Representation

If you search for running tips and how to get started on Google or YouTube, you always end up watching/reading something by a guy or girl who is fit already and have a bunch of batches or medals from previous runs… Or you get the morbidly obese sensation story that is a miracle…

It is not very representative of the ordinary person like me, being middle-aged, fat (10+ Kg more than there should be), too sedentary, and feeling no time for Fitness… But If I can do this, then everyone else can do it!

My Running “Story”

I’ve always been very sedentary with computers being my main hobby. I was overweight (120kg, 193cm high) and had no activity other than a short bike ride to work each day. I was not in physical peril, but it was not good either, and a sure road to poor health as I grew older. That was until May 2021 when a former colleague of mine (thank you CRRU) made me commit to running at least 3 times a week. I have kept that commitment ever since and running is now as much a habit as brushing my teeth… Here are my tips on getting started without hearing them from a fitness guru with way too many marathons under their belt… They might not be fancy, but they work and do not try an sugar coat the process.

Tip 1: Make a schedule and stick to it no matter what

Make a schedule!… It does not really matter if it is once a week, 2-3 times a week, or every day… Just make it realistic and stick to it no matter what. In the beginning, I had it as a Recurring Task to do the run on a specific day (better as a task than a calendar as you need to check a task as complete where a calendar entry just comes and goes without interaction).

Tip 2: There is never an excuse for not sticking to the schedule

In a busy life it is so easy to make up excuses for not running (I’m tired, busy day, bad weather, cold weather, runny nose), but let’s face it; they are all bad excuses!... And if you want to make this a habit, don’t give in; not even for one day. The second you give in to the excuse one day, it leads to giving in more and more; to the point where you stop altogether (been there in the past)!… To me you have only 3 valid reasons not to do your scheduled run:

1. You are sick “from the Neck down” (aka a light cold is not a good enough excuse!)
2. You are injured
3. Government or local authorities mandates (Covid isolation) and warning of dangerous weather (a little rain, hot/cold, or snow doesn’t make it impossible to run; aka it is a bad excuse!)

Keeping to the above 3 rules has made me miss running only 3 times in the past 18 months and that was the week I have Covid (aka #3 Rule). I’ve been out in the rain, the snow, close to midnight, early morning; hungover… DON’T GIVE IN TO BAD EXCUSES; THEY LEAD TO A SLIPPERY SLOPE EVERY TIME!

Tip 3: Run when you have the least excuse

As mentioned above bad excuses can be tempting so what I did was to run when there were the least excuses. You might be tempted to run in the afternoon and it might fit you, but to me, that was when I had the most excuses (tired and no energy, long day at work). For me back when I worked full time was at night (aka around 22:00).. The day was more or less over and it was that or bed so no excuse really that more needed to happen. Nowadays when I have more time; I run in the morning as it is just part of the morning routine (wake, run, bath, start the day…) but I acknowledge that unless you are a morning person and have the time this one is more tricky; so my recommendation is to start running at night (it also give the least chance of injuries).

Tip 4: Make the running route short and the same with the only goal of completing the run

You might be tempted to follow an exercise plan from a running app, website, or similar, and while such plans are good for a future goal, I will recommend not starting with such a plan. Instead, find a simple running route and make it a short one (pro-tip: make it shorter than you feel you can allow!), and make it the sole goal of doing the run. Goals of running longer and faster are good later, but in the beginning, you should aim for habit-building, and once that is there, you can always slowly ramp it up with 5k goals, etc.

In my case, my route was a 2K simple run in the neighborhood,

The reason for keeping it short is that it gives even fewer bad excuses not to do it… This route took me in the beginning 15 min to run (12 min now)… And who does not have 15 min to spare when bad excuses are not allowed?…

Nowadays I’ve upped the route a bit to 2.7K and I mix it up with longer runs (4-5K) from time to time but keeping the base simple route ensures I get out every single day, no matter how motivated or not I feel on the day… Everything else is a bonus.

Tip 5: Let others know (feel the commitment)

Let others know your running schedule so you feel the commitment to it. As mentioned my current 18-month running commitment was given to a former colleague, and talking about it with others makes the commitment stronger. You can also use a social media fitness app to share with friends and family to have them encourage you with Likes and comments on your activities. I personally use Starva and this blog for sharing.

Tip 6: Track your progress but do not set specific goals at first

Use a running app to keep track of your progress or a stopwatch + spreadsheet if you wish to keep it analog… But do not set any specific goals other than “improvement” (for example faster run pace after 3 months) but keep it to that… Setting a goal and not meeting it “fast enough” can be discouraging so keep it simple… Unspecified improvement goals almost always turn out positive if you just keep consistent, leading to reinforcement to keep going… More specific goals will come naturally down the line if you keep this mentality and then you will be in a much better base position to chase them.

