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Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know ‘why’ I look this way. I’ve traveled a log way and some of the roads weren’t paved.

Will Rogers

When we start working outside, we get to encounter a lot of new people we didn’t know were out there beforehand. It’s probably mostly because we have never given it any thought before.

Good Samaritan

I am going to start on a high note, so it doesn’t look like complaining. There are actually two sub-groups in here. Or at least my experiences divided them into two groups.

Type 1: they check on you when you get hurt. And I don’t mean yell ‘are you ok’ while they are zooming by. Actually stop and talk to you to verify that you are going to make it. Here is a little illustration of what I’m talking about: I once tripped over my feet when on a run and hurt my knee pretty badly. As I was trying to recompose, this nice gentleman on a bike stopped to make sure I was ok. He hang out with me until I pulled together and was on my way home:

It took me a LONG time to hobble home that day. I was just grateful that somebody checked. The trail was deserted that day and my knee was hurting badly. I also think that have somebody distracting me for a bit helped a lot with recovering enough to walk home.

Type 2: repair guy. If you bike enough on the trails, you will have a mechanical problem sooner or later. It’s going to be most often a flat tire, although my seat once broke off. Ok, when your seat breaks off, you have little alternative to finding a shop. But changing a tire can be addressed on the fly. I have a general idea of how to do it. I once got a flat on the trail and I’ll admit it: I was struggling a bit. Fortunately, a nice gentleman pulled over and offered to lend me a hand. And ‘by lend a hand’, he clearly meant ‘do it for you’. I swear he was of a NASCAR pit crew school… I didn’t even get a chance to truly rest up before he was done!

File it under ‘not all superheroes wear capes’!

The plugged-in

I will get back to good people at the end of this post, so I can end on the high note. For now, let’s see a few more questionable people. One of my ‘favorite’ categories are people who are walking (usually walking) and they are so plugged into their phone that they don’t see the reality around them. They may be talking, watching something or listening without being able (either due to volume or attention) to hear those around them. I am sure you have seen them:

I admit openly that I listen to stuff when I ride or run. However, I make sure I can hear when people talk to me and I am responsive to various stimuli. For example, I have a habit of turning off my podcasts when I come up on road crossings, so I can see cars coming up – in some places, you can hear them way sooner than you can see them, especially around bushes. I actually heard before about a runner who was so plugged in that she ran into a cyclist and hurt them really badly. If memory serves me right, she was found guilty of hurting the cyclist because he had right of way and she hurt him. So don’t be that person.

The invisible man

That’s for the night time runs and rides. I have a feeling that people who follow me and most definitely people who interact with me regularly in person know what my feelings are about staying visible when you are on the trail when it’s dark.

I know you can sort of see them, but the results may vary based on other factors, such as trees and moon. Either way: it’s hard to see people who are not wearing lights at night. I have seen a number of people assume that reflective surfaces are enough. Guess what? If I’m going 25-30 mph, it’s too late by the time my light reflects off of you. I won’t even mention the dogs – they may be hard to spot, especially the small black ones. Please put lights on everybody and everything out there! It’s not that hard and we will all be safer for it!

The windshield wiper

This one is my personal observation and for the longest time, I thought it was just me… Every now and then, you see somebody power walking and swinging their arms side to side with unnecessary exaggeration:

I’ve had to dodge those arms before… I have always been shocked how far people can reach! It’s another issue that can be easily addressed, so please don’t be that person…

The herd

I also sometimes call them the gaggle (as in gaggle of geese). Those are groups (can be as small as two, let’s face it) who position themselves in such a way on the trail that they block everybody else from going in either direction. It’s half a problem if they are responsive to others asking to be allowed through. But I have seen herds disorganized enough that they couldn’t figure out how to get out of the way of people passing.

Ugh! This has happened to me way more times than I care to admit. Surprisingly, I encounter them mostly on my rides to the office on Tuesday morning. They occasionally double with the previous problem type – they don’t carry much light with them. Or just the leader does. In case you travel at night with a larger group on a trail: person in the back left should be the one with the most light. Why, you ask? Well, person most likely in need of seeing you (assuming you stay in your lane) is a cyclist that is coming up from behind and passing you. They need to know who is the first person they need to dodge. Keep people without lights as far to the right as you can and in the middle of the line.

