A small feat to celebrate in my personal blog: I jogged uphill from Riehen to St. Chrischona today at a slow and leisurely pace. The first part was tough, but about half way between Riehen and Bettingen I started to feel better. I guess the endorphin production kicked in.
Despite a setback due to flu, my regular training is paying off. Just like the message on the Ovo packaging: Never give up. Concepts which apply to other areas as well…
While running I was constantly writing and re-phrasing statements for this blog post… Something fellow blogger Persillie calls mind blogging. For me it’s one of the added benefits of running: mapping out ideas and reflecting on experiences and dreaming; mixed with lots of fresh air and movement.
I’ll try to re-run this route once in a while. And there’s also the Chrischonalauf to consider.
Today was my first run with the running club since mid-December. And mid-way I felt kind of unfit. That’s the downside of jogging. You really notice the slacking.
Due to a cold during the Christmas break and my South Florida holiday I didn’t run as much as I’d planned initially.
Add lots of Swiss chocolate for Christmas and one week of American Breakfast.
Though I did manage to get up early a couple of times and run along the beach.
Given these distressing facts, today’s run was ok. The weather was perfect: about 7 degrees plus. We ran for exactly 1 hr (St. Alban - Birsfelden - Jowa - periphery of Muttenz and back). And if I include my regular bike trips, I did about 2 hrs of sports.
The lights of the Joggeli Stadium (built by Herzog & de Meuron) were on. I wondered out loud if the red and blue lighting means that there’s a game. BTW, there’s a film on the Beijing stadium coming soon.
Yesterday I saw The Band’s Visit about an Egyptian music band that gets stranded in an Israeli village in the middle of nowhere. And being the googling kind, I found this NYT article about some kind of controversy regarding Oscar nominations. The film is funny, likeable, and manages to convey a realistic feeling of awkwardness when people from different backgrounds meet for the first time.
Favorite quote:
“A: No Arab culture center?
B: No culture, not Israeli culture, not Arab… no culture at all”
Running didn’t go well today. I was totally demotivated. Although I’ve been training regularly all summer, I was slow and running behind the group. After about 45 or 50 minutes I slumped in a deep dark “not motivated” hole. And knowing the route didn’t help much either, ‘cos it demotivated me even further.
Summer sports program in Basel from 10th July to 12th August:
Sunny Days … they haven’t updated the pdf file with this year’s list of courses yet.
[update] The pdf is up now!
Catherine Chikwakwa, long distance runner from Malawi, won today’s Silvesterlauf in Zurich. Again.
Well done!