Year in sport

With the year drawing to an end, I was thrilled to see that I was again among the 1% of the most active users of Strava worldwide with 308 active days in 2022. Combining all my running, biking, swimming, and indoor rowing, I was able to rack up a grand total of 5,044 km with an aggregate climb of 31,046 meters. Considering how much I have been sick this year with Covid and everything, I must say that I am quite happy with the great races that I was able to complete, in particular Ultravasan 90. And even if the moving has made me feel like if I was hit by a steam locomotive right now, I could not be more excited about the year that lies ahead, starting with Cornwall Ultra in two weeks from today.

Last sled to Dawson

Sadly, our plans to check out the Wood Hotel in Skellefteå got covered in deep snow turning into rain when a winter storm engulfed the coast of Västerbotten just as we were moving houses. At one point, we were 10 centimetres from hitting a lamp post with our rental moving truck as its wheels slipped in the slush but, magically, we managed to move everything and starting to get organized at Historiegränd. Beyond the truck, we also got to drive around in a Peugeot 2008 GT, quite grateful that it was not the Toyota Starlet.

After four hours of sleep, Anna and I are now on the first morning train up to Kiruna to celebrate New Year’s with the kids. In three days, we will all take the train back to Umeå and put up the last books and lamps.

Back to the light

After five days above the Arctic Circle, it is time for Anna and me to take the train back to Umeå so that we can finally move in at Historiegränd. Travelling south, the light returned just as the train made a stop in Nattavaara, a station which has become slightly famous here on Rawls & Me over the years.

Having left the kids with the grandparents in Kiruna, we will be back in Kiruna first on New Year’s Eve, having stopped for one night in Skellefteå at the 18-storey Wood Hotel which has been listed as one of the “World’s Greatest Places in 2022” by Time Magazine.

Arctic training

With less than three weeks left until North Cornwall Ultra, I am using the time here in Kiruna to work on my aerobic base by doing longer low heart-rate workouts. Today, I went a bit further south and explored the forest trails above the lake “Ala Lombolo” where I found myself in deep snow for three kilometres and thrown back to past winter ordeals.

Back home, the inside of my winter running jacket made me smile and think about the psychogeography of these mountains and the connection that I have come to feel to the long Atlantic coast, be it Trondheim, Ireland or the Canaries.

2,500 kilometres

After all the Christmas food, it felt good to go for a couple of runs this morning with the second one finally bringing my total volume this year above 2,500 kilometres. Though still 1,500 kilometres short of last year, I am reasonably happy with having run on average 48 kilometres per week throughout the year and the fact that I managed to complete both Björnfrossa 63k and Ultravasan 90k over the summer. For next year, I will once again aim to run 10 km per day and also try to complete my first ever 100k race in February. With that in mind, I made sure to pass by OKQ8 for a grande latte :-)

To all of you

In keeping with Elin’s slightly postmodern tradition, I went for a Christmas Eve run this afternoon, of course returning to Bryggaregatan well in time for Donald Duck. To my great surprise, Seth James DeMoor gave me kudos on my run so now I have no other wish for Christmas :-)

With that, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Hey ho, nissen er tilbake

As a Norwegian stuck song syndrome of winters past, we are back in Kiruna since last night, in time to be woken up by the blast in the mine at 1.20 a.m., and to be first guests of the day at the iconic “Simhallsbadet”.

Later in the day, Anna and I went for 5k in the snow. With the outdoor temperature around -17 degrees and the winter running masks forgotten in Umeå, it felt like a sufficient distance before returning home for lunch and lussekatter.

Change of plan

When our train to Luleå was replaced with a bus, we decided to skip the hotel and instead head up to Kiruna already tonight. As such, we just passed the tiny station in Nattavaara with about two hours to go until Kiruna. Unlike in April though, darkness now reigns supreme, and the temperature keeps falling as we travel further north.

Right now, I have done 2,473 km of running this year and even as I did not set any annual goal, I hope to be able to throw in a few more kilometres so that I make it to 2,500 km before the year is out. Compared to last year’s 4,000 km, that is obviously a lot less but considering Covid, a bout of acute bronchitis and everything else, I guess it is not that bad.

Hope Resort

With Rio feeling particularly distant on this the darkest day of the year, I made it back to USM for one final all-out treadmill run of 2022. Though I had originally planned to repeat my “under 20 before 2020” from December 2019, I decided to continue for one more kilometre even as I fell short of maintaining a sub 4 min/km pace. Tomorrow afternoon we are travelling deeper into the winter as we are heading up to Luleå with Norrtåg.

Last commutes

Yesterday, I decided to run back to Sävar as my bus card had expired and the winter felt slightly less cold. Speeding up turned difficult though with plenty of snow on the road but at least I was able to keep a steasy pace around 5:30 min/km as I made my way to what has been our home for the last few months. Today I will pick up a rental car and start moving our things to Ålidhem.