The kid

I have nothing against kids on the trail. In fact, I bring my daughter with me. However, as the parent/ adult, it’s your responsibility to make sure everybody is safe. Kids can pose a couple of issues. One of them is when they are just playing, especially with a ball. And I am using term ‘kid’ in this case liberally – I have seen older teenagers doing this: playing, pushing each other around, chasing the ball:

I promise: I don’t want to as much as startle your child! Please meet me half way and watch out for your little one.

The other thing is kids riding their bikes. I know it’s a challenge. I am working with my ‘mini-me’ on it right now. The little beginners tend to swerve a lot and frequently ride in the very middle (issue when there are cyclists coming up from both directions). I have a solution that for now works with my daughter and me:

She feels safer when I’m between her and the cyclists and I know I can hold onto her and prevent her from swerving into others. It’s a win-win and will work until she gets fast. I’m hoping though that by then, she will be going in straight line.

Tour guide

Sometimes, we all go places we are unfamiliar with. Or we always choose the same, beaten path. Occasionally, we will run into somebody who will tell us about alternative routes or neat places to go. I think they are great and doing a public service! I recently chatted with a guy at a rest stop about lack of challenging hills. He said that if I take the bike path, I am correct. But parallel to the bike path, there is a usually empty road with plenty of hills to practice on. He went with me (bless his heart – I know it was at a snail pace, since I am slow on uphills) and showed me the road. It was fun!

Ah, so many interesting types of people you get to see out there! Some are amazing and helpful, some – not so much. But one way or another, they make your time on the trails that much more entertaining! Now go and enjoy 😊

Don’t waste your time with explanations – people hear only what they want to hear.

Paulo Coelho

Having said that: I decided that posting weekly calendars is getting old and they all look a lot alike. But how about something to chuckle about over your first coffee of a new week and a good quote to make you think? I hope you enjoy!

Who else heard ‘you are so lucky to (…)’? I hear that a lot and it actually tends to annoy me. The other day, I got to hang out with an old friend of mine and he commented that people don’t see what goes into ‘being lucky’. Isn’t that the truth!

What people say is race pictures (carefully selected not to look scary), curated selfies and videos from workouts, medals and glamour. I’m sorry to break it to all the people who think that’s all there is to it: no, there is plenty of hard work, sweat and yes, occasional tears.

When I raced Ironman 70.3 Gdynia, I got a HUGE laugh out of pictures from the race. Here is one where I saw the camera first:

And here the camera caught me first:

But obviously, social media will be full of the first picture (it’s now my profile pic on Strava actually). Nobody brags about being hurt or miserable. But it happens.

When you train for a marathon, you have to get a lot of miles in. I’d like to say that all of them are pleasant, in perfect weather conditions and I come home refreshed. Unfortunately, that’s not what they all are. Here is an example of what my face looks like during the run, when I’m not trying to put on a good, encouraging face for my family, friends and followers:

Yes, definitely plenty of miles are miserable. They can also happen when so called normal people (whoever they are) are still asleep:

And yes, I enjoy running. And swimming. And biking (most of the time). I just started to think people around me believe it’s all glamorous. I guess social media (Instagram in particular) is so curated and full of awesome looking runners (many of them of people wearing makeup and not even sweating). If you only look at those, one can easily become convinced that they are the only ones suffering during workouts. No. A lot of people go through pain and suffering to get/ stay in great shape. It’s hard work!

Have I mentioned that the training takes up a lot of time? I was at the pool at 5:20 this morning, just to find out that it was already packed. Again: hundreds of hours of training behind ‘luck’.

Now that I have ranted a bit about hard work behind luck… There is some luck involved, although not of the type most people think of. The way I perceive ‘you are so lucky’ is that my friends think I was just blessed with awesome fitness, which allows me to do marathons and triathlons. That luck is actually hard work. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t any luck involved.

Those yellow shapes I drew in the picture on top… Let’s think of them as fires that can melt your iceberg of success. Dodging them is good luck and running into them is bad luck. Sore muscle and fatigue can derail your training, or at least discourage. I still love term ‘pre-fatigued’ to describe workouts when your legs are feeling heavy. But if they are flat out hurting, you may need to take a few days off to recover. One way or another, they aren’t making training any easier. Injuries are even worse – at the very least, you will need to modify your training to allow your body to heal. Getting injured sure is bad luck! Not all injuries are equally bad though, although plenty of them hurt. They can be simple scrapes that will make you wince for a few days:

It sure hurt! But it kept me away from training only for a couple of days. My ankle did get badly hurt though and I had to modify training for a while to let that heal up. That’s the nice part about being a multi-sport athlete: you can find alternatives! OK, everybody can look for alternative training. It may just not be as helpful with your goal.

