Ageing

Though short of a full hour, I sure had my fun on the treadmill this afternoon as I tried to juggle long days of teaching in Halmstad with my 10k-per-day running regime. With an average heart rate of 165 bpm, I was reminded of the suffering I felt in Tallinn, and could not help wondering if my fastest days are already behind me? 

Perhaps it is kind of inevitable that, as we age, the focus has to shift from speed to distance? Still, as I have said before, I do not want to give up on road racing, hard as it may be. Looking to 2024, I would be thrilled to a do a half marathon like Copenhagen or a full marathon somewhere off the beaten track like Tunis.

Vagabond

In the past, I used to be a loyal subscriber to the travel magazine Vagabond but, after a few years, I decided that the money would be better spent travelling myself. However, when shopping at ICA Focus this morning, I just could not resist buying the latest issue featuring so many of my current dream destinations from Oaxaca to Svalbard, not to forget Rioja, the Norwegian Fjords and the best cocktail bars of Gothenburg.

As for real-world travelling, I just received external funding to go to Vancouver in late March for WPSA so that will be one big trip in 2024 (assuming that the world is still there). Sadly, I will be one month too early for the Vancouver Marathon but, with a bit of creative ticketing, I might be able to book the trip in a way that would allow me to still run an ultra somewhere in North America. As such, all suggestions of possible races around Easter time are greatly appreciated.

Svarte Mosse

The last time I lived in Gothenburg, it was in Biskopsgården, known to be a particular dangerous neighbourhood. Having moved back from New Jersey, my perception of “dangerous” was obviously slightly different from most people and I remember liking the area with its nearby forest, outcrops and marshes.

Trying to maintain my midweek long run routine, I crossed the bridge over to Hisingen and followed the waterfront up to Bräcke Diakoni where Sofi used to study. From there, I ran over to Biskopsgården and up to the Svarte Mosse recreational area. To my embarrassment, it turned out that the trail I used to run back then was barely 3k (though it, in fairness, had quite a bit of elevation) so no wonder I made little progress with my running. 

Afterwards, I followed the tram tracks to my new favourite café “Alkemisten” near Vågmästarplatsen, which is up there with some of my all-time top artisanal coffee places like Lot61, Don Vincenzo and Hummingbird Coffee.

Oyster mushroom

Waking up ungodly early as per usual, I caught the 6:10 am service to Halmstad for our joint department breakfast before walking over to the S-building for my classes. 

Somewhere I read that it has become a trend in the post-pandemic corporate world to show up for morning coffee with the colleagues before heading home well before lunchtime so, today, I did just that, even giving me time to stop by at Nordic Wellness Lunden for 5k of indoor rowing. Unlike with the swimming, I have been able to make up for the kilometres that I lost in the spring after injuring my shoulder, meaning that I should be able to meet my goal of rowing 300 km this year with relative breeze.

For dinner, I made halloumi with black cabbage, mushroom and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Sadly, it was too tasty so now I still have to come up with something to bring to Halmstad for lunch tomorrow.

Göta älv

Last night I made my signature bouillabaisse with the house sauvignon blanc as the storm subsided. After all my travelling this fall, it feels great to be able to spend the weekends together again.

This morning, I took Eddie out for a 12k loop over the bridges of Göta älv, running through the streets of Ringön, an old industrial district that is now booming with microbreweries, artisanal bakeries and all the other hallmarks of late cultural capitalism.

Babet

Though already booked out for 2024, I am still dreaming of one day doing the 100-mile “Arc of Attrition” along the rugged Cornish coast. Set in late January, the race is known for its extreme weather conditions and unrelenting rain.

With that in mind, I went out into the storm “Babet” while it was still dark, getting completely soaked as I raced through a forest full of debris with only my headlight to guide me, before returning home 53 minutes and 10 kilometres later, feeling nothing but bliss.

Meanwhile, Skanör and the south coast of Sweden seem to have taken quite a beating with storm surges and strong winds. Here in Gothenburg, the worst should be over by tomorrow so hopefully we will be able to take the kids out for a Sunday walk.

Snowbows and marmalade

Waiting for the bus at Redbergsplatsen, I was surprised to see snow in the air, and even more surprised to then see a full rainbow forming across the sky. Feeling slightly magical, I opened a small jar of orange marmalade taken from the breakfast at “The Ship at Dunwich” for my afternoon balcony snack, again feeling so grateful for how this year turned out and my ultra finale in East Anglia, especially as the storm “Babet” continues to wreak havoc across the UK.

