Aerobic Base Building Week#8

More whining about cold weather in winter

Note: I read my old articles and writing is definitely better when you’re bitchier and sarcastic. Even though I know I am absolutely at peace with this weather and my life and I do not condone whining, I will still whine about it in this article and make fun of myself because then I can go back and read this article and laugh about the stupid things I said.

So finally, we have positive temperatures this week. I know it won’t last. I know what’s coming. But January always does that. It gives you hope. It gives you a reason to believe that you can go out in 2 layers and not 15. January begins with cold and dark conditions, heralding the post Christmas blues. Even I begin to get pale. It is quite amusing. I once checked my watch for the amount of solar intensity after finishing an hour plus run at 8:15 AM and realized that the sunrise was still 2 minutes away. One of my colleagues mentioned that they liked this weather. I know about stoicism. I write about it. But I cannot be brought to like -5 with frozen roads, terribly cold winds, dark skies and a perpetual night. I can tolerate it, but my patience for that begins to wear thin. Also, I am trying to reduce online shopping. Much like withdrawal symptoms with smoking, I am a bit bitchy.

PS: I heard a rather funny joke on smoking a few days back: “True, Vaping has reduced the risk of cancer from smoking. You know what else it has reduced? The dignity.”

But end of January, now that’s something. After weeks of being in -ve temperatures, +1 feels warm. Well, relatively atleast. Like I said in my previous blog, if the temperature is even a teensy bit positive, I go outside and eat. I ran into a colleague who was walking to the bus stop and he asked me if I was going to eat outside. I couldn’t bring myself to say “I can’t tolerate another lunch with people complaining to me about their IT issues”, so I just politely smiled and mentioned I like the fresh air. For the record, it was 7 degrees outside this afternoon. And no wind. So it wasn’t too bad to eat outside. Looking at the Meteo Suisse app, the temperatures will go up to 12 degrees this week! 12 degrees, is literally my favourite temperature.

I get comfortable. My eyes begin to search for flowers. I constantly hit up Meteo Suisse and their galant claims about warmer temperatures and root for global warming. I say a silent prayer that the snow stays above 1500 meters. I try not to get greedy and ask for the sun. I am content to stay under grey skies, if it stays warm. I get bold and try to walk into the lake, realize it is still at 6 degrees and walk out gingerly. First my tights disappear, then the long sleeve t-shirt. Then I’m running naked and the police is chasing me. No, they haven’t been able to catch me because I am so aerodynamic when I’m naked, I nearly hit Kipchoge marathon speeds.

Then, *bam*. Winter strikes back with a vengeance. It’s the universal truth I have learnt after spending 7 winters here. Bene’s mom told me not to pack my jacket until May. And even then, keep a light jacket out. There will be a week in February. Or March. Or April. (or usually all the 3 months. Once it snowed in Lausanne in fucking April. I mean, seriously.) But by March and April, the days become sufficiently long and you’ve kind of settled into a warmer rhythm. So you don’t feel as sad about cold days. But in February, you’ve just started to feel warm.

Here’s the thing, I didn’t have any idea on what to write about in the initial paragraphs of this blog and now I have written nearly 1000 words and made many stupid jokes. So winter has helped me solve that! Also, I know that without the cold you will never appreciate the warmth and I am very grateful for that. I am also grateful that I went through two weeks of training in extremely cold conditions in a better mental state than 5 years ago. So, all’s good. This week is all about maintaining the mileage instead of increasing it. My legs feel fatigued and I believe it is time to go to my massage therapist. Perhaps not this week or the next, but in the 1st week of February.

Monday (22/01/2024)

I was late. I arrived at the bus stop and groaned. Bus 6 ended up being on time which meant, I wouldn’t be. It was 7:15 AM and then next one was at 7:21, so I just walked a bit further and saved 0.10 CHF on the ticket. Then finally when it arrived, I hopped on and tried to rush my way through but only got started at 7:40 AM, which meant to be on time for the morning call at 9, I had perhaps 1 hour. So I ran something faster than recovery pace but easy enough for it to be aerobic. Heart rate was higher than expected but I was really warm. I wore my full winter gear, the same as yesterday but yesterday it was -4 when I ran and today was +4. Funny how a symbol changes your sweat rate.

The run was good, the legs were not smashed from yesterday thanks to the magic of Alphaflys. I might start using carbon shoes for medium long runs too because eventually the more mileage I build, the more help with recovery I will need. In total the run was around 1 hour and 8 miles.

In the evening, I basically stretched, foam rolled and read for 1 hour and 25 minutes. I am now less than 100 pages from the end of Dune. So far, I would give it 3 stars out of 5. Good but nothing extraordinary. The book jacket reads “The greatest sci-fi novel ever written”. I beg to differ. I felt “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was a LOT better.

Tuesday (23/01/2024)

Bit tired this AM. I had around 70 minutes to run and was really not expecting to be pelted with rain in the 1st 5 minutes of the run. It was refreshing to say the least. But then the rain died and I got pretty dry. Nothing special about this run to be honest. I feel that it’s true about most training. Good results come from consistent periods of nothing special. Mentally i just locked into the rhythm today and ran about, smiling at people֫.

Spent the evening doing an amazing core workout from Sean Vigue, then some stretching and I finally finished Dune. Frankly, I don’t get what’s the big whoop. 3/5 at max.

Wednesday (24/01/2024)

Medium long run in *drumroll* half tights! It was 7 degrees and almost spring-like this morning. So beautiful. I love this weather. I also took out my old Zoom Fly 3s from storage, the ones which look like a safety jacket. But they are brilliant. I might buy another Zoom Fly iteration, they are a good training shoe.

