In lieu

Apparently, the continued travel restrictions around the world have made it impossible for Monocle to gather enough material for this year’s The Escapist. Instead, all subscribers have received a special newspaper on home design which feels kind of appropriate now when the home is slowly becoming more of a home and less of a recording studio. For the last few days, I have actually been riding my bike up to campus, something that I plan to keep doing, at least on most days.

Otherwise, if you have been wondering what I have been up to since the weekend the answer is fairly boring. I have been marking exams. Luckily, I have also been able to go for a couple of night trail runs but right now I am in full tapering mode in preparation for the 52k Gotland Ultra Marathon on Saturday.

Autumn galore

Red and yellow autumn leaves everywhere as I ride with the kids to town. It is incredible to think that it was just a couple of years ago that I had them both in the German bike trailer and now they are very confident on their own wheels as we ride down “Svingeln” together.

Tonight, I made another recipe from Tuvessonskan’s Brynt smör, this time with Lithuanian chantarelles, corn and gnocchi topped with kale and toasted walnuts. And, obviously, plenty of brown butter.

Lovely people

After raining non-stop for 24 hours, the sky cleared up somewhat this morning as Elin and I went for one of our signature Friday river runs. With our joint 70k Trail Kuršių Nerija adventure just three weeks away, there is a lot to plan so hopefully we will be able to do one more long run together before it is time to cross the Baltic.

Last night, I watched the one and only Gennaro Contaldo making fish spaghetti. With his unfailing enthusiasm and inimitable expressions, watching him cook really warms one’s heart so I decided to try the same recipe for a post-run lunch (though trading the grey mullet for cod). The result, oh myyy!

Onshore winds

With a yellow warning for heavy rain in effect, I decided to run next to the kids as they rode on their bikes to school. Considering that yesterday was the World Car Free Day, I thought I should take this opportunity to say something about our plans for the winter now when the Thule Cougar is no more.

While it would of course be tempting to simply buy an old Volvo, our goal is still to bike everyday throughout the winter. Since this will obviously not be possible, we have agreed on a kind of car-pool arrangement with one of our neighbours so that we have a backup on those days when there is simply too much ice or the winter is too harsh. 

Today, we are expecting another 50 mm of rain due to strong onshore winds from the Gulf of Bothnia, so I think the afternoon school run will be just as much of an adventure. At least, I managed to make some pretty decent "fika" in between.

Hôtel le Sud

Today, I reached 3,000 km of running this year which means that I now have 1,000 km left to run. Right now, it feels like I will not set a new distance goal for 2022 but instead try to bring back some of the basic joy of running rather than having to reach a certain mileage. 

Once home, I thought I deserved some red (sic!) wine from South Australia and a moment to catch up with Condé Nast Traveller, taking me to Hôtel le Sud in Antibes on the French Riviera. In an hour or so, Anna will be back home from her (virtual) summer school and I will have some paella ready for her. So, southern escapes alright.

Into darkness

With the sun setting at half past six, night-time has returned to the High North and, with it, the chance to run one of those lovely “reflex trails” that I discovered last winter. After spending a whole day in front of Zoom, being all alone in the forest in the dark is uniquely soothing for the soul (but of course also slightly spooky at times).

At long last, the Biden administration today finally announced an end to the Covid travel ban that has been in effect since March 2020, making it possible to once again fly across the Atlantic. I do not know why but I have been rather emotional about this whole not being able to travel to the US thing, as if some part of me has been cut off. There is something with simply knowing that the desert is there, those Pacific coast highways or that walk across the Berkeley campus.

3x Umåker, courtesy of Andreas

Northumberland

Though it took a bit of effort, I managed to clean my red Speedcross 5 shoes before going for a recover run around the lake this morning. Back home, I have been marking exams but also thinking about future running adventures. Yesterday restored some of my hope of being able to run technical trail races and looking towards 2022, I am thinking that I might skip Tjörnarparen 100k in February and instead go for a trail ultra somewhere in the United Kingdom. Among possible races, Endurance Life (which organized South Devon Ultra) is planning a 58k race along the Northumberland coastline which looks absolutely stunning.

