Mango salmon

Galaxy S23

After almost four years of faithful service, the time had come to upgrade my old Samsung S10 to a brand new S23. Equipped with multiple wide-angle cameras and a much faster chipset, I hope that this investment in the Korean export industry will not only allow me to take better food photos for the blog but, more importantly, shoot much higher-quality videos for my online classes.

Otherwise, I have spent most of the day constructing exam questions for my social work students. At lunch time, I went for a river run with Elin which brought me above 2,000 meters of vertical gain this month. Hopefully, I will be able to run the 13 kilometres that remain so that I can complete this month’s Strava 300k running endurance challenge as well (even as February only has 28 days), meaning that I would again be slightly ahead of pace with regard to my goal of running 10k per day in 2023.

A week ago, Bo Petersson at Malmö University published a rather sincere piece about Russia and how academics, like himself, had given in to wishful thinking by ignoring the warning signs of where Russia was heading in the years leading up to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While we may all be guilty of hoping for the best, I am not sure that I share his conclusion, that it would have been better to accelerate Ukraine’s NATO membership following the invasion of Georgia in 2008. If anything, that would have given Russia precisely the kind of casus belli that many people (did anyone say John Mearsheimer?) would have found reasonable. As such, I am back thinking that maybe the real problem was not so much that the West was not tough enough against Russia but rather that it failed to broaden its “Wandel-durch-Handel”-philosophy beyond hydrocarbons.

Winter in the Abruzzi

Some time ago, I found myself outflanked by ABC at the very essence of Rawls & Me, as in fine wine and slightly pretentious literature. Obviously, I just could not let it be so, equipped with a bottle of Pietramore, I am also thrown back to Abruzzo this weekend, reading about exile and how fragile all our lives can be.

However, far from all duskiness, we made a family excursion in the sunshine to Bölesholmarna today. Every year around this time, I am equally struck by the blinding white snow. Keeping my sunglasses on, I then topped up with a run around Anumark with an equestrian photo-op in Innertavle. 

Wide Awake Wednesday

As often these days, I woke up super-early. Despite a real feel temperature of -18 degrees, I decided to head out for 10k around the lake before making an avocado toast to celebrate the fact that I am once again the “local legend” along the eastern side of Nydalasjön.

Once at work, I submitted a review to the journal Globalizations and attended a record short meeting with the faculty hiring committee. Suddenly, finding myself having some extra time, I then headed down to the pool for 1,000 quick meters of swimming with Anna followed by a two-hour lecture for my social work students, all reminding me of how grateful I am to have this job and no other.

While downtown, I also picked up the latest issue of Breakthrough Journal which made me smile, especially in light of the review that I had submitted a few hours earlier. Considering the potentially crucial role that nuclear energy could play in resolving sustainability dilemmas while preserving liberal freedom, it is really not surprising that it is met by so much resistance by those who would rather remould society according to their own perfectionist and anti-democratic ideas.

Treadmill Tuesday

Instead of a “semla”, I decided to torture myself for one hour on the treadmill. While I was running, the sky cleared up, leaving behind the most beautiful winter day. Though bitterly cold, life still goes on somehow, at least here, far from the frontlines of Ukraine. It is strange how normalized the war has become in the year that has passed. I can still remember the acute anxiety that I felt when skiing around Nydalasjön at night or walking next to the port in Gothenburg whereas now, listening to Putin threating anew to end the world, just makes me tired.

Still, the risks are no less real than they were a year ago, and Joe Biden’s courageous decision to take the train to Kyiv is indeed impressive. Interestingly enough, Russia was given advance notice of Biden’s trip, and apparently it realized that it would be in its own self-interest not to intervene, which after all is an encouraging sign as it shows that some measure of rationality still prevails even in Putin's alternative universe of self-pity.  

Virtual Canaries

The other day, I stumbled upon a new Strava segment challenge as part of the 128 km Transgrancanaria race taking place next week. While I have been to both Tenerife and La Gomera in the past, I still have to visit Gran Canaria so I decided to take Lonely Planet along and head down to Navet for some serious virtual vertical.

