52 Weeks Of Noticing & Writing

My 1st Substack Anniversary – Congratulations To Myself

What a lovely message that reached me during my writecation!

Substack has just informed me that I have published for 52 weeks in a row. To celebrate this wonderful occasion, I am offering a lifetime 20% discount on subscriptions to the Das Z [+] Letter. All you have to do is click on the link:

It's even doubly worthwhile, as a new Das Z [+] Letter was just published yesterday.

[+] The Psychological Effect Of Super Shoes

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Write Like You Run

52 weeks of publishing. Without a break. Every week. Some weeks even more than once. I've never written so consistently in my life, and I wonder why.

Like running, writing gives me structure and direction. It puts me on a track and I just have to release the breaks and keep going, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. It's work, it's practice, it's what I do because I do it.

At the same time, writing can be a highly unpredictable, wild and deeply emotional ride. A real onslaught of uncontrolled words and sentences that come into my head and need to be put on paper no matter what. Sometimes I read something I have written and ask myself, "Where the hell did that come from?"

One thing is for sure: Writing is as much the territory of my inner Levelhead as it is of the Punk.

I'm often asked if I'm not afraid of running out of ideas(*). So far that hasn't been the case. Quite the opposite. My notepad is full to bursting with ideas, screenshots, snippets of sentences, quotes or copy-pasted bits from the internet. Every day I think of new things as I observe and perceive my surroundings. The boundaries between supposedly separate subjects and areas of life become blurred.

Everything I perceive can be applied to running. And everything I experience while running can also be applied to the rest of my life.

About Noticing

Perceiving my surroundings. Becoming aware of things. That's what it's all about. American author and creative writing teacher Verlyn Klinkenborg emphasises this in his incredibly strange book 'Several Short Sentences About Writing'. The importance of consciously registering details and nuances in the world around us and then incorporating them into the practice of writing. He encourages us to be sensitive to linguistic subtleties, observations and sensations, and to translate them into clear and concise sentences. He uses the word 'noticing' for this.

One positive effect of noticing is to allow things to be as they are. Only when we manage not to immediately impose our opinion on everything and give it a subjective meaning do we see things for what they really are. And then can write about them.

Klinkenborg's own words sound like this:

Everything
you notice
is important.

Let me say that
a different way:
if you notice something,
it is because it is important.
But what you notice
depends
on what you allow yourself
to notice,
and that depends
on what you feel authorized,
permitted
to notice
in a world where we’re trained
to disregard our perceptions.

Being a writer
is an act of perpetual
self-authorization.
No matter
who you are.
Only you
can authorize yourself.

You can do that by writing well,
by constant discovery.
No one
can authorize you.

No one.

This doesn’t happen overnight.
It’s as gradual as
the improvement
in your writing.

Verlyn Klinkenborg, from Several Short Sentences About Writing (pp.37-39)

I told you so. Strange. But also beautiful and inspiring.

(*)Funny side note: the moment I wrote down the phrase "running out of ideas", I got the idea to write something about "running" and "ideas". That's how my writer's brain works. And it's not just me.

Everything Running

Today we're turning the whole thing around: Everything Running instead of Everything not Running. Heads explode!

I promised to give you a quick update on my zero-tapering test run, which happened today. There's a lot to tell, but here's the short version:

Ok, this looks like all runs on Strava now, but for me it's special. I smashed my 6 year old half marathon PB today. By more than a minute. This also directly answers the question of whether the zero taper strategy worked. Yes, it did.

I felt super strong at the start and didn't have to tear my legs out for the great time today. Basically, I rode for 18 kilometres at around 160 bpm (max HR is around 185), which feels challenging but is still in the A-type fun category. This is the range where I am in control of my thoughts (no negative mental downward spiral), can control my pace as I wish and the music from my headphones still reaches me emotionally. Running this way is really enjoyable! And BECAUSE it was so enjoyable, I decided of my own free will to really hammer away for the last 2 kilometres. It hurt, but it was also fun.

The nerd section:

• Official time: 1:23:14

• Average heart rate: 162 bpm

• Power: 384 watts (no idea what that means)

• Shoes: Nike Vaporfly 3

• Weather: About 12 degrees, sunny, no wind

• Course: Ultra-flat 7km circuit, only 30m D+ in total

• Nutrition: Self-catering at 5K and 12K with 150-200ml of high-dose carbohydrate drink each, plus 2 gels, the first at 2K, the second at 17K with a cup of water.

• Playlist:

  • Nasty "Phoenix"

  • Machine Head "Stop the Bleeding"

  • Killer Be Killed "Face Down"

  • Most Precious Blood "A Danger to Myself and Others"

  • To Kill "To Live And Die In Vain"

  • Kali Yuga "Legacy"

  • Strife "Stand as One (Live)"

  • Vega "1312"

  • Travis Barker & Yelawolf "Director's Cut"

  • Blaggers ITA "Oxygen"

  • Parkway Drive "The Void"
    (that's all I can remember)

I'm super happy with how things went today. Test races are always a bit of a risk. If you don't live up to your own expectations it can be quite disruptive to your whole training. The same goes for pushing yourself too hard and digging yourself a fatigue hole. Neither happened and I can look forward to my A-race in 4 weeks, the Hannover Marathon, with a good feeling in my stomach.

(First time I got popcorn as finish catering. They even had Kaiserschmarrn)