While this may of course change, travel restrictions are at least moving in the right direction for the moment with fully vaccinated travels being able to skip the pre-departure test from 4 October when travelling to the UK. Considering that Anna and I have friends in nearby Newcastle, this could be a great trip to do together.

Umåker 2021

Waking up to grey skies, I realized the need for colour so I decided to upgrade to my “high-risk red” Speedcross 5 for my long-awaited return to Umåker. After being postponed twice, this 16k technical trail race finally happened today and it was a blast! While I walked on many downhills, I was able to improve my time with six minutes compared to 2019, ultimately finishing in 1 hour and 40 minutes as number 68 out of 126 runners who completed the race. 

Out on the course, I got to talk a bit to a guy from Gotland who had run Gotland Ultra Marathon (GUM) in the past. Hearing his description of the course made me even more excited about GUM which will happen in two weeks from today. But, before that, I am looking forward to seeing the photos that Andreas took today.

Bloomsbury

Long-time readers of this blog know of my fondness for Gunnar Ekelöf, often described as Sweden’s first surrealist poet. 

The other week, I stumbled upon a review in Svenska Dagbladet which sparked my interest in a new book about Tora Dahl’s diaries from the 1930’s and the early 1940’s, clearly written in a darkening time but also an era of literary experimentation. In the review, it is suggested that the group around Tora, which included Ekelöf but also people like Harry Martinson, Ivar Lo-Johansson, and Nils Ferlin, would have “made the Bloomsbury group seem prudish”, a claim that obviously cannot be left unexamined ;-) Thus, equipped with a froosh-Bellini, I am thrown back to a Stockholm full of violent labour disputes, reckless financial speculation, and disintegrating cosmopolitan worlds.

Delight

Since almost two years have passed since I had the real deal, I was thrilled to find a yellow box with “Turkish Delight” when stopping for coffee along the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland. Apparently, the Irish company Hadji Bey has been making Ottoman sweets for more than a century and has quite a story, including Armenians who fled persecution and arrived in Cork where they set up the company.

As the Hoka Mach 4 shoes in the picture suggest, I am finally back to running higher volumes after the disappointment in Trondheim. For the last three days, I have run 16 km per day with the goal of reaching 90 km by Sunday. If nothing unexpected happens, I am aiming to keep this volume all the way up to Lithuania in mid-October, in addition to my usual indoor rowing and now 2,000 meters of swimming per week, so hopefully I will be seeing some results out there on the Curonian Spit.

In the real world, electricity prices in Sweden are as high as they ever been (which is slightly funny considering how often I have been told that renewables are much cheaper than nuclear) and, with new cables being opened to the UK, prices are likely to continue rising. Since we should be busy electrifying transportation and other sectors of the economy in response to climate change, this is all very sad (but also highly predictable) news.

11 months

Just as I predicted, that swim in November turned out to be the last one for a very long time. Though I have been plying the waters of Nydalasjön a bit during the summer, today’s 2,000 meters at Navet was the first longer session in elven months and surprisingly challenging. With some effort, I may still have a shot at reaching my annual goal of 24,000 meters.

Otherwise, I have been busy with teaching and different administrative meetings with little time for research. On Saturday, it is time for Umåker Trail, a 16k race in the area around Hässingberget that I did once before back in 2019. Considering how wet and gritty the course was last time, I am thinking that I will take my old, and relatively expendable, Salomon Speedcross 4 shoes in size 47 even if they are a bit on the small side.

Odyssey

Having forgotten my Polar watch charger in a Galway hotel room, I had to bring my old Suunto watch out of the drawer and back to life while I wait for a replacement charger to make it here from the Netherlands. Though Suunto always inflates my heart rate readings (in this case to 168 bpm on average), I have to admit that it did take a solid effort to run 10k in 4:44 min/km pace this morning as I could still feel the exhaustion from Trondheim. Running in my Nike Odyssey React, I was nevertheless reminded of that morning in Malmö when I flew above wooden decks.

