It's early in the morning when the first rays of sunlight find their way into the poorly darkened bedroom of a young blacksmith. After one final stretch, he gets up, walks across the creaking wooden floor to the forge, and shovels coal into the furnace. Within minutes, a bright, warm fire is burning. That part, he...

Where is everybody? We are here on earth, where life started approximately four billion years ago. Single-celled beings. Living things. We evolved further, into two cells. Four. Eight. And eventually, into an unimaginable number of around 30 trillion. Made possible by a star that has been here with us for the whole...

After an internship visit at a fascinating company, I cycled home through the city centre. A quick detour to the bookshop to pick up a newly released book by a somewhat peculiar but absolutely wonderful artist. You have to do something with that book voucher from the Christmas package. Just after stepping out of the...

I grew up with Harry Potter. I was roughly the same age as Harry at the time of the book releases, which meant there was a lot I could identify with. I visualized Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and all the other magical places in my head while reading, and watched them come to life in the movies a few years later. I remember...

At the end of an athletics training session, I passed by the door of the gym where a youth group was wrapping up for the evening. One of the parents was already waiting just outside for their 11-year-old kid. When she came over, the parent said: "Say goodbye to everyone." The kid looked at her parent, then at the...

There have been races I've been more prepared for. More consistent training sessions in the weeks leading up, more mileage as well. Nothing much to do about that anymore, though. I had to take today's race as it is, with the form that comes with it. The good thing about low expectations: they lower the tension. No...

Oftentimes, there exists more than one truth. I learned that today at an athletics event, where one of the workshops was dedicated to weightlifting for track athletes. Exercises like cleans, snatches, and more of the sort. Types of exercises I've apparently been doing wrong for the last couple of years. Or well,...

After a bit more than ten years into my professional life, I've reached the stage where I can quite confidently say what works and what doesn't. Or at least I think I can. Or at least I can tell what usually works for myself, which might be different from what works for you. God, it already became unnecessarily...

Last week my washing machine broke down. I've had it for almost 10 years now, and I actually have no idea if that's a normal age for a device like this to stop working. It presented me with an error code related to water damage somewhere in the machine, although I couldn't find anything upon inspecting it. Cleaning...

Last week I ran more than 50 kilometers, separated over five days. I also spend an evening doing weight- and circuit training, bringing the total of "active days" to six. I'm not writing this to boast about this achievement, but about a feeling I had walking the last few steps to my front door on Sunday evening,...

After winning the yearly club cross country run, life goes on. And so do my runs, albeit a little slower than usual today. This Sunday's session was in the dunes. Part of the training was running up a sandy hill that's actually a horse track. The sand lies so loose on the ground that you slip with every step you...

Today was the yearly club cross race: a 4K-ish parcours on and around our club's running track to figure out who becomes the club champion in their category. And would you believe it... I won! Or well, at least I won against the other contestants in my category who actually chose to compete today. There certainly...