager” from Örebro. Unfortunately, it was out of stock at Systembolaget for a long time but the other day my order finally cleared and today I could pick up a couple of bottles. Unfiltered and unpasteurized, it was definitely “worth waiting for” to speak with Carlsberg.

Otherwise, today came off to a frustrating start as my bike broke down and I had to walk with it all the way to the bike shop in order to replace the hub which had completely oxidized due to all the road salt and freezing humidity. In any case, compared to having a car, 960 SEK for a new hub is nothing so I just have to “bide i det sure æble” to stay with Danish (and Scandinavian) idioms...

Tallinn Marathon

With the 24th of February being the national day of Estonia, I decided to do the only sensible thing and register for Tallinn Marathon on 13 September. While I am generally more into ultra-trail running these days, it would feel strange to have a whole year without a single road marathon. Besides, Estonia is one of only five European countries that I have not yet been to (the others being Andorra, Malta, Cyprus and Iceland) so that alone warrants an early autumn trip.

Airport repeats

Exactly a year ago today, I was also eating a “semla” and running to the airport after lunch. Extending my run a bit further along the river this time, I was able to bring my total weekly volume above 100 km for the first time since early January.

Overnight, the world turned white again which feels like a relief after the last weeks of ice and rain. Still, one may be excused for dreaming a bit of urban rainforests and dramatic coastlines...

Costco

When living in Seoul, Costco was like a window to the outside world or, rather, America. Every month or so, we would get a lift by our kind neighbours to the store over in Jungnang-gu and stock up on diapers, baby food and, yes, the best sashimi anywhere on the Korean Peninsula. In addition to fresh fish and a hundred servings of frozen pancakes, Costco also imported Italian cheese and wine, things that were otherwise difficult to find in Korea. As such, when enjoying take-out from our beloved Italian bistro Cibo, we would occasionally open a bottle of prosecco of precisely the kind that you would find in an American supermarket.

Globality

After being greatly inspired by The Entrepreneurial State, I was thrilled to discover that Mariana Mazzucato had written a new book about how the blurriness of the global economy has made it more difficult to determine what and who is actually creating value.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak has clearly put the spotlight on how economically integrated our world has become. Just the other day, Carbon Brief put out a new report showing that global emissions are already down by 100 MtCO₂ as coal consumption in China has plummeted in the wake of the epidemic.

With new outbreaks in Korea, Italy, and Iran, I fear it has become increasingly difficult to prevent a full-blown pandemic. If so, it will be the first time since the Hong Kong flu of 1968 (which I still remember my grandmother telling me about) and, given how globalized and risk-averse the world has become, it may end up having far-reaching political and economic repercussions. Already, domestic air travel in China is down by 70%, and both Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines have announced significant cuts.

Scones

Ten years ago, in June 2010, I was out driving in Dorset, stopping by for some tea and scones near Durdle Door. This morning, I am the one baking scones with the kids, discovering that I have already almost finished the jar with orange and whiskey marmalade that I picked up at the Newt in Somerset less than a month ago. Layers upon layers.

As for the running, I just wrapped up another 85+ km week which feels great even if my Achilles tendons are a bit tense. Looking forward, I am almost ready to announce the rest of my 2020 racing schedule but I will wait until the 26th of February to make any final decisions.

Merino

As an ecomodernist, language starts to work opposite to most people. Instead of “locally sourced”, I want “globally sourced” to bring the world together; instead of “hand-made”, I want “robot-made” to free up people so that they can create and dream; instead of “renewable”, I want “nuclear” to leave room for nature and prevent fossil gas dependence; and finally, instead of “organic”, I want “synthetic” to make rewilding possible.

Being counterculture is obviously never easy. As my dear co-author once put it: ‘Do you have any idea how hard it is to be vegan and not eat anything labelled “organic” or “non-GMO”?’. Often, one runs into different problems of scale, like my other friend advocating elk hunting as an ethical and “climate-friendly” alternative, which, even if it works in rural Sweden is obviously not possible to scale up across the planet. I guess the more general question here is to what extent one should support superior but non-scalable products or practices?