Running in the snow, I once again came to think of JFK. Back in June 1963, he gave a commencement speech at American University in which he said:

“While defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy--or of a collective death-wish for the world”

As the war in Ukraine rages on with ever more hawkish statements, I am genuinely frightened about how it will end. While it is obvious that Putin grossly miscalculated the situation and now finds himself in a trap of his own making, all possible courses of action are fraught with great risk. If I had one wish, it would be that leaders in the West would more clearly communicate that this is not a war against Russia or Russian culture, and that the Russian people would be warmly welcome in Europe if the Putin regime were to fall.

Mango shrimp salad

After feeling a bit under the weather for a few days, I pushed through to 25,000 meters of indoor rowing this month in what may well be my last visit to USM this year. In two days, we will start moving to the new apartment at Ålidhem so I guess that will be my substitute for weight training at the gym. Tonight, I put together a mango shrimp salad with extra everything to celebrate that I was just given a green light on my final assignment for the Örebro course.

Open AI

Like university teachers everywhere, I have been stunned by the performance of OpenAI and what it means for our traditional forms of assessments such as take-home exams. Asking ChatGPT some of the questions that Anna has been using for her International Relations exams, the answers provided would have been sufficient to pass the course, especially if the student would have inserted a few extra references to the course literature. Unlike Wiki, the answers provided will not flag up in our anti-plagiarism software so this means that, going forward, we must be even more careful with the questions we ask.

Asking ChatGPT how I should finish this very blog post, I was given the following suggestion:

"Overall, my experience with OpenAI has made me realize the potential of these tools to revolutionize university education and assessments. While there are certainly challenges to be addressed, such as the need for more sophisticated anti-plagiarism software, I believe that OpenAI and similar tools can be used in innovative and beneficial ways. I'd love to hear from readers about their own thoughts and experiences with using OpenAI and other language models in education, and any ideas they might have for addressing the challenges posed by these tools.”

2022 Gold List

Two days ago, Runar Viking landed at Umeå Airport, wrapping up my year of flying. As tradition has it, this means that it is once again time to put together my most shallow annual Gold List. Having flown 29,759 miles in 2022, about twice as much as in 2021, I have visited nine countries this year of which one, Brazil, was new to me.

Best Airport Lounge: KLM Crown Lounge, Non-Schengen, Amsterdam

Best Hotel Breakfast: Concepció by Nobis, Palma  

Best Hotel: Can Ferrereta, Santanyí

Best Award Booking: Stockholm – Rio de Janeiro in business class with TAP for 140,000 points using one American Express 2-4-1 voucher

Train 462

To my surprise, I did make it out of bed in time to go for a short morning run despite a real feel temperature of -16 degrees. Like with swimming, one rarely regrets a run, and Örebro could not have been any more beautiful with all the Christmas decorations. As for those, Sofi gave me the most perfect decoration to hang in my tree, namely a “fox working from home”, complete with a laptop and a cup of black coffee as can be seen below.

Now on train 462, I just submitted the last paperwork for the course. Once I get to Umeå, I will have an intensive afternoon with a research seminar and a meeting with the other members of the board of graduate studies. As we pass Södertälje, I just have to share the view...

Winter swimming

Drinking hot chocolate in my hotel bed at Clarion, I can look back on a beautiful day which began with 7.5 kilometres of running through the snow before I took the bus to campus for the course finale. Like last time, it was really rewarding with a lot of food for thought. 

Once the day was over, I met up with Sofi and her flat-coated retriever “Krut” for an excursion up to Ånnaboda where a hole in the ice was waiting for me. I would lie if I said that I had not dreaded this moment and, with the temperature around -10 degrees with northerly winds, Copacabana truly felt a world away as I climbed down the stairs into the icy water. Though I have done winter swimming in the past, it has always been with a sauna at “Ribersborgs Kallbadhus” in Malmö or similar places, so this was something rather different.

In any case, I survived. And thanks to some spicy Indian food and a G&T made with “Botanist” dry gin from Islay, my body temperature is now again within normal parameters. As always, it was lovely to see Sofi and her husband Stefan. Now, time to sleep a bit so that I might be able to go for a run before the train leaves tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.

Contingencies

Like back in 2017 when sudden snow cancelled my flight to St Petersburg and I got stuck in Docklands, Britain again seems surprised by the occurrence of “winter” with hundreds of flights cancelled, trains delayed, and schools closed. Being dependent on unreliable wind energy for a large share of its electricity supply, National Grid is now warming up its “coal contingency units” as electricity prices are spiking and thousands of old people are at risk of dying from energy poverty. Meanwhile, in France, chronic underinvestment in its ageing fleet of nuclear reactors has meant unusually low capacity factors this winter, turning the country from a net exporter to a net importer of electricity, leading to further fossil backsliding. All in all, I guess, the owl of Minerva really does not fly until dusk.

As for flying, I was scheduled to fly down to Stockholm with SK2023 later today, but SAS cancelled my flight so, instead, I got to spend a surprise hotel night in Umeå before getting up at 4 am to check in manually at the airport (due to problems with the travel agent booking) for the very first flight of the day. At least I was treated to some very nice aircraft spotting as I boarded Auisle Viking in a balmy -13 degrees.

Ten peaks

While we may not have any Fourteeners like in Colorado, we do have Tavelsjö and, today, Petra and I climbed up the highest of its ten peaks in knee deep snow. Just like when I did Höga Kusten Winter Trail in February, the snow made the steep cliffs seem much more manageable and fluffy, still it was slightly disconcerting to remember what the terrain underneath actually looked like as we made our way up the mountain.

