Good morning to all you marvellous runners out there 🤩

I hope your last training week was better than mine. It all went pear shaped for me right after I sent you last week’s newsletter. I came down with a fever, which eventually turned out to be caused by covid. My preparations ahead of Berlin a mere eight weeks hence have come to a grinding halt.

That’s what happens, though. It only means we’re training for even bigger, more ambitious goals further down the line. Or, will be. Once we’re back running.

Anyways, on to more important matters. This week’s reads should give you something to think and laugh about. Enjoy!

🇩🇪 Running to Berlin, Weeks 8 & 9: Covid Strikes

In my recap of the last two weeks worth of training, you’ll find all the details of what I did while on vacation. And what I didn’t do, after covid threw a wrench in my plans. Expect the following weeks to revolve around getting back to proper training again, more than sharpening my fitness ahead of Berlin. But, don’t worry, one way or another, I’ll cross the finish line in Tiergarten—and I’ll document every step of the way.

>> Read the article

⭐️ Out There: On Not Finishing

“There was a time in my life when running served a clear and definable purpose. After my parents divorced, when I was not even a teenager, I ran a two-mile loop in my neighborhood as often as I could, endowed with reckless abandon, feeling like I was racing out of my own story, or racing into a story that I could control.”

It’s a recurring theme of these exploratory essays, searching for the answer to why we run. So often, it starts out as a means of exerting control of your life during a time of chaos, perhaps even tragedy. Few pieces have covered the subject better than Devin Kelly does here.

>> Read the essay

😂 Quick Fix For Increasing Mitochondrial Density

If you’ve read my article on aerobic running, you know that more and stronger mitochondria is one of the key ways to improve fitness. I laughed out loud when this “quick fix” popped up on my Twitter timeline! I’m wondering if I should give it a go ahead of Berlin. If nothing else, it shows (permanent) dedication to the task 😅

>> See the tweet

Hopefully you liked that. As always, hit reply and email me if you want to share some feedback. If you have other friends who enjoy running—or you just want to give them a hint that they need to get started—you can forward this email.

See you next week!

Lars-Christian