Textiles are a particularly difficult case when it comes to determining what is really better and more scalable. For instance, we all know that currently existing synthetic materials such as polyester lose thousands of plastic fibres that end up as microfibers every time they are washed. For me, who is running basically every day, there is clearly a lot of washing going on that generates significant amounts of non-biodegradable microplastics. In the long run, the solution here has to be technological innovation and more durable materials. But how do you support such innovation? By buying the currently existing yet problematic products? Or by buying better yet non-scalable products and, as such, exercising consumer choice? Going down the latter route, I just invested in a new 100% Merino Base Layer from New Zealand. Especially as I have the Ultra Interval Challenge coming up in a month from now, I needed something that I can wear throughout the day without stinking. Still, it left me uncertain about what is really the right thing to do here?

Babylon

13 years ago in Texas I listened to the same album. Now I am taking a break from the marking and heading down to the river for a half marathon before the Arctic cold returns. I somehow liked the innocence of that old blogpost, that it was a rare exception that I would go for a run. In the end, I think I did end up running quite a bit over those two weeks in Texas but mostly I remember working on my PhD at different cafés. It is a bit funny but after defending my dissertation in late 2010, it was still several years until I fully realized that it was over and that I somehow did it. Often I would wake up at night from stress having dreamt that I still had a chapter or two left to write :-) 

Oh, and one more thing, I just have to share the incredible sunrise this morning...

Campus moments

After a tense spring, we were all reunited in Korea in May 2013. Here is another #seoulsunday flashback from that time, taken on the HUFS campus. It is funny to think that this is the same guy whom I will travel with to Miniatur Wunderland in a couple of months.

Shrimp taco

Dennis

After Ciara, it was now time for Dennis to make its way from the North Atlantic to Umeå, bringing gusty winds and another rain-on-snow event. As I have a certain fascination for this kind of Falkland Islandsesque weather, I of course had to go for a late morning run in my Icebugs, bringing my total weekly running distance to 85 km.

On the run, I was thinking more about yesterday’s topic of Bernie Sanders and how few people in the wider middle-class of Sweden (let alone the United States) who would actually support the kind of radical degrowth policies needed to stop climate change, including strict limits on reproduction. The associated rematerialization and relocalization of the economy would also mean an end to all retirement savings, something that I think would not go down that well with the large cohorts who are now entering retirement across the OECD. Moreover, dramatically downscaling the economy will increase vulnerability to the effects of climate change and make rebuilding, for instance after extreme weather events such as storms, more difficult. To put it in the words of Fareed Zakaria, “that makes me wonder: Is the real problem that Sanders will lose – or that he might win?”

Breaking promises

If I have been good at keeping up with my running goals, I am afraid the same is not true for my promise not to buy any new shoes in 2020. Going downhill in South Devon, my toes screamed in pain from my way too small trail running shoes so when Outnorth had the Hoka Torrents on sale, I decided that New Year’s Resolutions are there to be broken after all, right? Having registered for both Urskogsloppet in June and Tvåälvsloppet in October, I already have 50 km of trail racing scheduled so I think this was the right decision.

Yesterday, Gabriel asked me why I believed that Buttigieg would have a better chance than Sanders when it comes to defeating Trump in November. Beyond some early polling data (though some polls go the other way), I think much of my antipathy to Sanders come from his extremist views on climate change. Not only does he want to rapidly close down all nuclear, he also wants to ban fracking and natural gas, something that, given his 100% renewable vision, would only be possible if combined with a comprehensive degrowth agenda, and now we are not talking about a few dozen per cent drop in GDP but basically the end to consumer capitalism as we know it. It is such iconoclasm that makes me think that it is very unlikely that Sanders will ever be elected president. Already now, progressives who are not normally into the climate policy universe, like CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, are beginning to notice Sander’s views on climate and I think many people will see this as yet another example of Sanders being far too the Left of the median American voter.

Penguin

After the debacle with the blue dove (which turned out to be thrush or a starling according to my ornithologically trained friends), a yellow-eyed penguin seems like a slightly safer bet. In light of the fact that penguins do eat fish, I made some oven-baked salmon on black beans with halloumi and basil for this year’s Valentine dinner.

Truth to be told, I should say that I did go swimming with penguins when hiking in Australia back in 2008. Reading an article by a woman in Sydney who describes her life in the current “quarantine era”, it is hard to imagine that we are even talking about the same country; bushfires that have made air quality as bad as in East Asia, gale-force winds and 550 millimetres of rain over a single weekend clearly take away some of the allure of outdoor hikes.

While maybe not the most Valentinesque of reads, Elisabeth Plamqvist, who is the mother of my childhood friend Gabriel, just released her first novel called “The Neutered” which I look forward to reading over the weekend. Given that she is a retired urologist, I fear that she knows all too well what she is writing about.