As for the weather, the recent cold spell has not been good news for Germany and its fabled “Energiewende” with emissions reaching the kind of fantasy levels normally only reserved for Poland of up to 800 gram per kWh (as a reference, Swedish emissions tend to be around 20 gram per kWh). With another 500 MW unit at the lignite-fired power station in Jänschwalde now starting as well, reality should be sinking in. Considering that a fraction of the hundreds of billions of euros that Germany is spending on its Energiewende would have been sufficient to completely decarbonize the grid with nuclear, there is of course a certain irony to all of this.

Valpolicella

Having been making slides since 5 am, my patience with the nearby demolition work ran out shortly after 10 am, so I decided to trade the sound of pneumatic jack hammers for some forest silence in Skatås. 

However, once there, I just could not stop running in the crisp autumn sunshine. Feeling a bit guilty, I ended up running the full 18k trail for the first time, accumulating 434 meters of elevation gain on some fairly wet and technical trails.

Reminding me of long-gone train journeys and Italian restaurant cars that are no more, I decided to keep things simple for dinner with some Valpolicella Ripasso and plenty of Parmigiano Reggiano.

Coastal Trail Series

Making sweet potatoes with black beans and cashew nuts for dinner (recipe here), I now have my third ultra medal in the Coastal Trail Series, following South Devon in 2020 and North Cornwall in January this year. Extremely well organized and always close to the ocean, I am officially addicted to this series, so when I was asked whether I wanted a t-shirt or a £5 discount on my next race, I of course opted for the latter.

Driving

After 273 kilometres on the road in another white Fiat 500, I switched to an all-electric bumper car at Liseberg and had tons of fun with the kids, before going on a dead scary walk through a “zombie house” with Eddie. Now firmly back on the West coast of Sweden, the coming months will be quite different from the previous ones, but I nevertheless hope to keep you updated as the leaves keep falling.

Mixed emotions

Clearly, I am not the only ship adrift on this ocean, as I board another jam-packed Ryanair flight this morning at Stansted Airport. For all their shortcomings, one has to give it to the yield managers of Ryanair for being able to fill a 7 am flight on a Sunday morning to the last seat (considering that anyone staying in central London basically has to get up at 3 am to make it in time). And thanks to how affordable they have made flying, I now have a new piece of East Anglia that I will always carry with me.

Suffolk Ultra

Having signed up in early June, my initial game plan for Suffolk Ultra was to make a quick jump over the North Sea, run as fast as I possibly could and be back in Gothenburg by Sunday lunch. After everything that happened on Öland and in Tallinn, my goals shifted though, to the point that I decided that I might as well just fully enjoy an ultra for once.

 

Running with an average heart rate of 131 (or about 40 bpm below Tallinn), I was treated to an incredible day along the English Channel, exploring the Minsmere Coast nature reserve and the “dykes” of Southwold.

With parts of the course flooded and the first twenty kilometres fairly technical on narrow paths with lots of undergrowth, I am not sure how fast I would have been able to run anyway, but every time my heart rate jumped up, I slowed down, making sure to stay in the blue zone with my Suunto. 

About 30 km into the course, I came close to the Sizewell nuclear plant which of course warranted a selfie. To my surprise, I saw quite a few posters stating that it is "Not too late to stop Sizewell C” which was kind of unexpected. Often, communities close to nuclear plants tend to be the most enthusiastic but, inquiring a bit further, it seemed most locals were concerned about all the heavy traffic going back and forth to the construction site rather than radiation or anything more metaphysical. In the end, I finished among the last ten runners doing the ultra distance, feeling incredibly strong and confident that, had this been a 100k race, I would have been able to continue long into the night.

Phone booth

With all phone booths having been turned into book exchanges and minimal cell phone reception, I made it down to the coast in Suffolk well before sunset. Walking onto the beach, my legs wanted to run but I decided to save all energy for tomorrow morning. 

After a series of race failures, I have decided to take it super slow and just immerse myself in the experience of running an ultra along the English Channel. My only goal for tomorrow is to finish as strong as I did in Jönköping in order to build confidence for the future with the goal of running 100k (and beyond) in 2024.

One thousand flights

Nine hundred nighty nine flights (and not "Luftballons") later, I am about to board a 787-800 to Stansted where I have not been for decades. Like with the million mile mark, I am thrilled to go on exploring, and to see new parts of this world.

Equipped with Gabriele Pedullà’s Machiavelli in Tumult, my immediate task for the morning is to start writing a grant proposal to Nordforsk that is due in early December but which calls for a lot of networking, which in turn requires a firm idea about what the project will be all about. Hopefully, I will soon be able to tell more. For now, I wish you all a great weekend and look forward to being able to report on tomorrow's race once it is finished.

