Back to Bohus

Three weeks after my hard run along stage 6 of Bohusleden, I got to explore the same trails again at a much more leisurely pace, hiking with the kids for three hours from Angered to Bohus.

 

We stopped for fika at the same spot where I jumped into the water last time, and met a few more people on the trail, including some campers who were exploring the Vättlefjäll area with rental canoes.

 

As we approached Bohus, the kids were deep in planning their next Minecraft session, while I felt lucky to have gotten a second chance to see this beautiful stage of Bohusleden. Now the question is where to go next, the following stages all lack public transport. If I am not mistaken, this means I would have to run three stages (36 km) in one go... and still cannot be sure there will actually be a bus waiting at the other end.

Fartlek fun

Today, I got to take part in the Skatås Parkrun with William, who is still under eleven and thus must be accompanied by an adult, something that is easier said than done on the downhills when he speeds up to 3:15 min/km, but we still had great fun in the forest sunshine together with Eddie and Anna’s mother.

Having started the morning with nine very gentle kilometres, five kilometres of fartlek was just what I needed to shake up my running before I continue tapering in anticipation of The Alpaca Race. Back home afterwards, I made pinsa for lunch and, an espresso later, it is time to work a bit while the kids play Minecraft.

William is back

After being down with a nasty cold over Lilla Varvet ten days ago, William was back to running this morning. With a special Thursday Parkrun coming up already tomorrow, he urgently needs a new pair of running shoes though. He loved the bouncy feel of my Asics Novablasts (even if 48 was still a few sizes too big...) so perhaps I should look for a pair?

Otherwise, I spent all afternoon yesterday chairing thesis seminars and today I am once again out travelling along the tracks for a few meetings in Halmstad. With the new Varbergstunneln set to open this summer, all trains will be cancelled from the 9th of June so I will soon take a break with the rail commutes until 21 August when we will have our kick-off activities with the department.

Penguin planning

Though still more than four months away, Anna and I are already making plans for our trip to South Africa – hoping to say hello to the Cape penguins, bike to the best vineyards, and, of course, run the Cape Town Marathon on Sunday, 19 October (Anna’s first road marathon!). To get into the right planning mood, I picked up a bottle of Spier Sauvignon Blanc from Stellenbosch, which we naturally also intend to visit, not least to check out its university.

Earlier today, the kids watched A Minecraft Movie at Filmstaden while I finished grading theses at the nearby Espresso House. Tomorrow, I hope to make up for some lost kilometres and hit 80 km for the week again. After that, it is time to start tapering for my two upcoming races: first Alpaca 55k, then Öland Ultra 50k.

Literature reviews

This weekend, I am grading four literature reviews written by my teacher students, covering diverse topics such as the best methods for teaching about the solar system to the effects of a print-rich literacy environment.

As for Starbucks, I just learnt that political tensions are running so high in Korea that the baristas no longer call out names on cups if they are the same as any of the presidential candidates. Luckily, “Raz” should still be fine but what is worse is that it will still be a while until I get back to Korea (even if I am definitely having TransJeju by UTMB on my radar).

Three seasons in one day

Geopolitically charged

At the city library the other day, I picked up the latest issue of Monocle, which featured a fascinating long-read on Beirut’s art scene and how it continues to flourish despite everything happening in the region. Thinking back on Ally’s and my trip in 2019, which ChatGPT described as one of my most “geopolitically charged”, the article echoed much of what I felt when visiting Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum of Contemporary Art (which is still open as I write this) and other such places.

After an online seminar on conspiracy theories with my colleagues in Halmstad, I headed out into the rain and up to Delsjön for an ice-cold swim. Meanwhile, in Stockholm, the Swedish parliament has been debating the new law for financing nuclear construction, which is simply tragicomic, like some absurd play where the actors completely fail to see the bigger (global) picture and remain trapped in the same tired and incorrect assumptions (as if the four Korean APR-1400 reactors at Barakah had never been built etcetera). In the end, it all boils down to a basic choice: do we cling to the casino-style volatility of the current neoliberal electricity market, or do we step up and provide cheap, public baseload power for climate leadership and the wholesale electrification of society?

