The day has finally arrived. The Sunday news update is back on our channel. To be honest, nothing particularly new has happened this week, which is actually a good thing. Life is settling into a pleasant, steady routine: work, home, and running workouts. Although the latter aren’t quite consistent enough for my liking yet, but that’s something I need to work on
First and foremost, I need to focus on making this a regular part of my routine and come up with a slightly modified training plan that takes into account - let’s just say - the terrain. Because running on hills with an elevation gain of up to 100 meters over a 5-kilometer run is, let’s just say, a bit of a challenge
Part of the route is pretty pleasant - you’re flying downhill with the wind at your back and not breaking a sweat - but then comes the second part, hahaha, fuck, 2 kilometers uphill, and that’s where it gets really tough. The good news is that my muscles don’t really care. The bad news is that my heart rate shoots up to around 160 beats per minute, which isn’t great. It’s like I’m not even hitting my threshold, but it’s still pretty tough
Speaking of running, two interesting things happened today. First, Dima, an acquaintance of mine whose running achievements I’ve been following, finally broke the Russian record at the Düsseldorf Marathon. He’d been trying for a couple of years, and he finally did it. Second, two people ran the London Marathon in under two hours (!).
Joke of the day: “You run a marathon in two hours, and you're second”
To understand the scale of this achievement, only one person has ever done this before - Eliud Kipchoge - but back then, the world record wasn't recognised. That's because he did it on a specially prepared course, accompanied by a pack of pacers who gave him a huge boost
And here there are two right away, and both are two hours long. One of them is faster than the one mentioned above. Awesome
Continuing the story of my physical - and not-so-physical activity: a couple of unpleasant things happened this week. First, I went through a somewhat depressive episode - or maybe my brain just decided to take the day off - but it ended up with me sleeping a total of 15 hours from Wednesday to Thursday, and Thursday itself just disappeared from my life. I can’t say I was exactly active on Friday, but I was a bit more lively
The second issue is that, after about five months of use, my Ultrahuman ring seems to have given up on me. Something happened to the battery, so I’ll probably have to order a new one through customer support. Fortunately, they replace them without any questions asked, which is great
It’s true that I viewed the UH primarily as an experiment for my startup anyway, to see what data it collects and how it transmits it. But on the other hand, it’s become a great companion to my Garmin Enduro 3, because I liked the way it displayed certain biometric metrics much better
Well, at least the new one won't have been chewed on by a horse
By the way, we’re still looking for a riding stable in Germany so we can get back into horseback riding. I’ve spotted two while out for a run, but I’m not sure yet if they offer lessons. I definitely saw a QR code on the gate at one of them, but I don’t have a great memory, and I’m running without my phone right now
A few words about the photo above. The first thing that surprised me about the local forests is that every birdhouse and every clearing has its own number and name. You’re walking through the woods and suddenly - oh, that titmouse has moved from birdhouse 133 to 145 at the next intersection! I’ll have to congratulate it on its new home. And overall, navigation in the forest - my hat’s off to them. Everything is labeled: there are hares here, flowers there, private property over there where they shoot and generally aren’t happy to see you. Go here, don’t go there. For the first time in my life, I paid for a Komoot subscription to make walking around easier
With that, I’ll say goodbye for now on this Sunday evening, and I wish you all a great new beginning to the week!
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