Always go with your gut.

ALWAYS .

First i would say to be careful and safe, but i see you're the one to be feared 🤣

Keep your guard up, stay in open well lit areas, don't get cornered.

Self defense might seem like a good option but is a high risk if you don't have a plan of action memorized. Keep your distance for 99% of situations and leave self defense for the unavoidable.

Buy a gun and carry it everywhere

Trust your gut. Always.

Apologize later if you have to for misreading. But initially, ALWAYS trust your intuition.

And get some bear mace. Its non lethal, but will break conflicts long enough to make a rapid exit.

If it comes down to that, grab testicles and squeeze as hard as you can, also bite anything you can get, rip it off and bite again. Remember your elbow offers some amazing leverage. If you can get an arm around his neck, use your other arm to cut off air flow. Whatever happens don’t let go. No air means no power and unconsciousness. One he’s incapacitated find a way to bash his head in resulting in death. Otherwise the nightmare might continue upon awakening. I know this all sounds fatherly, if I could be there to protect you I would. I hate predatory creeps. 💜

Good, being aware and listening to your instincts is a big part of protecting yourself.

Always go for the soft targets. Groin, neck, face, eyes. Collapsing a trachea is actually very easy. Ears are very painful and clapping them is very disorienting. Stabbing a long object into the eardrum is also very painful and disorienting. Raking the shin bone hurts like a muhfucker.

Get a loud airhorn. Long knife. Whistle. Pepper Spray. Put a heavy master lock in a sock to hit him with. Do maximum damage. No half measures. Try not to be alone with no one around.

To all the other advice, I'll add this. Listen to the animals, especially birds and other small animals. In a forest, a sudden silence tells you a large predator is approaching (bear or human). In a city, there is much more background noise, but I've found it very worthwhile to notice e.g. how birds post lookouts which give a piercing alarm when a cat approaches. Learn the alarm calls of the creatures around you.

You should have seen the look on our cat's face when I imitated an alarm call and the bird she was stalking flew away. (I don't interfere when she stalks mice, rabbits, or invasive bird in the US like English Sparrow.)

I've had animals warn me on several occasions. Once I noticed them all running silently in the same direction. I figured something was wrong, so I cut short our family hike, and headed back to our cabin. Just in time. Finally, our dull human senses could smell the smoke, and see the line of fire in the distance approaching. We had time to pack up the minivan and leave. (We learned that the fire had been set by an arsonist.)