Luckily, we made it back to Sundlingska gården (and the now permanently closed Roots) without any injuries but ready for some hot chocolate and saffron doughnuts. Before indulging in our fika however, we got to briefly try the Finish national sport of “woolsock running” in the snow. Were it not for my already packed racing schedule, I would seriously considering registering for the World Championship in Orivesi in central Finland now in February.

Kalmarit

Though not born in Kalmar, I am in many ways a ”kalmarit”, both when it comes to how I speak (just ask me to say ”torkare”) and when it comes to winter sports. Joined by Eddie, I went skiing around Skogstorpet where I have been running a fair bit during the autumn months. Obviously, I fell. But given that the conditions were pretty awful, I will try to make it back once more before we move. For now, time for some glögg inside.

Pålböle

Today, William is turning eight. Unfortunately, he has yet to fully recover so we decided to postpone most of the festivities until next weekend. Instead, we have been taking it slow in the snow, catching up on the Christmas calendar and making spaghetti bolognese as per William's request.

Like back in October, I also got to run five slightly faster kilometres along Sävarån this morning in my Salming iSpike shoes, but once again I forgot my phone which is kind of sad since it is really one of the most beautiful stretches of road here around.

1809

Just like when he visited in December 2017, Gabriel got to experience some pretty extreme winter conditions on this, his third visit to Umeå, only mitigated by a bottle of “Land of Saints” pinot noir from the Central Coast and some polka beats. After a good night’s sleep, I took Gabriel for a walk in the snow to look at the stone monument in Sävar that was put up in 1909 in commemoration of the battle of 1809 which was the last major battle fought on Swedish territory. 

All white

If taking a new pair of ultra running shoes to the mountains on a summer’s day reminded me of Seth James DeMoor, turning that doorknob and going running through the snowstorm today should reasonably be enough to warrant an honorary mention in the next episode.

Otherwise, I am preparing some final feedback on the work that the other participants in the course have done before the meeting in Örebro next week and also trying to set up the LMS for the new police students that are starting in January. As always, the first months of the year will be super busy with three different courses.

Freezing

Walking across the river to ICA, I was indeed treated to the most beautiful winter day with the temperature well below -10 degrees. With William still home from school, I am otherwise back to “vobbing” but, after a productive day yesterday, I feel slightly less stressed.

Tomorrow, my friend Gabriel will come visiting as he is in Umeå for a course in philosophy that he is taking this semester. For now, however, I am making pancakes for brunch and reading up on warm winter clothes.

River walk

History Alley

After spending an autumn here in Sävar, we have now signed a contract for a brand-new rental apartment on Historiegränd in central Umeå from the 1st of January, meaning that we will no longer have to commute by bus and that I, once again, can go for my morning runs around Nydalasjön.

Today however, I am at home with William who has had a high fever over the weekend. As such, I am spending the day mostly marking exams and folding laundry. Looking out through the window I was stunned to find that the sky was no longer entirely grey but rather purple with -10 and clear, cold weather in the forecast for the coming days.

December marathon

A year ago, I was on my way to run Cyprus Marathon but a snowstorm in Hessen intervened and landed me in Kalmar instead. Today, after being down with a cold for a week, I decided that enough was enough and went for a marathon all on my own, something that I have not actually done since November last year. This time around, I followed the E4 all the way down to the lake where I stopped for a coffee and a “lussekatt” at Circle-K Carlshem before heading back along the incredibly icy road to Sävar via Innertavle. 

Meanwhile, down in Valencia, Henrik was able to finish his marathon in 2 hours and 51 minutes which was about two hours faster than my time, on the other hand, I did stop at Henrik’s ICA store in Täfteå on the way back to buy some more drinks. Nevertheless, I must admit that my marathon today was unexpectedly demanding, reminding me that one should always respect the distance, and that I really need to build up my running volume if I should have any chance at Tjörnarparen 100k in February.

X7.1

Despite a few warm coffee memories from early mornings at Cavallo Point or the Monot hotel in Beirut, I have always been sceptical of pod machines, seeing them as expensive, unsustainable monstrosities compared to my beloved Bialetti Moka Express. However, on our recent Airbnb stay in Rome, I made peace with the "illy X7.1" as I realized that it was actually kind of neat with a milk steamer and everything. Retailing at around 300 EUR in Italy, I put it off until I suddenly saw one at a Black Friday sale for less than half of that here in Sweden. Thus, after walking home from ICA Sävar with a gigantic box through the snow this morning, our kitchen just got an upgrade.

Venezia

In addition to Darbo marmalade from Austria, I was able to bring back some delicious Hausbrandt coffee to Västerbotten where the dark grey skies have now become so institutionalized that it was considered breaking news yesterday when the sun suddenly appeared (not here in Umeå though, but 100 km to the north). Having been to both Italy and Rio last month, I have obviously been cheating so I guess I could not fully appreciate the desperation that led our university to greet everyone with small bonfires on campus this morning (fuel crisis be damned).