500 kilometres

I know you are all dying to hear how my New Year’s resolution to run 3,660 km in 2020 is coming along. As such, I am happy to inform that, by this morning, I have officially passed the 500 km mark which means that I am currently 46 km ahead of pace. As it was -10 degrees outside, I played it safe though and ran 10k on the treadmill instead, something I have not done since I was staying at the Pullman in Jakarta back in October. If nothing unexpected happens, I hope to keep running at least 70 km per week going forward, all the way up to Göteborgsvarvet.

The other day I learnt that there will be an Ultra Interval Challenge this spring as well, on 21 March to be exact. Given how much fun I had doing this challenge in the fall, I am thinking that I should do this instead of Tavelsjö Frozen Track which is on the day after (no, I will not do both!). Beyond the excitement of running 8 x 10 km over 24 hours and eating lots of pancakes, I will be able to save quite a bit on car rental etcetera by staying at home and instead run loops around the lake.

Rewilding

With my new book chapter on rewilding coming out later this spring, I was thrilled when a book series editor in the UK contacted me about the possibility of writing something longer on this multifaceted topic.

This week, I am otherwise working on my paper for Vaasa on climate didactics, trying to make the most of my time before I receive another batch of 150 exams to mark. In the outside world, a new SAS commercial has sparked quite an uproar. Unlike most other people, I think the ad was great as it emphasized the dynamic and hybrid nature of “culture”. What I think people get wrong is that they understand the commercial as if it is saying that other people have essential “cultures” whereas we in Scandinavia only borrow things from other, but that is not at all how I see it. Instead, I think the message is rather that we should all go on exploring and be open to what is different, a message I could not agree more with.

All the way to Rio

While listening to “All the way to Rio” with Anna Ternheim, I biked down the pool for 1,000 meters of swimming in my shorts whose colour MQ described as “Rio Red”. Suddenly, the Lusophone theme seems to be everywhere.

Last night in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders won over Pete Buttigieg, effectively paving the way for four more years with Donald Trump in the White House. One could only wish that someone somewhere would have learned the lesson of Jeremy Corbyn but, no, the Left truly seems hell-bent on its own destruction. At a time when the need for progressive politics is greater than ever, there is so little willingness to compromise and see the best of those we disagree with.

Biscay

For many years, the Bay of Biscay has followed me in my imagination. In 1998, I travelled alone along its shores before taking the beautifully named night train “La Palombe Bleue” back to Paris. As my ornithological knowledge is practically non-existing, I could not tell if it was indeed a blue dove on this bottle from the Basque Country but it nevertheless felt like a good investment after my afternoon gym session at USM.

Today was the final day of teaching with my political philosophy class which always leaves me a bit sad. Now just marking remains before it is time to meet 120 new social work students and talk about public administration.

Ciara

Over the weekend, the winter storm “Ciara” has been blowing in over Europe, leading to record speeds across the Atlantic, including one British Airways 747 that made the flight from New York to London in just 4 hours and 56 minutes.

While Umeå is generally quite protected from storms, it was still a bit of a challenge to get around the lake this morning. I can only thank my lucky star that South Devon Ultra was the previous weekend and not this one.

The Grand Hyatt

High up on the green hills of Hannam-dong lies the Grand Hyatt. Overlooking the central parts of Seoul, it is a world to its own with slow Sunday brunches, a few laps in the pool, and an atmosphere of old school diplomacy meeting new money (BTS for instance lives in Hannam-dong if that is a hint). For my part, I have been there a few times, including for a memorable breakfast with Carsten as he was visiting from Germany and also once with my mother on a cold winter day with Eddie sleeping in the baby carrier.

Steasy

James Seth DeMoor talks a lot about “steasy” runs, as in longer “easy” runs that are still in a higher “steady” pace, somewhere between heart rate zones 2 and 3 (in my case that would translate to about 150 bpm). With the sun sprinkling through the freezing fog, I went for just such a run this morning for a total of 21 km in my Salomon Spikecross.

Afterwards, I took the bus downtown with the boys to borrow some new books at the library and eat at Max. It is strange to think that just a week ago I was out racing along the Atlantic in Devon. 

Maps and legends

With the exception of Macau and a brief visit to Portugal itself back in 2012, the Lusophone world has remained largely unexplored here on Rawls & Me. As I making some “Caldo Verde” or Portuguese kale soup for dinner and reading up on wild ultratrail races on the Azores, I am thinking that maybe that is about to change.

