All posts tagged: Health

A runner moves through the forest, silhouetted against the light

You Want to Start Running? 10+1 Very Personal Tips for Beginners

Published by Trotzendorff

A while ago, a friend of mine told me she want­ed to start run­ning – and asked if I had any tips. That got me think­ing: wait, didn’t I write some­thing about that ages ago? And yes, I did. Ten years ago, to be exact. Back then, I had just gone through the ups and downs of learn­ing how to run – the excite­ment, the injuries, the first few kilo­me­ters that felt like marathons. So I wrote down what had helped me. Now that ques­tion from my friend gave me a great excuse to take anoth­er look: How much of it still holds up today? What would I change, know­ing what I know now? Here’s the result: ten very per­son­al tips for begin­ners – tried, test­ed, updat­ed, and trans­lat­ed into English.

The Pace of Presence

The Pace of Presence

Published by Trotzendorff

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.

Marije Kruis, founder of the "Spot the Dot" initiative, captured in black and white.

«A simple act can save your life»

Published by Trotzendorff

Skin can­cer is an under­rat­ed but life-threat­en­ing dan­ger that can hit anyone—no mat­ter your age, gen­der, or skin col­or. As some­one at risk, I’m espe­cial­ly com­mit­ted to rais­ing aware­ness about this dis­ease. That’s why I’ve been sup­port­ing the «Spot the Dot» ini­tia­tive for a while now. It shines a light on skin can­cer through events, col­lab­o­ra­tions, or exhi­bi­tions. I recent­ly talked with Mar­i­je, the founder of Spot the Dot, about her per­son­al expe­ri­ence with skin can­cer, the chal­lenges she faced start­ing the ini­tia­tive, cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences in how skin can­cer is per­ceived, and the cre­ative ways she’s bring­ing atten­tion to the issue. Our con­ver­sa­tion high­lights just how cru­cial it is to take skin can­cer seri­ous­ly and how we can all play a part in prevention.

Beyond Resolutions: Why I Have no Idea Where This Progress is Coming From

Published by Trotzendorff

New Year’s res­o­lu­tions are a curi­ous thing. Lucky for me, I don’t real­ly need them to aim for more or less in my life. For instance, I don’t have to push myself to exer­cise; it’s such a nat­ur­al part of my dai­ly rou­tine that it’s not even nec­es­sary. But of course, I have goals and desires too. Like run­ning pain-free – after near­ly two years of a nag­ging Achilles ten­don. Or build­ing strength – after tear­ing my bicep ten­don last fall, it’s not just a wish, but a necessity. 

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

A Hangover Called 2023

Published by Trotzendorff

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.