Also mentally, I let my ego breathe a bit and it felt good on the soul. Always holding it back is also not healthy. I appreciate positive headspace but sometimes you need to say fuck it. Some people are real assholes and they treat me like shit just because they think I will not talk back. Plus I am bit emotionally drained because of some reasons I will not bore you with. So it felt great to go on the run and just run without pressure. I let my thoughts bubble up and entertained them without acting on them. That’s what I mean is the difference between training for a goal and just general training. I might even scratch from Payerne 10k and just run solo. I don’t want to have an objective until I am mentally able to take on more load.

Long stretch and focus on leg strength today. I started reading Roger Federer’s biography, aptly named “The Master” written by Christopher Clarey.

Thursday (25/01/2024)

In “The Master”, Clarey talks about Federer’s issues with anger and perfectionism as a teenager. Federer worked on them with a psychologist but he dialed it all the way in the other direction and basically mellowed to the point there was no fire. He lost badly in 2002 and said he had no fire. By 2003, he was able to find that fine line between fire and ice. I am in no way comparing myself to the master, but when I mention the appeasement to ego, I don’t fully agree that your ego is entirely a bad thing. A lot of my life is built on fire which was stemmed from the need to people wrong. Anger is truly a gift. Much like fire, you need to control it but not quell it. Too much of it and it burns everything around. Too little and you become too docile. You need some fire.

Mentally, when I wake up these days I feel emotionally drained from what I know is coming. I find it hard to convince myself the current path is worth it and trust me, I am not twiddling my thumbs. But gratification is always delayed and patience becomes frayed under the strain of emotions.

In times like these, I try to focus on the good things in life. Bene and my family, running and yoga. And then my long term partner, Lac Leman. This morning, like all long term partners, Lac Leman knew I was upset so it did its best to cheer me up. First, the weather was fucking amazing. I ran in shorts and a t-shirt. The waters of the lake were calm and almost glittering. A bright big sun shone, turning the waters golden. On the distant shores, the fog rose from the plains covering the bottom of the mountains in a haze while the tops glittered in golden snow. I turned my gaze left near Coubertin and saw the tops of the trees all golden too. I basked in the sunshine, soaked the energy and basically gave myself up to this reality.

There’s duality in my existence, like much of humanity. There are terrible things but there are some amazing things too. And the amazing things might not completely outweigh the terrible things, but they still are there and I can focus on the positives and use my anger for the negatives in a constructive way.

Core workout with a massive number of push-ups to finish and then a lot of stretching and foam rolling in the evening.

Friday (26/01/2024)

I realized something last week. Since end of November, it is the first time I am getting to witness and savour a sunrise. This morning, even as I was leaving the sky had already started turning inky blue.

Today is India’s 75th Republic Day. It is also my father’s birthday. It goes without saying that who I am in large parts because of the hardwork and sacrifice of my parents. I know everyone says that but for all the hardwork my father did, I don’t think I ever heard him complaining even once. Maybe I was too young to notice but for all the stoic books I read, my father is one of the stoics. He has been one all his life, figuring out stuff on his own and building a life full of meaning for himself.

For me the run this morning was about catharsis, I needed to get it all out there. As I write this I need more catharsis. I will need to start doing 2, 10 milers a day again if things don’t change. In the morning, I ran for 93 minutes, including a very fierce uphill averaging 6:40–45 pace on 15%.

Then I went to the Osteo, it is always a good visit. In the evening did some stretching and Yoga core.

Saturday (27/01/2024)

There are days when things click. I had my friends, Jake and Thibault, a 5 mile threshold in store and perfect conditions. After the warmup we went about the workout, it felt like the way a threshold should feel: Completely in control and if asked do another 5, I was capable of it. The body felt good, just the chest is not used to running faster paces and will need to adjust. But that’s normal. Felt so good. Jake makes running at 5:31/mile pace look so ridiculously effortless. Loved the session today. Now it’s time to help Bene’s friend and her boyfriend move.

Seriously though, I am on the train right now and feeling so useless. The boyfriend of the friend of Bene is a professional carpenter and really a man who is capable with his hands. Plus his friends will join, who also work with their hands. Me with my noodle arms and complete lack of manual knowledge will be so out of place. Those guys are the people who buy Ikea stuff and assemble it for fun. I am the guy who once bought Ikea stuff and then slept on the mattress because the bed weighed 3 times me and I have 0 skills to make something with my hands if it is not music or food or literature. In tribal terms, I am the guy who would stay in the village, create art and then run from village to village performing. They are the men who would hunt. We all have our place and I am perfectly comfortable with who I am. It’s just funny for me to be in the company of men who are so much more competent than me at this. Maybe i’ll learn something!

Sunday (28/01/2024)

I discovered muscles in my upper body I didn’t knew existed. No wonder the Kenyans are so strong, they do actual manual labour and not the pussy workouts in the gym. No really, manual labour + real food > gym + protein shakes. My upper body was dead yesterday from moving heavy stuff, but Bene and I did some stretching before bed, so it helped.

Long run today and frankly, if Marco, Manuel and Tobias were not there I wouldn’t be able to do it. Even with music, this wouldn’t be possible. Running with people > Running alone especially in a long run. And this is an introvert saying that. This freebie you get of just switching off and running, I didn’t check my watch for nearly 20 kilometers. Finished 18 miles at a heart rate of 142 bpm. I mean, this was like the most perfect run I could do. Next week will be hell and I will bank memories of the weekend and get through it. Send me strength and good energy please.