Tip 7: Do it alone (at least in the beginning)

This tip is a personal preference of cause and some might say the direct opposite, but I have bad experience teaming up with someone else and running together. It is so rare that two or more are at the same level of fitness leading to guilt and giving up if you can’t keep up or overdoing it with extra runs if your running mate is slower than you (been in both situations and both suck). So I stick to running solo (+ it makes Tip 8 and 9 possible).

Tip 8: Keep it simple and dirty

A bit gross perhaps, but never let used/dirty running gear be the bad excuse for not getting out there. If dirty or currently drying after washing gear becomes your excuse, live with it. I run every day now but just in the same gear multiple days… Yes, they are smelly, but it is better than not getting out there due to lack of gear…

Tip 9: Run with Music

Again a personal preference, but I need music in my ears when running, or a podcast or audiobook. From time to time it is nice running without and I do from time to time, but else the audio makes me be in a better flow and ignores the “hardship”.

Tip 10: Buy a Fitness Watch

Until October this year, I tracked my runs (and listen to music) by bringing my iPhone with me on the run. While not a big issue, it was cumbersome (keeping a grip on the phone at times took away attention) and was almost a bad excuse when it rained; almost! So I ended up buying an Apple Watch SE 2022, and it has been the best purchase of 2022!

So now when I need to run I simply point on running gear, Wireless in-ears in, start Spotify Offline Music, and start the running app. I don’t need my phone with me and can focus 100% on the run… And the bonus sleep tracking and Activity Rings are a nice complement to my overall Fitness 🙂

You can of cause get other fitness-tracking watches but for me, this was a perfect match for what I needed 🙂

That’s it… 10 Tips for you to get your running on as well…
Do it! It gives so much more energy in life and better health… See you out there; and next time!

Hi All, not too much to report on this week, so I wanted to focus this week’s post on my new Passion; Unity Game Development.

I started the development of games back in November and after the first training (you can see the result here), I have the past month, been working on my own game, which is planned to be a Tower Defense game mixed with Action RPG…

The game is far far from finished but this is moving along, and if you are interested you can see work in progress here (Disclaimer: There is not much “fun” to the game right now being more a tech demo and partly implemented mechanics. Similar graphics are all placeholder for the real thing at the end)

…As said… Long way to go, but it is a start and you can keep track of progress by the above link…

That’s all for this week… See you next week

After my ramblings about happiness (and a bunch of other things) 2 weeks ago, I began asking myself “Is this a Midlife Crisis”?… It was something I already thought of fleetingly just around my leaving and had put it on the list of blog topics, but until 2 weeks ago, I had not really thought about it more…

Well, no more, and in true “Rasmus” style, I ended up analyzing a bunch of YouTube videos and webpages on the topic, trying to figure out if I was in that “state”.

Let’s start with the definition

A midlife crisis is a transition of identity and self-confidence that can occur in middle-aged individuals, typically 40 to 60 years old. The phenomenon is described as a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person’s growing age, inevitable mortality, and possibly lack of accomplishments in life. This may produce feelings of intense depression, remorse, and high levels of anxiety, or the desire to achieve youthfulness or make drastic changes to their current lifestyle, or feel the wish to change past decisions and events.

Sounds like “scary” stuff and It’s true that some studies show a decline in life satisfaction and happiness as people reach midlife. But it’s important to note that the drop in happiness isn’t always large. And, in some studies, people’s satisfaction with life seems to rise as they enter midlife and then decline as they enter their later years. So, for many people, “crisis” isn’t the appropriate term to describe their midlife experience. In studies, only about 10 to 20 percent of adults claim to have experienced a midlife crisis (way fever than I expected and what popular culture let us believe, but then again some might not wish to acknowledge it, so numbers might be higher)

Signs

Below are 29 signs of a midlife crisis and my personal analysis of them (Yes, I’m a nerd 🤓)

