Reindeer sightseeing

On Friday afternoon, a reindeer walked along the riverfront here in Umeå, checking out the Väven library among other buildings while quickly trending on Instagram. Sadly, no reindeers were to be seen this morning as Eddie joined me on his bike for a 12 km run along the river.

Wrapping up my fourth consecutive month with 300+ km of running, I was happy to briefly trade my super-cushioned Cliftons for a pair of Nike Pegasus 36 that have been hiding in the wardrobe for the last couple of years. Not only did I appreciate the higher drop but also the sturdier feeling with slightly less room for my feet to move sideways. As with much in life, variation is really the key when it comes to running shoes.

Boston dreams

Though I have long been dreaming of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, actually doing so is slowly moving into the realm of the possible as I get older and the qualifying times gradually get more generous.

More specifically, when I turn 45 in July, I will be in a new age group with 3:20 as my qualifying time. Having e-mailed the Tallinn race director to double-check, I now have a confirmed qualifying race lined up so all I have to do now is to run (and run). For those curious, if I am to have a margin of one minute, I would need to keep an average pace of 4:42 min/km which is about 25 seconds faster per km than my current marathon PR (yet, ten seconds slower than the pace of my half marathon PR), so, maybe, maybe, just something I could do...

End of April

Congratulations or condolences

A bit like the Barkley Marathons which is famous for opening its acceptance letters with “it is my unfortunate duty to inform you that your name has been selected”, I do not know what the proper response should be but, with this train ride, I am once again back at the top “black” tier with the loyalty programme of the Swedish Railways. The last time I had this unfortunate privilege was when I was commuting between Gothenburg and Lund as a PhD candidate in 2010, but it does show that I have spent a lot of time on trains recently. Despite being entirely revenue-based, I would say that the SJ Prio programme offers quite a lot of value in terms of redemptions with both long trips in first class and night train rides coming to mind.

Time flies

Equipped with Ellinor Skagegård’s brilliant new book about Märta Lindqvist, one of Sweden’s first female journalists, I jumped on a jet plane yesterday for a short visit to Örebro. Greeted by Sofi and her flatcoated retriever at the station, we immediately drove up to Kilsbergen for another icy swim. Though much less extreme than last time around in December, the wind definitely made me happy to once again being able to warm up over some Indian takeout afterwards.

This morning, waking up to bird song, I put on my Cliftons and went out for a long run to Karlslund and Varbergarskogen where I used to go running when I was living in Örebro a near-eternity ago. After the recent spring setback with all the snow in Umeå, it was absolutely lovely to be able to run through fields with wind-flowers and bunnies. Though I would gladly have continued running for another hour, I realized that it was time for work so the rest of the morning I have spent café writing and, now, it is time for nine hours on the train back to Umeå.

Full sea

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

At long last, I am happy to inform you that I will start a new permanent position as Associate Professor at Halmstad University College in the autumn. With Anna already having secured a job at nearby Gothenburg University, we have decided to move to Gothenburg, more specifically to an apartment in Örgryte (which means that I will be spending a fair amount of time every day on Øresund-trains).

After trying to move south for the better half of the last decade, it feels so good that everything is finally in place. To celebrate, I am making Virgin Atlantic’s signature “Ruby Sipper” cocktail (made with champagne and raspberry rhubarb tonic) as I look forward to many great adventures along the shores of the Western Sea.

Brazen Racing

The race organizers just posted some pictures from my mountain ultra in California that reminded me of the joy I felt when running on those lovely trails above Walnut Creek. 

But as I hinted yesterday, Umeå is not that bad either right now and today I ran another 10k across bridges in the afternoon sunshine before picking up the kids. Otherwise, I have spent most of the day indoors writing and reading Matthew Clarke's and Anne Phelan's "Teacher Education and the Political: The power of negative thinking" which, even if it falls into some of the usual post-Marxist traps, still has a lot of important things to say about the purpose of education.

Pike Road

Few things spell spring as much as being able to trade the running tights for shorts. With all of Sweden enjoying incredible spring weather this week, not even the wine makes me miss the paradise that I just left on the other side of the ocean.

After a morning of department meetings and the river run above with Elin, I spent most of the afternoon working on my new co-authored article about hybrid learning environments while munching away on petits fours that I picked up at Umeå’s new French bakery “Laures fika”. In other words, life is pretty good.