I wish all the injuries were this simple. A friend of mine got hit by a car while riding a bike and this is how it ended for him:

That’s definitely not lucky! For most of us, this means an extended ‘vacation’ from training and loss of much of your fitness. So I guess there is a lot of luck involved in crossing that finish line…

Not all the obstacles are of physical nature. Over the long months of training, it’s really easy to lose motivation and doubt your ability to achieve your goal. I definitely struggle with this more often than I care to admit! So your luck here is all about finding strength inside of you to deal with yourself.

As if your own doubts aren’t enough, then there are others. When you think big and tell people around, don’t you ever hear ‘you’re crazy’, ‘that’s not doable’, ‘you can’t do it’ and other variations on the subject? I hope not, but my experience says that you will always find those naysayers around you. It’s sad, but true. I always remind myself that those are people without vision and they don’t really get me. I tend to be pretty resistant to negative thoughts of others, but doubt can creep in. All I have to say on this issue is: don’t give up! And if you feel their negativity impacting you, find yourself some cheerleaders! If you can’t find one around you, reach out to me – I will be happy to be one for you 🙂

Last, but not least, obstacle on your road to ‘luck’, also known as hard-earned success: LIFE. Things will happen. I recall seeing a marathon that required registration many months in advance and didn’t allow deferrals or bib transfers. But what if you got pregnant? Actually, I saw a comment of a lady on that marathon’s page asking what should she do, since she got pregnant in the meantime. I don’t remember the answer, but that’s not the point of this post. The point is: life happened. You are expecting and an endurance race won’t happen. That’s life… You may have much more banal obstacles: change of jobs, which derails your training plan; climate change impacting weather around you and not allowing you to train; loss of access to a swimming pool… and so on.

I guess what I’m saying is: when people say ‘you’re so lucky’, they usually have no idea what they are talking about. You weren’t born a marathon runner or an ironman. You had to work hard to get there. You did, however, get lucky to certain degree and all the possible obstacles didn’t prevent you from happily accomplish your goal. Don’t give up, keep showing up every day and help your luck!

Those of us who have children have to work every day on figuring out how to balance taking care of the little ones and training. Since when my daughter is with me it’s just the two of us, I had to do some mental gymnastics to maintain my training while she is around. I have found some solutions to create extra training time.

The first and obvious choice is to train while your child is at daycare, school or after care. I am pretty sure many of you have the same first response to this as I do: you realize we have jobs, right? True! I do, too. However, I was able to fit in some training into regular work days – I go for my shorter swims and run intervals during lunch break. Obvious limitation: you have to have place to do it and shower after. When I had a gym in my office building, I would do strength training at lunch. I strongly recommend this one for everybody though – it frees up a lot of time!

Idea number two: can you bike or run to the office? Building your workout into your commute is amazing! And like with the lunch time training, I would strongly recommend it to everybody. It’s good for you and good for the environment.

But this is not what I wanted to focus on this week. I wanted to talk about taking care of your child while you are working out.

Tool #1: at home training equipment

Your kid probably can take care of themselves around the house safely for a bit or at least they sleep more than you do. So while they are playing in their room, watching tv or are sleeping, you can work out at home:

These guys tend to be loud, but I can’t think of a better way to fit in cardio when you are stuck at home!

We can’t always be doing cardio though, can we? Home is actually perfect for stretching and strength training. All you need is a yoga mat and maybe some resistance band! I love doing it when my daughter watches tv (or when I want to watch tv). My mini-me actually picked up that habit from me recently!

These ideas work when your kid can take care of themselves though and are indoor. It’s way more fun when you can have your kid join you for training. Depending on their age, approach has to change.

Babies are relatively easy to manage. You can always run with them in a running stroller:

Unfortunately, swimming is trickier. Some gyms and pools have some sort of childcare and that’s wonderful! You can drop off your little one and get your workout done. They do have to be big enough for that though. Once they are bigger, you can take them for your open water swims though:

Dragging your kid around has one serious advantage: on race day, when you don’t have your little bundle of joy in tow, swimming/ biking/ running seems so much easier and you go that much faster!