Sign	Result	Analysis
Impulse behavior	❌	Not been on a buying spree (Sorry Red Porsche dealers) 😉 Not doing anything impulsive (and no, quitting my job was not impulsive, it was a decision that took years)
You have Regrets	✅ ❌	I do have regrets about the work/life balance, but beyond that, there is nothing to regret (a successful career beyond my dreams and a healthy economy),
Your Life suddenly has no meaning	✅	While not all the time, there are glimpses of this, and I ultimately let to the burnout, having almost only meh days. I was worse in the past but still not 100% back to feeling meaningful.
Things that used to give you purpose, don’t anymore	✅	Work certainly in the end felt like it gave very little purpose despite it of cause objectively did.
You feel a Sense of urgency	❌	I almost have the opposite feeling that all I wanted in life professionally have already happened, and I do not feel a need for family or children like most others might do.
You have Financial insecurities	❌	Being a partner in a company for 19 years with stock options certainly makes you privileged not to have these issues 🙏😇🍀
You Feel you have to change everything	✅	Fitness and Mindfulness come to mind, though done similar Fitness “trips” in the past… But I certainly in a short period of time changed a ton of habits!
You are Feeling your own mortality	❌	No fears, No health issues other than knee pains from time to time…
You Argue with yourself	✅ ❌	I do that, but at the same time, if that is a sign, I’ve been having it for the last 20+ years 😉
You are Growing jealous of others	❌	Nope…
You feel Easy things are now hard	✅	Definitely think that about Software Development, but other areas of life are about the same.
Past success doesn’t satisfy	✅	While I still love my baby project (B1 Usability Package), the same passion as before was just not there despite countless more opportunities.
You feel apathetic like everything is a waste of time	✅	It certainly happens
You don’t want to get out of bed	✅ ❌	Before leaving work at the end; Yes Now; No!
You have no real goals, and so you are drifting from day to day	✅ ❌	This one is a maybe… I have goals but I doubt myself if I’m ‘strong enough to see them through… Forfeling goals set, is so much easier in mind, than in real life.
You lack purpose, seeing little to look forward to and work towards	✅ ❌	The goals are worth looking forward to and working on, but it is just hard and lofty goals, that doubt creep in if they are worth pursuing (sort of lack of purpose)
You have decreasing hope that the future is going to be any better	✅	Previous success makes it feel unlikely that I am going to hit yet another lucky homerun… Acknowledge and trying to accept this helps, but ego sure puts up a fight…
You are considering making radical, uncharacteristic changes to your appearance	❌	Unless weight loss counts 😉
You’re considering walking away from your past success	✅	Done that already by leaving work
You are more afraid than you used to be, and you tend to get defensive easily but have become less assertive	❌	Absolutely not
You wonder if you are going crazy – you don’t understand why you are thinking what you are thinking, and it is disturbing	✅ ❌	Not as such, everything is still evaluated, but I still give it a 50/50 here as the evaluation feels harder.
You may be still achieving things – ticking off projects – but it isn’t bringing you happiness	✅	Was certainly an issue before leaving, and still is to a lesser degree… But still in love with checkmarks ☑️☑️☑️😉
You look back on the ‘good old days’ wishfully when you were physically fitter, more attractive, and had fewer responsibilities	❌	Never crossed my mind…
You are developing a new passion for extreme exercise, bodybuilding, or a new style	✅	Fitness Yes, but don’t expect me to sign up for any bodybuilding competitions 😉
You feel like your time is all taken up by the demands of others and after all that, you have none left for what you want to do	✅ ❌	Before leaving Job consumed me, but that has happened last 20 years, but of cause after leaving there is plenty of me time.
Your sleep is poor. You resist going to bed, don’t get enough hours of sleep, and may have broken sleep as well	✅ ❌	Before leaving work at the end; Yes Now; No (Never had a better sleep routine)
You are looking up what old friends and old girlfriends are doing now	❌	Nope, Facebook is as underutilized as ever 😉
People are noticing a growing (out of character) frequency of emotional outbursts, such as anger.	✅ ❌	Before leaving this was bubbling up at times more than usual, but that does not happen in the new day today; quite opposite!
Search for “midlife crises” on Google and YouTube	✅	Guilty as charged 😉

Summary

So with 20 checkmarks (✅) and 18 X (❌), it is not 100% set in stone, but my own belief is:

Yes, I’m having a midlife crisis

More specifically, I think this has been quietly brewing for a few years and topped this year (2022) a month or so before leaving my Job… I’m not naive to think that it “is over”, but I think the top (aka most negative stuff) is behind me… But of cause, only time can tell…

This is a Good thing!

Now you might be sitting reading this, thinking: “Oh, no, that’s sad… Poor Rasmus”…

Well, Don’t!… To me, I see this as a good thing, feeling much happier than I did 2-3 months ago… It was exactly the “kick” I needed (might be my body and mind telling me this), and also the best way to deal with it is to acknowledge it, accept it and talk about it with others (hence this post; heck the entire blog!)

Don’t see it as bad but instead embrace and explore it…

And there is still nothing to regret… Leaving was still the right thing to do (Imagine the opposite, with a slow building of anger, resentment, outbursts, and ruining past success)… Better quit while being on top, and start the second part of life… In my case Rasmus 2.0

So to others out there, don’t be afraid, concerned, or otherwise… This is a blessing in disguise for me at least, but the worst you can do is not talk about it and struggle on your own.

Be safe out there, and see you next week