A few months ago, before the summer, I decided that I would race just a few of those local races without impacting my body too much and put tons of stress on me for no particular reason. Since the beginning of 2026 my training mostly consisted of some commute sessions to and from work. While working on my old firm I was able to add some trail running as well into the equation and gain some decent distance and vertical gain. The stress of changing my professional environment did put some unexpected burden on my psyche that I absolutely, never, ever could plan or address for months ago.
Now I know. I gained some additional knowledge that will be very valuable both for me and the people I will work in the future. The stress factor is often neglected but it surely impacts our life habits, our health, our mental stability etc. At the end of the day, some life changes can and will mess up our life if we ignore some signals and/or avoid dealing with the reality of the situation at some point.
Anyhow, during my vacation I decided one thing – I took my running shoes both the week that we traveled to Croatia and I had then as well at our property for the three weeks after that.
I never used them!
Well, I did a quick run around the lake one day… just for fun. That was it!
Did I felt bad about that? Was I stressed about the fact that my running volume was decreasing?
No, not really. The reason was that I was able to focus on the planned projects and activities on our property that involved a lot of physical activities. We renewed our veranda from scratch removing the old one and redesigning the whole thing once again. Than, instead of building wooden raised beds around it, I had the marvelous idea to create stone beds. That one was an idea that required a lot of digging, lifting and breaking of heavy stones….. so I got myself a huge amount of “alternative training” as well!
The project is not finished yet, but soon I will publish an article on our gardening portal. 🙂
The result is that after 4 weeks I got myself a stronger back, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, core, glutes and yes…. legs as well. Pushing that wheelbarrow full of heavy stones uphill did something indeed!
Still, despite all that, the pain in my right foot is still there and it’s not either getting worse or better. I needed to make a decision for the first upcoming race and the tough decision was to DNS (Did Not Start) the BBUT race. There is no reason why should I get there and fight for 100miles and more with a foot that is not good. I need t deal with the issue and fix it! Because resting did no good, my “alternative training” at our property made no significant changes. When I run I don’t feel any direct discomfort. I am actually beginning to thing that the issue might actually be a nerve that got clammed or something.
Anyhow, I will hike the Orust Tvärs race (27k) with my wife and I really hope to be able to race the Sätila Trail race in November. That would be something! 🙂