Wrapping up the week

While Germany closes down its last nuclear reactors and deepens its fossil dependency further yet, I let the sun chase away all my dark thoughts as I head out around the lake to complete another 70 km week. It is such a privilege to be able to sustain this kind of volume and remain injury-free. Unfortunately, my left arm is still in pain from the skiing, so all indoor rowing is suspended for the time being. 

At WPSA, one of my fellow panelists presented a critique of Matthew Huber’s Climate Change as Class War which sparked my interest. While more clear-eyed than most on the need for public power (both electric and political), Huber fails to see that the widespread use of fossil fuels is not so much due to some dark conspiracy theory as to the simple fact that fossil fuels are so useful for society (and much better for the environment than biofuels). Nevertheless, just like at WPSA, it is great to see that people on the political Left are beginning to see though the hypocrisy of the professional-managerial class and its fetishisation of the “local” (not to mention third-world agrarian poverty).

Skychasing

While the boys are going downhill skiing with Anna’s parents, I decided to spare my left arm from any further injuries and instead head out on that most classic of runs here in Kiruna. Passing through the new city centre, I think it is really coming about nicely with many great public buildings even if the swimming hall has turned into somewhat of a financial nightmare for the municipality.

Seeing the sign to “Nikkaluokta” reminded me of my incredible birthday run up Kebnekaise three years ago. Right now, we are planning are return to Kiruna in June, one that will hopefully give me a chance to go for another mountain trail adventure, perhaps all the way into Padjelanta.

Alpine skiing

Though it took a year rather than a week, I did eventually return to Luossavaara, eager to once again try my luck with alpine skiing. Assisted by my wonderful kids who are both already highly able skiers and Anna’s dad who was most helpful, I eventually managed to go down the slope without falling. Unfortunately, my left arm that I injured a week ago when cross-country skiing in Stadsliden still gave me some pain whenever I had to get up after falling but, otherwise, everything was just perfect.

Afterwards, Anna and I went for a jog around Kiruna which continues to be in rapid transformation as old buildings are being torn down. Though my Polar watch is warning me that I am “overreaching”, I am tempted to go for one of my signature airport runs before returning to Umeå to get a sense of how the new city is developing.

Back in the Arctic

Approaching Kiruna Airport, I could see the fluffy mountains of the west all covered in snow, telling me that I had come far indeed from California. Once on the ground, Eddie joined me for 10 km of cross-country skiing around Lombolo in the brilliant afternoon sunshine. 

While Anna heads down to Gothenburg to work, I will now spend a few days here with the boys until we take the train to Umeå on Saturday morning.

Melatonin

After a week on the road with very little sleep, I finally defeated the jetlag monster at Comfort Hotel Arlanda, albeit with the help of some melatonin before going to bed. Though injury-free, I have some serious DOMS in my legs right now which should surprise exactly no one considering those 2,197 meters of elevation on Saturday.

Waking up to this view (did someone say the Anthropocene?), I am now checked in to Kiruna with SAS. Waiting at the gate, I had to smile when I heard the calls for SK903 to New York with all its memories. I hope that you who are reading this have appreciated the trip as much as I have and I look forward to “the next crazy venture beneath the skies” to quote Kerouac.

High Valley

A ride with the Monterey Airbus later and I find myself at SJC for the first time in my life, sipping some Sauvignon Blanc from the High Valley as I wait for my flight to London.

Feeling sunburnt, but just enough to notice, from my summer sneak peek, this trip has been more than I could have hoped for. After a rough ride with the BART (which really has some systemic issues) on my first night, everything has worked out incredibly well with both the conference and my race. Once back in Sweden, I do not have much travel planned in the near future with the exception of a trip to Örebro to see Sofi at the end of the month and then Öland in mid-June. Nevertheless, I am really looking forward to making the most of the spring in Umeå with a new FKT attempt on Tavelsjöleden coming up among other things.

Tesla Model 3

While here in California, I finally have had a chance to drive a Tesla. Though I originally had booked a Model Y, I ended up with the Model 3 which is slightly less expensive (it still costs an eye-watering 42,990 USD).

When first picking up the car at SFO, I was in a bit of a rush, so I did not really have time to look into all the controls, but I immediately noticed the fast acceleration and the advanced electronics with the big touchscreen replacing almost all other buttons and physical inputs. Though equipped with an autopilot function, it felt a bit too exciting to test that one when driving north on the 101 with lots of cars around and, to tell the truth, I did not have the courage to test it later either.

