EverySingleStreet Post, Tokyo Coming Up, Winter Training Status

Moinsen, everyone! 👋

It’s officially been the coldest January in my city of Hamburg since 2010. Back then, I had just started running occasionally and remember running right across our completely frozen central Alster river. This time, that wasn’t possible, unfortunately—we only got the annoying parts of ice and snow during the past six weeks, not the cool ones such as river-freezing power.

But admittedly it did look nice for a few days.

It has made proper training really hard to pull off, though. With every week my chances at running a new Marathon best at Barcelona (March 15th) were going down, much to my detriment. Speed sessions aren’t working out well on icy paths, and breathing heavily at -10C hurts. I don’t own a treadmill and I’m not eager enough to sign up for a gym membership in order to have access to one. 

But, in a “making the best out of it” sort of way, I’ll now just correct course and see what proper training I can do and welcome the surprise finishing time at the upcoming marathons, whatever the results may be. And for next winter, I might set up a GoFundMe in time to get the snow to stay where it came from! That’s possible, right?

Easy running in trail shoes on slippery surfaces for weeks. 

I know there is a training benefit to running in these conditions. The careful gait you need to adapt trains those tiny muscles and bands around the ankles. The slower pace feels harder but has less of an impact on all joints. Zone2 training all the way. And it definitely makes you tougher and more resilient. Also, I’ve never done so many indoor bike sessions with Zwift as during this winter! Over 200 kilometers per week have become a standard for me. The aerobic engine is thankful.

🛋️ New Blog Post About #EverySingleStreet!

It’s times like these that make me want to turn the disappointment into positive energy and get creative. One of those projects which work well in bad weather is called EverySingleStreet—the idea is to run through all the streets of a given area, my hometown of Hamburg in my case. 

I’ve been chopping away at that since fall of 2024 and now just published a blog post about how it all works. As always, the blog post has a corresponding podcast episode if you prefer listening to reading.

📚 New Bookshelf Addition: How to Be Perfect

I particularly love the subtitle of Michael Schur’s book: “The correct answer to every moral question.”

The book is a very lighthearted and funny exploration of ethics, basically. What makes us a good person, and how to deal with all those implications of our actions and decisions? The major philosophies all play a big role in it. Find out more on my bookshelf.

🇯🇵 Excited for Tokyo

In just a bit over a week I’ll hop on a plane to Japan in order to participate in the Tokyo Marathon. I am incredibly excited for it and have been looking forward to that moment for 5-6 years now. The race is very popular and signing up not an easy thing to do, I have tried every year and received the sad rejection letter. Until that one wonderful day last year, when they informed me my name has finally been returned by the algorithm. 

Finishing Tokyo Marathon will get me that big 6-Star Medal because it’s the last remaining World Marathon Major of the main six for me after Berlin, London, Boston, New York City, and Chicago. I’m not incredibly eager to hold that medal, but I admit it’s a cool thing and I’m looking forward to it. Most of all, though, I look forward to the trip. To get to know the culture of the country a bit, have some real authentic Sushi and Ramen, be on planes for a long time (yes, I love flying) and experience a running race in a country that’s supposedly so different from mine. 

Will the crowds be cheering enthusiastically or clap politely and respectfully, as the stereotype suggests? I’ll find out on March 1st! 

It’s going to be a big highlight for me and you can be sure I’ll write a long blog post about the trip and the race afterwards. But for now, please enjoy the one I just published about #EverySingleStreet if that sounds good to you.

I hope you have a great day, thanks for reading, and all the best to you!
— Teesche