Today was the last days of lectures in my political philosophy class. Wrapping up the class with Mussolini's “La dottrina del fascismo" and Harald Ofstad’s “Vårt förakt för svaghet” (“Our contempt for weakness”), it felt more important than ever to speak out and do whatever I can to stop the ongoing slide into darkness. The next election will indeed be decisive for determining what kind of country Sweden is and for how long we will allow politics to speak to the basest of our instincts rather than our highest aspirations.

And as for the Portuguese wine, I am back with Sagan:

Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians: “I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas”

Polar returns

As Nokve Viking descended towards Umeå Airport last night, I was struck not only by the bright white glow of Venus in the western sky but also by a sudden awareness that we are all hurtling through space on a fragile, molten rock (to paraphrase John Lithgow).

Once on the ground, it was -11 degrees, and southern England – with its hibernating palm trees –  suddenly felt very far away. I now have eight weeks here in Umeå, weeks that will be filled mostly with teaching and grading (and perhaps a little running) before I head across to Vaasa for that conference on social science didactics.

Just today, I spent five hours in the classroom discussing everything from perfectionism to constitutionalism, which made a mini bottle of cheap Pinot Grigio from Marks & Spencer feel entirely justified. And of course, I could not resist taking a photo of my medal from South Devon Ultra ;-)

Atlantic Roller

As I was checking out the Coral Room at the newly opened The Bloomsbury Hotel over a Curaçao-blue “Atlantic Roller” last night, the pain in my legs finally began to fade. Still, having essentially climbed the height of Kebnekaise while running farther than I ever have in my life, I should hardly be surprised that my body took quite a beating. Descending the stairs into the Tube afterwards, I have to admit that, as happy as I was about earning my first two ITRA points, the thought of signing up for another ultra was not exactly at the forefront of my mind.

Nevertheless, I learnt a great deal from this adventure – lessons I will carry into future long-distance races. First, the importance of conserving energy: not going out too hot, but saving glycogen for when everyone else begins to hit the wall. Thanks to my gentle start, I was able to overtake more than a dozen runners in the final ten kilometres.

Second, the importance of eating early and consistently – everything from salty crisps to bananas. Someone once said that ultramarathons are as much eating contests as they are running contests, and there is a lot of truth in that.

Finally, I could not be happier with my Suunto and its heart rate monitor, which reminded me every time my pulse crept too high. While I am clearly no cardiologist, I struggle to see how running at peak heart rate for five-plus hours can be healthy – at least not on a regular basis. I therefore approached the race almost as a Phil Maffetone-inspired low heart rate session, trying to keep things steady around 130–140 bpm.

So now the obvious question remains: what will be my next ultra? To be honest, that is still entirely open. But based on my experience in South Devon, I have at least ruled out the Stranda 48k in Norway – 3,850 metres of elevation gain is still far beyond my present ability.

Backstop Land

Directly following the race, I felt much better than I have been doing after my three road marathons so I thought recovery after South Devon Ultra would be a fairly straightforward affair. That was before the DOMS (or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) hit me. Driving back along the south coast was fine but as soon as I got out of the car, it was utter misery. Stopping by at Lulworth Cove, I had some funny idea about hiking over to Durdle Door as a kind of recovery exercise but instead I found myself reading “Backstop Land” by Glenn Patterson at the inn, thinking that for all the fanfare, the fundamental dilemma of Brexit remains as unresolved as on the night of the referendum:

“We don know yet fthere’ll be
a clean Breggsit ra messy Breggsit
nur a hard Breggsit nur a saft Breggsit.
But mnot goin te build a hard boarder.
It’ll be a soft boarder, waitn see.
A sorta magic boarder that no-one can see.
We can hay a boarder that isny a boader.
One tay keep youse in, an everyone else oot.”

South Devon Ultra

Setting my alarm 04:40, I knew I was in for a challenge of unprecedented proportions. Learning from Umeå Ultra, I decided to start things slow, taking in the coastal views as I ascended towards the white lighthouse at “Start Point”. From there, it was just to follow the Atlantic on steep cliffs all the way into the aid station in East Portlermouth. Shortly after, the real challenge started, or rather the mud. Epic proportions of mud. More mud than Harry Mudd in StarTrek could even dream of.

In the end, I managed to run 54 km in 7 hours and 45 minutes, ultimately finishing 59 out of 88 who completed the ultra distance. As for the race, I think I need a few days to collect my impressions but now it is time for pizza!