My only real issue with the car has been how to charge it. Downloading the Tesla app on my phone, I figured that it is not possible to add a car that is not one’s own and the Supercharger station did not have any buttons that I could press. However, to my great surprise, once I plugged in the car, it simply started charging, informing that my credit card was on file and that I would be billed accordingly, wow! As for charging, the Tesla Supercharger had an insane effect of 85 kW, meaning that the car can be fully charged in under one hour. Let’s just hope that all that juice comes from Diablo Canyon and not any gas-fired power plants (of which there are many in California). In total, I drove 317 km over these two days and, overall, I would say that the Model 3 exceeded my expectations (that were high to begin with).

Sneak Peek Summer

 

Coyote Hills

Still jetlagged and sore from the race, I woke up to the most incredible day in California with blue skies, cherry blossom, and an expected high of 23 degrees. After a quick breakfast at the hotel in Hayward, I jumped into my rental Tesla and drove down to Coyote Hills Regional Park for a recovery jog. While I have to admit that I struggled with the 100+ meters of elevation, especially going downhill, I felt surprisingly okay on the flat parts of the run.

Unlike back in 2019, everything was so green this time around with lots of birds and other animals enjoying the morning sunshine. With more time I would have headed over to the Pacific coast, but Coyote Hills is definitely a good substitute.

Sage Brush

Smelling a bit like cilantro, one thing I really liked with the race today was the invigorating smell of sage brush here and there along the trail. 

Having driven back to the hotel, I am trying to regain some of those 4,867 kcal that I burnt during the race. A Heineken later, I discovered that BA had cancelled my flight tomorrow and rebooked me on a 787 out of San José instead, and with arrival into Stockholm twenty minutes short of those magic three hours that would entitle me to 600 EUR in EU 261/2004 compensation. With a bit of luck, my connecting flight will end up being delayed so I still have some hope of receiving compensation. However, before leaving the Bay Area, I hope to go for another run around Coyote Hills if my body allows it.

Diablo Trails 50k

What a race! Starting at 6.30 under a full moon, I got to experience trail running at its best. With views overlooking the Bay Area, the course took us up Mount Diablo, accumulating more than two thousand meters of vertical gain, and passing through rapidly shifting landscapes. 

Wise from previous races, I prioritized running over taking photos but, on several occasions, I just had to stop and take out my phone. Having been to both the summit and the north peak, the trail went downhill around 35 km into the race with many sections being fairly technical. As always, safety first but if I am to draw any lessons from the race it is that I need to practice downhill running in general.

Then about 40 km into the race, the trail became less technical but I still struggled to speed up as my quads had taken quite a beating. Nevertheless, being able to finish as number 45 of 110 runners who completed the race still feels more than okay, especially considering that I had zero incidents and felt good throughout the entire race.

As for my shoes, I ran the race in a new pair of Hoka Speedgoat 5 in size 48 which gave me plenty of room when going downhill. Though I had only run about 10 km in the shoes, they perform admirably. One thing in particular that I appreciated was that they quickly dried up after passing through the many streams on the course.

Me and my Tesla

Still partially on European time, I woke up at 3 am this morning, went down to the hotel gym in anticipation of what I feared would be a rather difficult day. After all, going into these panels, knowing that most of the people will be vehemently opposed to what you are going to say, is never easy. As such, I thought it was best to top up the treadmill running with some triple bypass pancakes and lots of black coffee.

To my surprise, the panel organized by Damian White at the Rhode Island School of Design, turned out to be exceptionally collegial, like the anti-twitter of environmental discourse, with genuine respect for the different viewpoints. Walking away for yet more coffee afterwards, I realized that there had been exactly zero alienation, quite the difference from WPSA 2019.

At the panel, I also the privilege of meeting Manuel and his PhD student Daniel. Having picked up my rental Tesla Model 3 at SFO (full review here), I asked Daniel if he wanted to come along for an improvised visit to the new headquarters of the Breakthrough Institute in Berkeley, an offer that he was most happy to accept as he is writing his PhD on the history and values of ecomodernism. Unintentionally, just driving across the Bay, in this black spaceship of sorts, somehow in itself turned out to perfectly illustrate the ambiguities of the Anthropocene and the vexed choices that we are faced with going forward.

