All posts tagged: Health

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. H owev­er, what fol­lowed in 2023 can only be described as a hang­over. Wak­ing up from the era of COVID was painful. I had set some goals for myself — a half marathon to start, a trail marathon, a cou­ple of small­er runs, and aim­ing to beat my per­son­al best time in Frank­furt. But I did­n’t man­age to com­plete a sin­gle one of these races. COVID itself, my Achilles ten­don, and a fall that strained the ten­don in my left arm all put a damper on my plans. While I can slow­ly start running …

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 man is sitting in a grainfield practicing breathing techniques.

A method worth exploring?

It’s been a strange irony that I, lying in my bed, should stum­ble upon a book that deals so inti­mate­ly with the very thing that had brought me low. Covid had robbed me of my strength and left me short of breath, and yet it was in the midst of this strug­gle that I found dis­trac­tion and, yes, a tune up.

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.