With Navet finally being open again, I hope to go for a swim sometime next week and also bring my weekly volume back above 80 km as I train for Gotland Ultra Marathon in three weeks and Trail Kuršių Nerija two weeks after that.

Tricky

Back at home, I immediately tried to recreate the SAS lounge salad from Oslo but it was a lot trickier than I thought. Though absolutely edible, my version turned out rather dry in comparison, probably because I only had red onion and no other pickled vegetables. In any case, it feels great to be back on the ground and get to see my mother who has been here to help out with the kids while I have been away.

Flying teams

As “Torborg Viking” approached the Norwegian coastline, I was able to sign on to our Microsoft Teams seminar using the inflight internet. To my surprise, the quality was really good, almost as good as back in Tomtebo.

Three hours of seminars and meetings later, I am now about to take the second flight of the day, wrapping up six days on the road. To tell the truth, it feels like forever since that morning when I left Umeå and I am really looking forward to seeing the boys again.

Skyhiking

If skyrunning is a thing, “skyhiking” should be too so today Ally and I went up Diamond Hill in Connemara. Being an absolute treat with incredible views in all directions, the only problem was going back down with my left foot making itself known again. Right there and then, I decided to cancel Obbola Backyard and give my foot more time to heal before Lithuania in October.

Once back down, we started the long drive across the whole island to Dublin, only stopping at a charming restaurant in Oughterard for dinner. The last couple of hours on the motorway were tiresome in the dark with heavy rain hammering down but finally we made it to the car rental return centre at Dublin Airport. Tomorrow morning it is back to Umeå and reality.

Wild Atlantic Way

After picking up a dark blue Renault Captur at Dublin Airport, Ally and I set off towards the West along the M4. For hours we drove through a relatively flat landscape before arriving at the dramatic coastline near Fanore Beach where we jumped into the Atlantic as the big oceanic waves kept rolling in. Whatever we had expected of Ireland in September, it was not a gorgeous stretch of sand, all blue skies and +25 degrees.

Afterwards, we continued down to the Cliffs of Moher where we decided to go for a longer hike along the coast just as the sun was setting over the ocean. High above, I could see a Virgin Atlantic A340 on its way to New York, reminding me of all my great adventures, past and present.

Howth

Landing in Dublin yesterday afternoon was a sea change after Norway. Instead of armed soldiers and QR codes, I was able to use the e-gates through immigration without answering a single question. Had it not been for the masks, I would almost have forgotten about the pandemic as I met up with Ally for a nice Italian dinner down at the River Liffey.

Today, feeling much better in my legs, I went for a short city jog around the Liberties before embarking on a full day of exploration together with Ally, starting in Stoneybatter which, apparently, has been listed as one of the “coolest neighbourhoods in the world” by TimeOut. Though both the flat white and the baguette at Green Door Bakery were magical, neither Ally nor I were particularly impressed by Stoneybatter as such which, if anything, felt more like a typical residential area (maybe we simply walked the wrong streets?). Anyhow, after checking out an exhibition of Japanese prints from the Edo period at Chester Beatty and sand sculptures at Dublin Castle, we took the train out to Howth (rhymes with “both”) for incredible views of the Atlantic, a cold swim, and a long walk around the peninsula with its lighthouse and design houses. All in all, a very normal day as tourists, quite different from our previous trip together.

House

Walking very much like Dr Gregory House (minus the cane to support me), I made it out to Værnes and Trondheim Airport. To my surprise, the check-in agent did not know that “Comirnaty” is the brand name of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine so she struggled a bit with my vaccination certificate before being able to print my boarding pass (the new SAS “Travel Ready Center” still only works for a handful of destinations so online check-in was not possible today either).

