Friends, family and colleagues often inquire about the progress of my PhD. When will you submit? Why are you losing so much hair? You look stressed out. How come? In my mind, I often contemplate random acts of violence but mostly reply with a polite feline hissing sound. Maybe I should try the mental health hotline.
[H/T: on-point.be]
After my long distance debut in Brasschaat, I took a month off from training to regenerate, work on my PhD, organize a press conference, travel to lovely Melbourne to network and conference with linguists and journalists, organize a race and watch my children grow up. I resumed training on August 1, the same day I became a writer-in-residence on the shores of Lake Donk.
To shake off the rust, I’ve been swimming in the lake under the watchful eye of the fishermen, cycling and running. I’ll be doing much more long distance running as I prepare for my marathon debut on November 15 in Kasterlee. A 14-week diet of LSD runs, track sessions, interval sessions and regeneration runs should prepare me to run 42 kilometers and 195 meters. Thank you, coach Kurt.
As I once again face PhD deadlines, there is nothing that helps me to organize my thoughts better than trail running. Pictured above is the Google Earth map of today’s run, an 11K LSD run around Lake Donk. Lovely. Whenever I’m struggling with how to mix data analyses, field observations, theory and oomph into an elegant and coherent chapter in my PhD, all I need to do is put on my running shoes. Run, PhD student, run.
I’m going underground to write. Until further notice, updates may or may not consist of academic ramblings or random Batman quotes.
Tom Van Hout 
