All posts filed under: Running

The Pace of Presence

The Pace of Presence

In Octo­ber last year, when my Achilles ten­don had final­ly made its opin­ion known, I found myself in a park in Cologne. I was­n’t run­ning. I was jog­ging, slow­ly, with my eyes cov­ered and one hand light­ly rest­ing on the arm of some­one guid­ing me. We were part of a work­shop for sight­ed run­ning guides—learn­ing how to help blind and visu­al­ly impaired run­ners move safe­ly, con­fi­dent­ly, freely. It was hum­bling. I was there to learn how to guide. But at that moment, I need­ed guid­ance myself.

A man leans on his arm, revealing the agony of a headache.

A Hangover Called 2023

When it comes to run­ning, the years of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic were actu­al­ly pret­ty good for me. Not that I enjoyed the lock­downs, and I don’t want to down­play the suf­fer­ing of so many peo­ple and the con­se­quences. But when it comes to the flex­i­bil­i­ty of work and the rise of remote work, I have to say, all of that had a pos­i­tive impact on my train­ing. I could run more reg­u­lar­ly, be more flex­i­ble, and, as a result, more consistent. 

A female runner is running on a path in the mountains amidst a yellow-green meadow.

Intuitive Running

I don’t want to run like this any­more. It’s not doing me any good. More than that: it’s jeop­ar­diz­ing my health. I’m jeop­ar­diz­ing my health. And my joy of run­ning is at risk too. I owe this real­iza­tion to a gad­get, not my own insight. But let’s start from the beginning.

A person wearing running shoes is sitting on the floor, only the upper legs visible.

Only assholes do that

As I step out into the chilly air, I can feel the weight of the past year bear­ing down on my shoul­ders. My Achilles ten­don still aches, a con­stant reminder of the injury that has slowed me down for so long. And yet, despite the pain and the set­backs, I lace up my shoes and begin to run. It’s the first day of a new year, and I am deter­mined to make it a suc­cess­ful one.