Once I cleared security, I discovered that the SAS lounge still remains closed indefinitely despite its promise of “tomorrow”. Luckily, I was able to find a cup of coffee so now it is back to writing.

Trondheim

In recent weeks, the Nordic countries have again drifted further apart with regard to Covid. With Denmark declaring that Covid is no longer a threat to public health at large and ending basically all domestic restrictions for vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, Norway is moving in the opposite direction as the number of new cases grow. Last night, I struggled to find some food without the proper app on my phone but, in the end, I was able to get some Adana kebab as take-out. The whole app thing made me think more of China than a Western democracy even as I know that a lot of countries, from South Korea to Australia, have similar contact tracing regimes in place. Still, I do not like it.

Anyhow, today was race day. The weather could not have been better. Light winds, sunshine, and maybe 7-8 degrees as hundreds of runners gathered in the main square of Trondheim. I immediately found myself right behind the 3:15 pace keeper and a guy from the Norwegian military at a pace that felt absolutely great even as I had promised myself not to go out that fast. The course took us around all parts of central Trondheim, some very beautiful, including a harbour run through the salty winds of the Atlantic before heading back inland following the Nidelva river.

Passing the half marathon marker in 1 hour and 37 minutes, I felt confident that I would not only run under 3:30 but maybe even set a new impressive PR around 3:20 or something. By now, however, I should know that marathons really only begin 30 km into the race. With the right side of my butt cramping (maybe due to the left side foot injury that I got up in the mountains earlier in the summer?) and the muscles in my legs just feeling drained, the last hour was pure misery. Seeing the minutes go by on my watch, I gave it one last push, ultimately finishing in 3 hours, 44 minutes and 39 seconds as number 169 out of 313 runners who finished the race.

Theatre

Already before landing at Oslo-Gardemoen, I was informed that, due to Covid, it would not be possible to use the “Domestic transfer” lanes but that I would have to pick up my luggage and then recheck it for the connecting flight to Trondheim. Having enjoyed a short moment of normality in the air with black coffee and a delicious chocolate ball from Malmö, reality hit once on the ground where we bussed to a remote part of the terminal and greeted by the Norwegian military. After showing my passport and the EU vaccination certificate, I was eventually allowed inside the terminal where I could go about claiming my bag. Again, another passenger was less lucky, as he discovered that he had misplaced his printed vaccination certificate (or so he claimed) and had no electronic copy.

Half an hour later, following some additional checks and QR code scans, I was able to visit the SAS lounge which served an incredibly yummy salad consisting of saffron rice, raisins, cilantro, peas and pickled veggies, a combination that I will definitely try to recreate once I am back home in Umeå. Right now, however, I am looking down on majestic mountains as our Boeing 737-800 is starting its descent into Trondheim.

Leaving on a jet plane

Though I have travelled a bit domestically during the pandemic, not the least to Kalmar, this is my first trip abroad since January 2020. My plan for the coming days is to work on my new book chapter about N-DAC and, of course, run Trondheim Marathon. 

On Sunday, I will fly on to Dublin where I will meet Ally for some days out and about the Emerald Isle. With the sky all clear again, the magic of flying is definitely not lost on me as SK27 rotates and heads out towards the Baltic. The past week has been super busy with different course introductions and also a lunch seminar at the agriculture and forestry university SLU about my pedagogical research. All went really well, so now I have two groups with about 75 students each up and running. However, with five new Covid cases at the kids’ school, a cloud of uncertainty has been hanging over my trip and tomorrow’s marathon in Norway to the extent that I am slightly surprised that I am actually on my way.

This morning, the person in front of me was less fortunate as he was not allowed to check in, apparently he had not researched the entry requirements of wherever he was travelling to and did not have a negative Covid test in addition to his proof of vaccination (something that some countries require). Clearly, it must be incredibly frustrating to lose a ticket a like that so it really underscores the need to read up on everything ahead of time. With the new European ban on American travellers, we seem to be in for another round of escalating restrictions, making me seriously wonder how long time it will take until international travel returns to what it once was.