Just think about it - it’s been over a month since this column started, I’ve already been in Germany for two weeks, and it’s basically May already. What a fucking surprise - you guys invented a time machine and now look at this

At one point, I even had the thought of writing a monthly recap instead of a weekly one, but then I dismissed the idea. It just doesn’t feel like the right time to write anything particularly important

On the other hand, both April and May are shaping up to be packed with stuff to do, especially May. And my birthday’s coming up soon, too, but true to form, I’ll either get a bout of depression over it again or just ignore it in my usual way. Ask me how my last three or four birthdays went - I wouldn’t even remember exactly what I did or how I spent them

Life in Germany has really started to fall into a normal rhythm - work, rest, running. Yay! I’ve found food that doesn’t have a kilogram of sugar crammed into it, and basically, my taste preferences have started to take shape here. Plus, the weather has stabilized - finally, we can say it’s spring, with summer just around the corner. Because France and Paris are geographically further south, and it’s just plain warmer there

My training on the hills has finally gotten underway, and this week my heart rate has finally stabilized at a lower, more relaxed level - which is definitely a cause for celebration. But I need to buy poles now, because there isn’t exactly a lot of time left until October. Before you know it, I’ll be standing at the starting line. But there’s still a mountain of work to do. First and foremost, mileage - 40 kilometers a week is certainly good, but I need to get it up to at least 100 and build core and upper body strength. And I need to keep an eye on my weight again, because losing even 3 kilos will have a negative impact on my body and how I feel

I’m eagerly looking forward to the day when my training schedule starts to include regular half-marathons and then weekly marathons. The fact that the plan hints at a 70-kilometer long run in September suggests it won’t be boring at all. But those are some seriously long-term plans, so I won’t go into too much detail about them right now

Because things change, and so do plans. And, for example, no one is immune to injury - today I twisted my ankle badly in my favorite Hoka, which suggests it might be a good idea to switch to shoes better suited to the local terrain

Actually, I think we should make a separate thread for ultra-marathon training - as they say, if this post gets enough likes ...

Now for the bad news - my Ultrahuman ring has finally given up on me, deciding it doesn’t want to charge anymore. I think this is the main problem with devices like this, since the design doesn’t really allow for replacing the battery. The good news is that support sent me a new ring without any questions, and I hope it will arrive any day now. Even so, despite having a Garmin, I’ve gotten used to relying on certain metrics from the ring to understand aspects of my life and workouts. We’re waiting for the new one and will continue using it (though this has made me consider switching to the Pro version they recently introduced in the future)

On the other hand, I’m not entirely sure why I need it yet. I’ve already checked and gathered the data I needed for my work; now it’s just a matter of testing it out for myself and trying to figure out what’s actually useful and works, and what doesn’t

Speaking of work, I can’t help but mention this, even though there’ll be a separate article about it this week. Long story short, we have a competitor. Well, not really a competitor - it’s a college girl working on a project that’s very similar to ours. Very. So much so that it’s fucking carbon-copy. And everything would be fine - competition is great, and the world definitely needs more projects like this - if it weren’t for one thing that’s just fucking driving me crazy

This project is an attempt to build it using that AI code that’s all the rage these days. Fuck. I get it, the investors are breathing down your neck, you need to get the product out there - that’s the whole deal. But, fuck you all, you’re working with medical (!) data, which is personalized, and a leak wouldn’t just cause problems for users - it would also screw up the projects running alongside it. But then again, that’s a whole other story worth telling

To wrap things up, here’s a quick story about my attempts to photograph a hawk that lives in our fields. This is the second weekend in a row that I’ve only been able to admire it from afar, without being able to get a decent photo. Either this devil flies about 300 meters away from me, as in the photo above, so that despite the camera and lens, I simply can’t get close enough to it at all, or it flies right by, but again - the photo below is an example of when I seemed to have captured it, but the evening twilight blurred the entire frame as it flew over the field. It’ll be kind of like with the kingfisher back in the day, which I chased for a year and a half in the woods near Paris. I caught it in the end, but it was quite a battle

Arms out of the ass, for example - you can't just post good shots all the time

That's all for now. See you later. I'll be in Paris for a day on May 6, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to meet up with anyone. Have a great week!