Hopefully, as your little one gets bigger, you can incorporate them in training as training partners rather than (usually bored) weights increasing effectiveness of your training. One of the best thing you can do to improve your chances of getting a good workout is teaching them how to ride a bike. I am still going through this with my little one and it’s awesome. First of all: isn’t just teaching them a great intervals training???

My daughter hated biking with training wheels, so I missed out on being able to take her with me when she was younger. But now, she is a proud cyclist, so our weekends are starting to look like:

She loves speed! I think that’s what finally sealed the deal on riding a bike – now she can go FAST! For now, she is still working on her technique, so I can keep up easily. I have a feeling though that pretty soon, we will progress to:

Our kids provide us with some other opportunities for training. I have seen dozens, if not hundreds, of parents looking like they will die of boredom while their children are taking swim lessons, have soccer practice or learn how to ice skate. Those are the exact same people who complain later that they don’t have time for anything in life. I’m going to skip the obvious answer that they could at least read a book instead of mindlessly poking at their phones. There may be a good way to use time for your training though.

Probably the place I see bored parents the most are during swim lessons and swim team practices. My pool has multiple lanes and some are always open for ‘regular’ people to swim (although it may get crowded). At first, people looked at me as if I was strange, but over time, they got used to my and my daughter doing this:

I actually heard from some instructors that when it comes to the little ones, they prefer if the parents aren’t there staring at the lesson. It’s not about doing something wrong. Just a lot of children will look at the parents a lot and check with them if something is ok rather than following instructions. There are also kids who act scared and their parents enable that behavior. Not productive to anybody!

There are also soccer (and such) practices:

This works also when your kids are at gymnastics, dance or other karate. Those classes will be indoors, but who said you can’t go run around the building? A nearby park? A friend of mine who used to coach his son’s soccer team said he hated when the parents would hang out at practice and watch them. It’s not even about the bored ones, who are bad enough. This also brings a lot of helicopter parents, who behave like their kids are going to the olympics and want to review every singe thing that happened during practice. That’s definitely not healthy for anybody involved…

We all have lives outside our training and that’s ok. The trick is figuring out how to fit it all into a day. It’s not easy, but definitely give some thought to bringing your kids along for the journey. Who knows, maybe them watching you train will encourage them to start one of their own?

Cycling was a late addition to my wide array of interests, even the athletic ones. I have been a swimmer all my life and a runner for much of my adulthood. When I decided to become a triathlete, I had to start biking regularly. My progress was gradual, first close to home, then to work. Adding mileage wasn’t much of a problem, mostly thanks to all the running I have been doing. But even small inclines had me like:

There are some rolling hills around where I live, but I thought that in order for me to seriously improve, I should ride on REAL hills. So I came up with another one of my ‘brilliant’ ideas: in a little bit over an hour, I can be in Shenandoah National Park and ride the Skyline Drive. I didn’t really look at the profile ahead. All I knew was that I needed to ride on some serious hills and oh, boy, did I get my wish granted! For your reference, here is what it looks like:

I always start at the Front Royal side. The other side looks more ‘reasonable’ in terms of climbing, but it’s another 100 miles to drive there. So yeah, there is no warm up period – you start uphill and it only gets worse from there.

My first experience of riding the Skyline Drive was rather painful – I made it 20 miles out and was totally convinced I was going to die. The uphill was brutal. On the bright side, though, it was much cooler than back home and the views were spectacular. My personal favorite: I didn’t have to worry as much about cars, since it’s a ‘straight’ (ok, winding, but no real intersections) road. I usually ride on the W&OD Trail and Custis Trail, with a couple of miles through downtown DC on a regular basis. Not having to stop for traffic was awesome! I actually quite quickly stopped to take a picture of how pretty it was out there (ok, so maybe picture was a bit of an excuse to rest for a moment):

I also learned a very hard lesson during my first experience with this route: make sure you use the bathroom before you get there. The first rest stop is 5 miles from the entrance and it’s all a steep uphill, making it a very long ride. It was painful on a full bladder. In case you say ‘how about just jumping in the woods?’ Well, I thought of that. Sadly, when there is a vertical wall on one side of the road and a cliff on the other, that’s not really an option, at least for a woman, is it? And let’s not forget the wildlife, like this guy:

Full disclosure: this picture is not from my first ride. It’s just a proof that not all wildlife in there is butterflies. But there are plenty of butterflies, too:

I will be honest: I did take pictures at every overlook during my first ride. I mean: it was so beautiful (and let me take a quick rest 😉 ):

It took me 2 hours to get to do those 20 miles out. I know it’s a snail pace, you don’t have to tell me.