Running 4.21 km with 240 meters of climb in 21 minutes, my heart rate spiked up to 170 bpm, well outside any “comfort zone”. Coming off the treadmill, the kids, who had been reading while I had been running, just looked at me as if I was mental, which I guess I might just be to some degree. Still, with high intensity training being all the rage these days, it was a nice change from my usual low heart-rate jogs in the snow.

Peach

When I grew up, my dear mother sometimes served conserved peach halves for dessert. With neither fresh peach or apricots anywhere to be found (it is called winter, stupid!), I bought a can with conserved ones for a summery potato salad with halloumi, mint and rocket. Absolutely yummy as the snow keeps falling outside.

Down on the High Coast, my friend Madeleine just finished second in the same race that I did last year. Being able to run those 50k of snowy trails with 1,780 meters of climb in under seven hours is truly an incredible achievement! Meanwhile, over in California, Seth James DeMoor is getting ready to race “Fourmidable 50k” which will be his first race in ten months. I am really looking forward to the results as he has done some insane training with a few weeks topping out at 220+ km of running per week.

Otto

While the winter storm ”Otto” is battering the west coast of Sweden, we received another bout of fresh snow overnight, turning my extended morning run around Anumark into quite a challenge. Running with my heavy Silva trail headlamp, I struggled to make my way through the deep snow. I want to think that these kinds of mentally tough runs ultimately make me a better ultra runner but my repeated failures at the 100k-distance somehow make me doubt it. After two hours, I was at least back at History Alley in time to make some waffles for the kids.

Chocolate Friday

For some odd reason, I felt like offsetting all the photos of me exercising with a chocolate bar as the work week is drawing to its end. Since yesterday, I have a large group of future social workers in the classroom and, this far, it has been very rewarding. I really appreciate teaching students who may not have politics as their primary interest in life. 

Pretzels and river runs

This time of the year always means lots of marking for me, and this year has been no exception. Luckily, I am beginning to see the end of the tunnel even as I will get another batch of 150+ exams to mark in late March. Yesterday morning, I was nevertheless able to go for a river run with Elin, which was kind of bold considering that only a few days have passed since Tjörnarparen. Though running slower than usual, we got to experience the most beautiful winter morning along the river, giving me plenty of energy for the day ahead.

Picking up one of those pseudo-authentic pretzels at Lidl, I then finished the day with yet more marking and some planning of future races, including signing up for a 50k ultra called “Diablo Trails” in Walnut Creek, California, while I am there for the WPSA conference over Easter.

Sunset arrival

Landing just as the sun was setting, Imar Viking brought me back to Umeå in time for some aircraft spotting. Parked next to our Airbus, there was an Italian-registered all-black Gulfstream G450 which I of course had to look up, apparently it was owned by Prada and I would guess it was in Umeå due to the World Rally Championship taking place over the weekend.

For my own part, I felt kind of done with sports today but at least I managed to go for a recovery swim at Navet. Now it is back to marking...

Nespolino

One last time. I know, I said the same thing back in September but now it is really certain that Pontus-in-the-air will close on 18 March this year, leaving me with many memorable pre-flight culinary experiences over the years.

Sipping on a glass of Italian red wine, I have decided to celebrate even as I failed to complete yesterday's race. After all, I did manage to run more than two full marathons and would even have received a medal had I only been registered for the 50-mile edition of the race. Yet, my repeated failures at the 100k distance make me hesitant to immediately register for another. Perhaps I simply need to take a step back and be grateful for the fact that I have a body that allows me to run for 13 hours straight on forest trails without injury or pain.

In an hour, I will be back in the air and on my way to snowy Umeå where a new class is starting on Thursday. Even if necessarily brief, this trip has been such a treat, from the descent into Sturup Airport on Friday afternoon (picture above) to all the lovely people I met out on the course. 

Hypothermia

Yesterday morning, I took the commuter train up to Tjörnarp for what I had hope would be my final revenge at the 100k-distance. After failing twice with Fjällmaraton 100k, the relatively flat course (1,500 meters of elevation gain) and ice-free conditions made me excited for the day as a group of about 350 runners gathered at the train station in Tjörnarp for the 9 am start.

