The Garbage Collectors

October 15th 2020

I discovered plogging - picking up litter while jogging - in the spring of 2020, during the first lock-down of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an incidental discovery since I was not planning to integrate garbage collection into my training schedule. While in lock-down, Marleen got two grippers and plastic bags from the municipality of Groningen. We intended to engage Fay and Olivia in an act of civic duty by playing a garbage-collecting game. Our original idea was that Marleen and I would hold bags while Fay and Olivia filled them up. But our expectation for fierce competition between F&O for who would have collected the most garbage was soon disillusioned and downgraded. Then M and me picking up litter, whereas Fay and Olivia played at the nearby playground. The transition from F&O collecting garbage to us was also helped by the fact that gathering litter while F&O play at the playground involved more movement than standing still watching.

As with new things, there is always an aura of excitement and overdoing it around them. As a child who gets a new toy, picking up a new hobby, or to new year's resolutions, I got caught in the excitement, and I brought the gripper everywhere I went. But I soon realized I was often lagging if I was to stop every time I had to pick up garbage. Therefore I thought of becoming a moving-garbage collector. A new motoric-coordination challenge was born: gripping litter while walking without stopping. My expectations for success with this new challenge were low. I expected to scrape the gripper about failing to grab any garbage. But to my surprise, I was more successful than I anticipated: about 50% of all the times I attempted to pick-up something. 50% might look like a low percentage, but my trash bag was filling up. Moreover, I was not bothered by the failures because I recognized that I did NOT have to pick up ALL the garbage at once. On the contrary, at my next passage, I would have grabbed any piece I missed or the pieces left, if there was too much to collect. In short: collecting garbage while walking was here to stay.

Upgrading the challenge from gripping while walking to gripping while running went naturally. However, not all types of run/training are plogging-friendly. One can easily imagine the clumsiness of threshold runs with voluminous garbage bags or frantically swinging a gripper in the air during an interval/sprint. On the other hand, (long) slow runs are ideal. In slow runs, I rigorously try to follow the serious[1] recommendation to keep my heart rate in zone 1 (HR1). For me, HR1 translates to a speed between 8 and 9.5 km/h (pace min/km), which is slightly faster than a brisk walk. This speed is well suited for gripping while moving. Moreover, I use two expedients to maintain a steady pace. Firstly, I use a gripper, which does not require me to stop, bend over, and grab something. Secondly, I use small bags, namely plastic bags for bread loaf. These are about 20-cm wide and 50-cm long. Using small bags is key. After all, 1) they do not impede running because they do not become too voluminous; 2) they can be dropped in any trash bin that I meet on the way allowing me to A) drop bags too full or heavy B) not bringing home other's trash C) stop collecting if I got tired of it. I also wear re-usable plastic gloves. These are less comfortable to wear while running than other gloves or no gloves. However, plastic gloves offer better protection than no-gloves or other gloves since collecting garbage is filthy.

Plogging added extra purpose to my running training. Before I found slow (long) runs boring and tedious, more of a mental rather than a physical exercise. But I cannot avoid them. After I integrated them into my training schedule, I have seen a boost in performance and a reduction of injuries. Therefore, I overcome slow-run boredom with the extra challenge of searching and gathering litter while running. Plogging also gives me a boost because I help to keep the neighborhood clean. Every time I run a garbage-collection activity I get positive/encouraging feedback from people and some say to feel inspired into following my example. To get more exposure, I also started a group on Garmin connect to promote plogging. Maybe that will get others involved too, and it will be cool to browse through other's routes covered while plogging.

[1] In 'Serious training for endurance athletes' Sleamaker and Browning recommend to perform the slow-runs in heart rate zone 1.