The way home, on the other hand, was just amazing!!! There was a 5 mile ‘lap’ (Garmin…), where my average speed was 26.8mph. Of course hills still feel a bit like:

Since then, I rode the Skyline Drive a few more times and I think I am getting better. At the end of the day, I get to enjoy the sun and beautiful scenery. What a workout! So keep your fingers crossed that in the long run, it works and I start riding better on hills!

I think that everybody who runs or bikes has been invited to go for a run or a ride with somebody else. There is also the frequent experience of somebody asking to tag along. We react differently and have varying considerations when responding to such requests.

I’m going to start with cons, so I can finish on a high note.

Con #1: scheduling

Somebody really enthusiastic may come over and insist that you two go for a run together. But what if they want to run at night and you are more of a morning person? How about a location that doesn’t work for you? I have special dislike for groups, since they are so inflexible! If it’s just one-on-one, you may be able to discuss it and come up with a mutually satisfying arrangements. Groups? Not so easy. They tend to be attached to specific time and place.

Con #2: interference with specific training plan

You may have some very specific work to do on your workout and your wannabe buddy may not be into it. Example: intervals. Your wannabe buddy probably was thinking of going several miles and chatting. You can’t do that when doing intervals! I also doubt you have matching paces for that. They may also have a very different distance in mind. You need a long run of 16 miles and they think 6 miles is an excessively long distance? Try reconciling that!

Con #3: different speed

Let’s face it: we all move at different speeds. Some of us go faster and some go slower. It can be frustrating for both parties in this workout. The slower person is exhausted and can’t keep up, while the faster person keeps waiting and getting frustrated, since it’s not much of a workout for them.

Con #4: having company

Some people like company when they exercise. I’m more of the other kind:

That’s quite a list of cons, isn’t it? There are some pros though.

Pro #1: having company

It’s basically mirror of con #4: sometimes you may want to have company, either for companionship:

Or safety:

Pro #2: staying accountable

We all have times when we want to bail on training. It’s human and when you have to train for many months before seeing payoff, you will have days when the motivation is just not there. I have this blog to keep me accountable, but sometimes it’s easier when it’s your training buddies. It may be easier to just show up than try to come up with a good excuse or face the shame of saying ‘I just didn’t feel like it’.

Pro #3: somebody to push you

This is the flip side of con #3. Sometimes you need to push your boundaries, whether it goes for distance or speed. A more experienced, fitter buddy may be just what you need to push you to be a bit better than what you’d do to yourself.

So alone, with a buddy or with a group? Honestly, it depends on your personal preferences and ability to find a good match. It’s also not going to be the same for each workout. I am the type that strongly prefers exercising on my own, but I will occasionally call on a friend who pushes me to bike faster. I think you need to decide for yourself what’s right for you. Always remember: this working out thing is supposed to be fun!

I have heard from a few people before that I’m fearless. Nothing can be further from the truth! I’m scared of pretty much everything… Heights… Tight spaces… Going fast and crashing… Snakes… Spiders… I could probably sit here all day and come up with new things that scare me. Over time though I decided that avoiding things that scare me is not living, it’s mere surviving. So I put on a brave face and get on with it. I’m not an adrenaline junkie though – I don’t seek out things that scare me. That would be crazy 😉

I still remember getting to the top of Lomnicky Stit in Tatra Mountains when I was in my tweens. I tried to walk over to the observation deck like:

I didn’t make it to the observation deck that time… It took me many more years to learn to deal with fear and not let it stop me from doing what I want to. Little by little, I learned to manage my own anxiety. I think that the best progression on that is dealing with my fear of heights. A friend of mine said he was going rock climbing and I decided it had potential to be fun. I started with easy boulders:

Yeah, I made it like a grand total of one foot off the ground. You can probably imagine my skepticism when my friend suggested top rope climbing. That actually ended like this:

That’s when I realized that I do a lot better dealing with fear if I have a back-up plan. That may be why I keep picking on my fear of heights: it’s the easiest to control and it never lasts for too long.