Virtual Nydala

One year after we sold our house at the southern shore of Nydalasjön, it felt appropriate to go for a another virtual lake run as the rain drops kept falling on the gym windows. Otherwise, this week is one mad rush until Friday morning when I will cross the North Sea once more and return to my beloved British Isles, this time for a trail ultra that will take me right next to the Sizewell C nuclear power plant currently under construction.

Morals

Between marking exams and preparing slides for my classes, I find myself inexorably drawn into Lyra Ekström Lindbäck’s new book. Set in the Czech town of Pardubice and steeped in meta-irony, it is a Roman à clef of a kind that one simply cannot put away, even as one quickly realizes that things will not end well.

Bertilssons

Waking up to clear skies, I first went for a 10k trail run, wearing gloves and a thermal hat in complete contrast to Monday’s run in rural Alentejo. 

Afterwards, Anna and I were able to persuade the kids to go for a family walk to “Bertilssons stuga” which was closed last time we attempted to visit in July. Now open, we got to try their excellent fish soup and apple crumble, before returning home via a replica runestone.

Green tea ice cream

When flying from Asia to the US with United Airlines, one recurring dessert aboard is Häagen-Dazs matcha green tea ice cream. Trying to cater to both sides of the Pacific at the same time, green tea ice cream is a true bastard that tends to leave both audiences equally unsatisfied, yet somehow recognized in their diversity (to be fair, and as can be seen in the Venn diagram above, there is of course a small subset of people who actually appreciate green tea ice cream in its own right).

Tonight, I made a gin pasta remix that I feared would turn into my own green tea ice cream of sorts as I mixed Italian guanciale, Oatly cream, tomato paste, gluten-free pasta made of corn and quinoa with some left-over Filliers Dry Gin courtesy of Brussels Airlines. To my surprise, the result was actually quite delicious and something I will try again after my next SN flight.

Death and taxes

On the train back from Halmstad on Wednesday, I was tempted to add “exams” to Benjamin Franklin’s list of things that are certain in life. However, unlike in the past, when I often had hundreds of exams to mark at the same time, I only received 21 this time around so, a full day of marking later, I can now return to planning all my new classes, including a “common core” course on sustainability that is starting next Thursday.

Yesterday evening, I had the chance to meet my PhD student Kalle who just presented a chapter from his upcoming dissertation at the annual meeting of the Swedish political science association. Approaching the end of this PhD studies, Kalle will have his “final seminar” in mid-December in Umeå and I very much look forward to being there for this milestone.

Hotel

After 718 kilometres on the roads of Alentejo, Sofi and I returned our rental Fiat 500 to the airport in Lisbon and checked in at "Hotel Hotel", a member of Design Hotels and another instant qualification on the 2023 Gold List. Located just off Avenida da Liberdade which is sort of Lisbon’s equivalent to La Ramblas in Barcelona, Hotel Hotel was the perfect place to end our days of fairy-tale vacation on the Iberian Peninsula. While we could easily have stayed on for another month, I am also excited to head back to Gothenburg and Halmstad where I have three new courses starting this month, including a large group of future social workers.

Flying home with Europe’s most civilized airline, we got to visit the Senator lounge at Zürich Kloten for a second breakfast. Though I am briefly heading over to the UK to run Suffolk Ultra on 14 October, I otherwise have no more international travel planned for the rest of 2023. Instead, I look forward to hanging out with the kids and also do plenty of autumn trail running in preparation for next year’s races.

Though obviously disappointed that the Costa Vicentina 57k race got cancelled, I think it was for the better as I would not have been able to run fast anyway so close to my cold. In this way, Sofi and I also got to see more of Alentejo and its wild beaches, giving me memories that I will certainly cherish once the winter darkness comes to Gothenburg.

South by southwest

As a child growing up in Kalmar, I always wanted to walk towards “southwest”, perhaps because my dad was often away in Malmö, but beyond that it was something with the sea and its open horizons that kept pulling me towards southwest.

Today, I finally made it to "Southwest" as Sofi and I left Fortaleza de Sagres behind and walked out around the peninsula where the European continent ends towards southwest.

Casas de Lupa

Staying about five kilometre inland, Sofi and I got to see the sun set over green fields with the Atlantic at a distance. Though only rated as a 2-star hotel, Casas de Lupa immediately secured its spot on my 2023 Gold List with its hydrated lime-white buildings, wooden decks and home-made ginger smoothie for breakfast, not to forget the very friendly Central Asian shepherd dog “Lupa”.

Waking up early on what would have been race day, the nasty cold was finally over so I laced up my Hoka Speedgoats and went out with the headlamp to explore. Running with the rising sun in my back, I made it down to the ocean in Zambujeira after passing dozens of Latin American workers on their way to the fields which reminded me again of how fortunate I am to be able to live this life.