Second chances

With rain and Arctic cold in the forecast for the next two weeks, I decided to leave my article behind and head out around the harbour for a Z2-Z3 solid long run in the unexpected summer heat. As I approached Älvsborgsbron, I could fully smell the salt and the ocean – or, more precisely, the dimethyl sulfide released by phytoplankton.

Wearing my new favourite Asics Novablast 5s, I felt strong throughout all 24 kilometres, finishing with some ice-cold drinks at ICA Munkebäck. While there, I also picked up a bottle of “Ciao,” that Moldovan pinot grigio I first tried back in February, on a day when I was extremely grumpy after a painful and expensive dentist visit. Drinking it tonight in the garden with some homemade paella, my verdict is much more generous this time around. Just goes to show the importance of giving things a second chance.

You snooze, you lose

Yesterday, after another chat with ChatGPT, I got some much-needed encouragement: as long as I can stay mostly injury-free, my long-term running goals may be more realistic than they sometimes seem. After failing spectacularly to qualify for Boston in Tallinn two years ago, I have not done any serious road racing, yet I keep seeing improvements, even without much targeted speed work. Similarly, while I have been frustrated by my poor performance at Sandsjöbacka and disappointed by the cancellation of the Bandolerita, I have a full summer of races lined up where I can truly push myself. The most ambitious of these: finishing my first 100-mile race in August, something I would have considered utterly impossible a decade ago.

In the end, it all comes down to how hard I am willing to work. With that in mind, I got up at 4:30 this Sunday morning and ran three loops in Skatås, racking up 333 meters of elevation gain. As expected, I was completely alone at this ungodly hour, though I did get to say hello to a few deer. And yes, there was still some coccyx pain after the hammock incident, but I got it done, and that is what counts.

København

What my previous post failed to mention was that, ten minutes before the picture of me in the hammock was taken, I had fallen hard on the metal frame as I had underestimated how much the fabric would stretch when someone weighing 80 kg got into the hammock. After a night with coccyx pain, I woke up grateful that I had not paid a lot of money for Göteborgsvarvet as even a slow forest jog felt unrealistic.

Instead, I turned my attention to something more pleasant: finalizing Anna’s and my plans for a quick Copenhagen getaway in early June. With Yoshiko Shimada, one of Japan’s leading feminist and antiwar artists, opening an exhibition, Anna will take the morning train on June 6 and do some research while I stay behind with the kids. Thanks to the kind help of Anna’s mother, however, I will be able to join her later that evening for a night at Manon Les Suites, the hotel with a Bali-themed outdoor pool that I have been eager to check out ever since it opened in 2017. Returning with the train at 10:59 am the next day, we just might be able to join the Fælledparken Parkrun. And for those worrying, I should say that I have now fixed the hammock so that the same thing cannot happen again.

The Crossings

With the new hammock out on the veranda, I am instantly transported to the Dhofar Governorate, though instead of gazing out over the Arabian Sea, I now overlook our lovely garden in Kålltorp. Just back from an easy recovery run, I had the unexpected pleasure of sharing the forest trails with Sarah, who is in town with her partner and fellow YouTuber Ben Parkes to run Göteborgsvarvet tomorrow.

Unlike last year, Anna and I are saving our road racing energy for the future. And with William coming down with a cold, it remains uncertain whether he will run the 2.4-kilometre version on Sunday. Still, it felt utterly surreal to see Sarah’s photos from Gunnebo Slott and the Delsjö area pop up on Strava – places I know so well, now captured through the lens of someone I have followed online for years.

As for other global crossings, I made a surprise discovery at Systembolaget this afternoon: a bottle of The Crossings from New Zealand, a wine I last had in the Polaris Lounge at SFO back in 2019. I have no idea how I have missed it before – it seems Systembolaget has stocked it for some time – but it brought back a flood of memories from both sides of the Pacific.