Races come with a good amount of fear, too. I am pretty sure it’s performance anxiety and fear of failure. When I was heading to my first marathon, I told only a couple of people because I was so scared I wouldn’t make it:

Joke was on me: the race was staffed by a lot of people I knew… It definitely stressed me out! They were so nice and supportive though. They definitely made surviving the whole experience a lot easier (but that’s a whole another story!). I did make it to the finish line and didn’t hesitate to tell everybody though 😆 That feeling was great! And, of course, I immediately decided that I will do it again.

I wish I could say it cured me of all fear, but I would be lying. When I was doing my IM70.3, I had a few ‘good’ moments of fear…

As I was getting ready to leave my hotel room, I suddenly broke down crying:

Yes, my personal SAG just started laughing. He was right and I knew it, too. I was being completely ridiculous! A good cry is good sometimes. I sobbed for like two minutes, took a deep breath and went off to the starting line. Waiting for the race to start was fun though and we joked a lot about observations of people around us. I was almost relaxed! That is after I got into the water:

Yes, it was bad. I couldn’t count on help from the outside. I was all on my own for this one! And that’s when I decided that mind over matter and carried on. As ridiculous as it sounds, counting off strokes 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 really helped. It got my mind off the distance and the cold and forced a rhythm. It was a short learning curve type of a lesson for dealing with fear.

We all face fear every day. For some, it’s a more intense feeling than for others. It has its benefits, as it saves us from doing stupid stuff (like deciding to swim in the middle of a cold sea, right? 😉). That shouldn’t stop you from living your life. Take a lesson from what I have learned in dealing with my everyday fears: take precautions and prepare for whatever is coming. Armed that way, you can remind your fear that it’s not really justified and you will do just fine, thank you very much.

But don’t expect me to pet any snakes or spiders though 😉

The fall is around the corner and days are getting shorter pretty quickly. I thought this is a great time to talk about safety on the road, especially when it’s dark outside. We all got spoiled by summer months when we are rarely on the road before the sun is up and we are usually done with our workouts before sunset. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case. The weather is still nice and I fully intend to bike until it’s too cold, rainy or icy on the road. I probably have another couple of months before that happens. So for now, I need to make sure I stay safe on the road.

I might sound like I’m venting, but I promise: I’m not angry or even overly frustrated with anybody. I just want to discuss how we can all stay safer out there.

Yeah, it’s hard to see the road when you’re blinded by the light. I am one of those unfortunate souls who bike a lot on the paths surrounded by trees and with few lights, so without a light, it looks a lot like this:

So a lot of people think about headlight when they run or bike outside when it’s dark. It’s great! At least that’s a n easy sell. One note on this though: if you are coming towards somebody moving in opposite direction, lower or cover your light. PLEASE… Otherwise, this is how much of a road I see:

For all the talk there is out there about good headlights and flashlights, they are mainly addressing only one concern: so that you can see where you’re going. Don’t get me wrong – that’s really important. It’s helpful to know where the path is going or if there are obstacles on the road. I like knowing when somebody is coming head-on. But the real issue is people (and dogs) you are passing, especially when going full speed on a bike. Here is what unlit people look like to me from the back:

Yes, it’s hard to see, especially from further away. I have noticed a lot of people rely on reflective items. Here is something they may not realize: I have to be pretty close for my light to reflect off of it. That means I won’t have much maneuvering room when I finally notice you. Sadly, when it’s dark, that means that I can’t see clearly which way is safe to go. I actually noticed recently that when groups are together, quite frequently the least lit person is the closest to the middle of the road. Not the best approach… A couple of times I actually didn’t realize that there was somebody in there until I was pretty close.

So far, I have managed to dodge everybody in my way, although I have had a few close calls. My personal favorite was a construction worker on a bike whose clothes used to have reflective patches. He has no lights on the bike or himself. Unfortunately, I was riding on the bike path by a very busy road and I was already somewhat blinded by the light. He decided to turn across the path and he was against the trees with large number of headlights showing me the outline of the tree. I managed to dodge him by less than a foot.

Let’s talk solutions! They are obvious for the cyclists with the headlight and rear light:

Runners and walkers can wear lights, too! And light up the stroller. Have you seen the light-up collars for your dogs? They are cute! They will help you keep track of your fur-baby and keep them safe. You do want your puppy to be safe out there, right? So here are some suggestions on making yourself and your family (whether on 2 legs or 4) visible out there at night: