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”.