Easy days easy, hard days hard

One of the things I still struggle with as a runner is sticking to the golden rule: keep the easy runs easy and the hard ones hard. Too often, I end up somewhere in the middle – stuck in that uninspiring “mellanmjölk” zone. But as I increasingly try to polarize my training, I do feel like I am making progress.

After a rest day on Monday and two easy recovery runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, I set off this morning at half past eight with a clear goal: run the roughly 20 kilometres to Brödfabriken in Jonsered in under two hours. Given the many technical trail sections, this meant I had to push quite hard before I could reward myself with a salmon sandwich to make up for the 1,559 kcal that Strava claimed that I had burned on the run.

As for yesterday, I really had so much fun with ChatGPT. After uploading my many years of blogging in XML-format, I was able to get suggestions where to travel next (Kyrgyzstan!), what wine to drink (Musar Jeune Rouge from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon), and what races to run (Cappadocia ultra trail in Turkey for morning hot-air balloons and a “dreamlike geology with a dash of imperial aftertaste”), all curated to stay true to the ethos of Rawls & Me. And as for wines, I apparently do not have to worry about any PEth-tests either as I have a ”thoughtful, modestly indulgent, and geographically expansive wine life”, being a “philosophical hedonist” who lets wine “mark seasons, moods, and moments”.

So meta

Though I really did not have the time, I came up with a wild idea. What if I uploaded all of Rawls & Me – nearly two decades of thoughts, detours, latte reviews, and climate rants – to ChatGPT and asked it to analyze the content?

So that is what I did.

The XML file clocked in at over ten megabytes, offering plenty for the AI to dive into. As a first test, I asked when I had started writing about running. The answer came back:

“You started writing more regularly about running around early 2018, specifically with a blog post titled Fresh start effect published on 1 January 2018, where you wrote about beginning to run more seriously. You refer to this again in a 2020 post: ‘Two and a half years have now passed since I [started running in earnest]’.

From mid-2019 onwards, running becomes a recurring theme, with frequent references to training, races, gear, and running philosophy. By late 2019 (A month of races, Badwater humblebrag, City run), it's clear that running had become a central part of your life and blog content.”

Fair enough. Then, curiosity got the better of me, and I asked what a professional psychologist might conclude if tasked with reading the entire blog. My prompt encouraged honesty, not flattery. The response, nonetheless, was both generous and unnervingly insightful.

According to ChatGPT, I come across as reflective, disciplined, cosmopolitan, and quietly defiant—with a “preference for meaningful motion over static perfection”. At the same time, it noted subtle tensions and vulnerabilities: a streak of perfectionism, a quiet grief running beneath the surface, and an ambivalence about modern progress.

Which, I suppose, is a pretty good description of the kind of person who would think uploading their entire blog to an AI during a busy workday was a good use of time.

Latte addiction

With plenty of sunshine in the forecast, I am heading down to Halmstad again for thesis supervision and the final statistics workshop with the teacher education students. Despite my best intentions, I have slipped back into the bad habit of picking up a “vuxenvälling” (adult porridge) at the railway station before boarding the train. Ever since Espresso House discontinued their glorious subscription service (unlimited coffee for 349 SEK a month!), a daily latte has felt like an increasingly unjustifiable luxury. Thankfully, only five more days of commuting remain this semester as I would much rather spend my money on global adventures than fleeting caffeine highs.

Looking back on the past four weeks, I am roughly where I want to be in terms of training and prep for the summer’s races, kicking off with Alpaca 55k on 8 June. After taking a rest day yesterday, I am hoping to make up for lost kilometres on Thursday by running to Brödfabriken in Jonsered again. With 429 meters of elevation gain over 20 kilometres, and a good stretch of technical trails, it is one of the best routes I know for pushing myself as a long-distance runner.

Brunch at Archie’s

Back in March, Anna and I used the “Dining by Amex” benefit for a gourmet dinner at SK Mat & Människor. This month, we decided to mix it up with brunch at Archie’s, located on the ground floor of Jacy'z Hotel & Resort.

