2023 Summer update | Season 6 Finale

It’s been fairly quiet in Cambridge since the end of May week. It’s always a different place during the summer. I have been here since I came back from Sweden, except for a short day trip to Henley-on-Thames (to race the qualifiers of Henley Royal Regatta)

With the rowing season over and without any meetings, I can spend full days doing research uninterrupted. While it’s not a sustainable long-term strategy, I’m often finding an amazing “Flow” state.

These days it’s all about going back to the basics. Working on my base fitness and more running than usual. Getting the best sleep* I can. Doing big chunks of research. Experimenting how to be more productive. Re-evaluating my goals. Rethinking what I like to do for fun, and why.

*I generally sleep fairly well (if allow myself enough hours to do so), but I need a properly black room. This can be an issue here (and it was in Sweden) during the summer, because there’s daylight since very early in the morning and until late. It was a gamble, but my Manta Sleep eye mask has certainly been worth its price. It blocks all light, but crucially it also doesn’t touch your eyelashes!

These month marks the 6-year anniversary of this blog, which is crazy to think about. Of course, this means that I’ve now been in Cambridge for almost six years, which is even crazier to think about. This second year of my PhD is going past quite quickly, and there’s the question of what will happen after my third year…(stay tuned ;))

Before we get there, however, I have more immediate plans. I am about to visit my parents in Mexico for a month. I will be taking some breaks while in there, so I am not sure if and when I’ll get to write about it. (But if you want to know how my altitude training goes there, do send me a friend request on Strava :))

Once I’m back in the U.K. in back-to-school-season, I’ll actually be going directly to the Lake District for a conference there…but that will have to wait for season 7 of the blog…right now I’m finishing this post on my way to the airport for a day in Madrid before Mexico ✈️✈️