Fried rice

Eating some fried rice takeout in my hotel room, I am thrown back to Hong Kong and the concept of “wok hei”; how the Maillard reaction and the tossing of the rice create a very special taste that I am unable to replicate at home on my electric stove (as much as I happen to like nuclear-powered things).

An hour ago, our SOTL-panel finished, reminding me again of how much I prefer talking about student learning compared to the end-of-the-world stuff that is on the agenda for tomorrow morning. Like back in 2019 at WPSA in San Diego, I am really asking myself why I keep engaging in these debates? What is at stake is not just policy but entire worldviews, as in fundamentally different ways of thinking about society and, as such, these climate debates quickly become intractable. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to give up on communication or to stop fighting for an open and more equal world.

Eucalyptus

Taking the BART from the airport last night, I felt much less cool than I used to do when living in New Jersey fifteen years ago. Maybe it was the open drug use or the psychotic eyes of the other passengers, but those thirty minutes on the train left me feeling outright scared to be honest. Once at the hotel, sleeping turned out to be difficult as it was already morning in Sweden but, in the end, I managed to get a few hours in the bank before waking up.

Still, after registering at the conference and picking up a venti latte (today, I was “Rusmas”), I could feel that some natural light exposure was called for if I were to make it through the afternoon conference sessions, so I went for a morning run around North Beach.

Inhaling the smell of eucalyptus and seeing the busy cafés of Little Italy and then some Golden Gate magic, all my dark thoughts from the night before vanished.

Jet Stream

Seated on the main deck of our A380 as we head out over the Irish Sea, I finally got a chance to try Brewdog's "Jet Stream" American Pale Ale which, I must say, was very much to my liking. After Anna's and my glamorous November trip to Brazil in C with TAP, I somehow appreciate the reality-check of a middle seat in economy surrounded by crying babies. With about ten hours to go until landing in San Francisco, I do hope to get some writing done after dinner, assuming that I can somehow squeeze in my laptop between my own seat and the person in front of me who, of course, immediately reclined her seat after take-off (yes, it is a death sin to recline).

Tomorrow afternoon at WPSA, I will present the first of my two papers which is on the gallery walk exercise that I have been using when teaching political theory and, on Friday morning, I will present my forthcoming book chapter on ecomodernism. Afterwards, I will take the BART back to the airport and pick up the rental Tesla Model 3 that I will then drive to the race on Saturday morning. And already on Sunday, I am flying back to Kiruna where the rest of the family is spending the Easter holidays.

Back to Uncle Gordon

As I am using an old BA voucher that I got when cancelling my Cyprus trip a year ago for my ticket and as I currently have no Oneworld status, I found myself without lounge access for my 4+ hour layover at Heathrow this morning. As such, I decided to pay "Plane Food" in T5 a return visit. Ordering an avocado toast with mint and poached eggs, I surely have nothing to complain about as I watch widebody after widebody climb to the skies.

For the transatlantic segment, I am looking forward to flying the A380 which is one of my absolute favourite aircrafts. For the moment however, I better finish reading the other papers for the upcoming WPSA panels.

Leg Day

As many can attest, cross-country skiing is by no means a risk-free sport. After finishing the 3.6 km loop in Stadsliden with William on Sunday and rightfully feeling proud for not falling a single time, William asked if we could not go down the last steep slope once more. Of course, I said yes which, in retrospect, I should not have.

Bracing myself with my left arm, I fell kind of hard to the ground but, luckily, nothing is broken. Nevertheless, instead of rowing, I got an extra leg day at the gym yesterday as even running hurts a bit. Hopefully, everything will be back to normal on Saturday when I am heading up to Mount Diablo for my 50k race.

Under a full moon, I just boarded Liv Viking after my original afternoon flight was cancelled by SAS. This means that I will have almost 24 hours in Stockholm until I continue to the United States with British Airways. I plan to spend most of that time working at Clarion Arlanda, but I will also take the train into Stockholm tonight for dinner with Ally.

Skiing to Vietnam

For the third weekend in a row, we have been out skiing with the kids, this time around Stadsliden. The spring winter keeps delivering blue skies and a temperature around minus five degrees in the morning hours. Though staying at a safe distance from the SM-trail, the thrill was surely sufficient as my watch recorded a downhill speed of 26 km/h.

After topping up with a lake run with Anna, I packed my bag for California and cooked a Vietnamese shrimp curry to go with a white wine from Abruzzo made from the ancient and unusual grape “Pecorino”.