The race consisted of a looped 50k course and, having promised myself to not go out too hard, I fully enjoyed the first loop in the sunshine. Coming into the half-way point, I now knew the course and felt ready to head out again with my headlamp for the second half. 

While the temperature had been around 7-10 degrees during the day, it quickly dropped as night fell and I soon realized that I was not adequately dressed, especially as I was getting increasingly tired in the mud and had to walk more and more. Still, about 70 km into the race, my spirits were unbroken as I soldiered on into the night. However, after spending two more hours transporting me the next ten kilometres and realizing that I would end up missing the last train back to Malmö at forty minutes past midnight, I could feel how cold I was getting. The remaining five kilometres were gruesome as I began to experience worsening hypothermia and, once at the penultimate checkpoint, I was shivering with fumbling hands. After drinking some hot blueberry soup, I understood that it would be outright dangerous to continue for another 3-4 hours in these conditions. As such, I made the painful decision to, for the third time in my life, DNF a race.

Nordica

Through windy skies, I am back flying the Estonian subsidiary Xfly Nordica as I head down to Malmö this morning. Since these CRJ900 aircrafts lack in-flight internet, I have to take a break with the marking so instead I am reading a slightly scary report about how a first officer aboard a Qatar Airways 787 most likely experienced a somatogravic illusion after departing Doha at night, almost crashing the plane into the black sea below before the captain realized what was going on and was able to regain control over the aircraft. What is most frightening about the story is not the incident as such, there have been many similar ones in the past, but the fact that it went unreported for a month, presumably due to fear of reprisals for the crew involved. Aviation safety, like much else, really depends on transparency and that we acknowledge human fallibility.

India Planning Map

This morning, I was finally back at USM for 7 km of gentle rowing, having recovered from the weekend misery. As for running, I am not sure if I will do much at all though before the gun goes off on Saturday morning outside Höör in central Skåne.

Otherwise, Anna and I just took the bus down to the new Punjabi restaurant “Malala” for lunch, bringing our Lonely Planet India Planning Map along. After Brazil last year, we now have award tickets booked for India in November though we still have to decide in more detail where we want to go.

Back to life

Though I am normally quite lucky with these things, both the kids and I got sick with a stomach bug over the weekend. In my case, the misery lasted exactly 24 hours and today I am almost back to normal even if I decided to skip the gym this morning. Instead, I am at work planning the new course with the social work students that is starting next week and trying to get everything organized for my trip to Skåne on Friday.

Airtrim mornings

With the quicksilver falling down to -20 degrees overnight, I was happy to have my Airtrim cold air breathing mask ready when heading out around the lake. Thanks to its heat exchange system, the air is heated to about +10 degrees by the time one inhales it so it really makes all the difference even if the moist it generates can cause a bit of freezing elsewhere around one’s face.

Once back home, I made a bacon and avocado bagel, thinking that even if only three weeks have passed since Cornwall Ultra it already feels like such a long time ago. Which I guess is good as my next race, Tjörnarparen 100k, is coming up in exactly one week from today.

Sea salt

After a week of lecturing, I found a small bag of crisps from Devon and a leftover glass of Albariño. 

Sometimes, I can feel so incredibly tired of my own voice. Especially when teaching green political theory like today, I become even more convinced that I am making the right decision by moving on to SOTL and other greener pastures.

However, when reading the latest issue of Vagabond, my mood quickly becomes less gloomy as I find a long article about travelling with train through Central Asia, something that I have dreamt of ever since I lived in China back in 2011. Yet, unlike Bamse who apparently can be away for months on different adventures, the time for these kinds of things is not quite yet so instead I am looking for shorter excursions closer to home. Among those, I am seriously considering registering for Sarajevo Half Marathon in mid-September. With the war in Ukraine and the darkness at home, it feels more important than ever to focus on the basic things that make us human, like running, and the bridges it can build.