Radish

While Elin gets to spend two full weeks on Mallorca and even becoming a local legend on Strava, I decided to recreate the meal served in SAS Plus on my return flight from Palma two years ago. Despite the proximity to the Koster Islands, I could not find any Koster kelp, but the result was nevertheless delicious, and a perfect match to the house Sauvignon Blanc as I look forward to an evening in front of Blackboard marking International Relations assignments...

Pulsar Trail Pro 2

As the expression goes, when it rains, it pours, and I guess that is true for buying trail shoes as well. With Outnorth having an additional 30% discount, I topped up with a pair of Salomon Pulsar Trail Pro 2 for shorter and faster runs, such as Finalloppet.

After making pancakes for Eddie, I went for my usual 10k loop around Skatås only to set a new PR with more than ten minutes. Despite the 243 meters of elevation gain, I was able to run well below 5 min/km, with the energy blade propelling me forward just as advertised. Though probably not suitable for ultras, these will definitely be my go-to-shoes for trail racing and CR chasing.

Atlantic Deep

Having run more than one thousand kilometres in the original edition of the Salomon Ultra Glide, I decided to invest in a pair of Ultra Glide 2 which comes with an improved upper and an irresistible colourway called “Atlantic Deep”. For someone who always dreams of past encounters with the Atlantic, be it in Cornwall or the Canaries, I think these well-cushioned shoes will be just perfect for the 88 km ultra that I have coming up in less than three weeks from today.

As for running-related updates, Anna and I followed Bohusleden south today to the lake Långevattnet and then onwards to Gunnebo Slott which apparently is undergoing an extensive renovation right now. I do not know what it was but something with this trail reminded me a lot of Västerbotten (even if the spelling of the lake should probably have been "Långvattnet" for it to be authentic). 

Unnecessary

The other day, William mixed up the keys to his bike, so he ended up leaving his bike that he liked so much overnight at the school. Sadly, that meant that someone decided to steal his front wheel, the handlebar and the saddle.

Schlepping what remained of his bike to the bike shop, they estimated that repairs would be more than 2,000 SEK so it is probably better to simply buy him a new bike. Things like these make me so sad about other people, that someone is willing to do this to a child.

Moroko mash

Yesterday, Sarah Place posted a highly inspirational video about her experiences of running the Comrades Marathon last year. As readers of Rawls & Me already know, those 89 km between Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa have long been on my bucket list but, for the moment, I will have to contend with making mashed potato from Lesotho with kale which is another super-simple yet delicious recipe from that recipe book by Zeina Mourtada. As for Monterey Monday (which must be the most decadent alliteration in a long time), I am having a glass of District 7 Chardonnay to go with the oven-roasted salmon.

Considering the amount of rail engineering work going on along the West Coast for the moment, I only plan to travel to Halmstad once this week, a journey that will take almost twice the usual time. Thus, instead of commuting, I spent my morning in front of Zoom before going for a 14k lunch trail run around Delsjön where the forest is almost fluorescent green right now.

Djagacida

Thanks to my mother-in-law, I have come in possession of a new cooking book by Zeina Mourtada with a lot of inspiring recipes, including the rice dish “Djagacida” from Cabo Verde which I made for dinner last night. With Anna’s dad Harald visiting us from Kiruna, it feels great to be able to cook something different from my usual fare.

Having Harald here also means that Anna and I were able to check out the bar on the 27th floor of Jacy'z Hotel in Gårda last night for some Japan-inspired drinks as well as going for a few longer runs together in the mornings. Given that I did all of Gotaleden last Tuesday, I did however decide against running the 30k “Nordens Ark Trail Run” yesterday despite the allure of earning one additional ITRA point. However, I hope to give it another shot next year, especially as they also organize a shorter race for kids which I know William would love.

Beaverland

Today, Anna and I took the kids back to Floda for a short hike along Gotaleden. As I was walking rather than running, I had time to see all the trees that showed signs of beaver activity and the ponds full of tadpoles. Stopping for a cup of extra strong coffee, Canaries-style, along Säveån I have to say that I felt surprisingly recovered from yesterday’s ultra adventure, possibly thanks to the relative low intensity. Hoping to run 100+ km this week, I will nevertheless try to limit myself in the weeks ahead as I have both Göteborgsvarvet and Borås Ultra Marathon coming up now in May.

Gotaleden

After a couple of failed attempts, the conditions were just perfect yesterday as I took on the 75 kilometres long “Gotaleden”. Running in sunshine, I made it to Jonsered after about three hours, feeling excited about the upcoming section to Lerum which I knew would be quite technical. 

Right there, however, the zipper in my running backpack tore which gave me a few moments of panic. Luckily, with the help of a friendly car mechanic and a bit of metal wire, I was able to fix it within minutes and was soon on my way again. With the steeper ascents having red ropes attached to the cliffs, parts were more climbing than running but once I got closer to Lerum, I could pick up the pace again.

After a brief stop at Hemköp in Lerum for a cinnamon bun and some drinks, the most beautiful trail followed along Säveån for nine kilometres to Floda. With the valley filled with wood anemone flowers, it was like a spring fairytale. In Floda, I once again stopped for a snack as I knew there would be limited service for the remaining kilometres up to Alingsås. Passing the white Nääs estate where Selma Lagerlöf spent a total of eighteen summers with Sophie Elkan, I decided to return later to see more of the lovely grounds but, wanting to register a FKT for my run, I hurried on towards the northeast.

 

Approaching Alingsås, I was thrilled to see road signs saying that only a few kilometres remained but, unfortunately, Gotaleden took a different turn, heading into the woods again for some exhausting technical trails. Once in Alingsås, I lost my way a couple of times, adding a few extra kilometres for a total of 80 kilometres, 1,507 meters of elevation gain and just above 12 hours all in all.

Monocle Monday

On the high-speed train back from work, I indulge in a moment away from everything with the April issue of Monocle. From Seminyak to Portugal via Café Prückel in Vienna, its pages fill me with equal measures of nostalgia and excitement about the future.

Apparently, that feeling is quite different from how most people seem to view the world these days. As Gordon Brown writes in today’s The Guardian, decades of near-zero growth have left many Europeans convinced that the future will be bleak and that they can only do better if others do badly; zero-sum beliefs that help explaining, at least in part, the support for far-right parties and their short-sighted protectionist policies.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but…

Clearly, that is how every conspiracy theorist begins his or her sentences. However, reading the last pages of The Three-Body Problem, all my years of fighting Malthusians were suddenly given a plausible explanation ;-) In the book, extraterrestrials, known as “Trisolarans”, realize that, given how fast humanity is currently evolving in terms of technology, they will not be able to take over our planet by the time they get here in four hundred years. As such they devise a strategy:

“Given a time gap of [four hundred years], the strategic value of any traditional tactics of war or terror is insignificant, and they can recover from them. To effectively contain a civilization’s development and disarm it across such a long span of time, there is only one way to: kill its science”.

“The plan focuses on emphasizing the negative environmental effects of scientific development […] in addition to highlighting the negative effects of progress”.

Recruiting the most misanthropic of environmentalists and playing on humanity’s existential desire for a final judgement, the Trisolarans successfully create a fifth column of humans who, I guess, are the ones I keep fighting with in my academic articles... Comforting as this explanation would be, I am afraid that the real explanation is much less exciting. Instead of an alien mastermind, I think most Malthusians simply fail to see the bigger picture, and that they let moral indignation over how humanity is treating nature in the present (an indignation that I share btw) cloud their thinking about the future.