While Anna went for the Sloppy Joe, I opted for the Egg Royale as my “mid-size dish,” accompanied by an extensive buffet that featured oysters and a dedicated Caesar station. We each had a glass of cava – on our own dime – bringing the total to 252 SEK, while the remaining 710 SEK was kindly picked up by American Express. Still, all in all, our March dinner felt like better value, but this was nevertheless a fun little escape to a fictionalized America.

Abruzzo

Just before leaving for our ultra in Wales, Anna and I had a sunset drink at VRÅ, in my case a glass of white wine from Abruzzo. Finding the same wine from Umani Ronchi in “beställningssortimentet”, I ordered a bottle which came to good use last night when I made risoni with asparagus, goat cheese and salmon for dinner. 

Stage 6

A month ago, I ran stages one and two of Bohusleden. Today, I found the time to pick up the trail where Anna and I ended our run last summer, continuing in the opposite direction with stage number six. This means that I have now completed the first six stages – 85 kilometres in total. Fortunately, that still leaves me with 265 kilometres of trails left to explore.

Starting beside the whitewashed 13th-century church in Angered, I set off at a brisk sub-5 min/km pace. But after a few kilometres, the trail turned more technical and began to climb, meaning that by the time I reached Stora Stentjärnen, I was more than ready to plunge into the ice-cold water. Unlike much of the world, Scandinavia has been stuck in a cold spell lately, so unsurprisingly, I had the lake all to myself.

The trail remained rough and rooted until it crossed into Bohus around the 12-kilometre mark. From there, the surface turned to asphalt, and I was able to pick up speed again, finishing the entire 17 km stage with an average pace of 5:52 min/km. I ended the run at Fontin Nature Reserve, in high spirits and already looking forward to returning, maybe for a hike with the kids later this month?

Teaching IR

For the first time in six years, I gave a lecture on International Relations theory – to a mixed group of our Halmstad students and international exchange students. Practicing “internationalization at home”, it was great to see students learning not just from the material, but from each other. Overall, I think today's lecture went really well, especially considering that I have not taught in English for quite some time.

Meanwhile, beyond the classroom, tensions are once again rising between India and Pakistan, driven by decades of sectarian indoctrination on both sides. One can only hope that the nuclear taboo holds and that further escalation can be prevented.

Death of Daydreaming

Today I read a Substack post titled “On the Death of Daydreaming” and it made me a bit sad. It reminded me how accustomed I have become to reaching for my phone whenever I am bored, rather than simply accepting a lack of stimulation. As someone who used to daydream a lot (and still does, just less often), I could not agree more with the author’s suggestion that “living a full, meaningful human life means coping with the liminal - those in-between moments of life when we must endure uneasy or uncomfortable experiences”.

After working over the weekend and starting again at 5 a.m. this morning, I decided to treat myself: 5k of indoor rowing at the gym, a second breakfast at Bar á Kaffe, and a 12k lunch run up and down the hills of Skatås in the most beautiful early summer weather. Tomorrow it is back to commuting and teaching statistics even as the weather forecast promises more of the same.

Harbour Half

Waking up super early, I took my new Asics Novablast 5s out for a half marathon around the harbour of Gothenburg just as the sun was rising, passing Älvsborgsbron, and being reminded of the rich maritime heritage that makes up this city. 

Returning home with 80+ kilometres in the legs this week, I am back on pace after my cold, and very happy with my new shoes. Despite keeping a steady 4:53 min/km pace, my heart rate stayed around 145 bpm, which gives me some hope of beating my current half marathon PR of 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Asics Novablast 5

Doubles

Leaving the house shortly before 5 a.m., I made it back just before the rain began to pour. With 12 kilometres logged before dawn, I decided to double down with another 12k in the afternoon sun for a total of 24 kilometres. As in the past, running doubles remains the most efficient way to build volume while still carving out time for work and family.

Afterwards, all of the family went down to VaccinDirekt to top up our tick-borne encephalitis vaccine with a third dose each, which feels extra warranted considering the coming summer of trail running, including races such Alpaca where you a running through a lot of vegetation. As for summer, I picked up a bottle of Masi Pinot Grigio from Venice to go with a parmesan, lemon and cream salmon dish.