Day 3,762 —Running with a Vest: Day III—

My cats woke me up early this morning at 3:40, but that’s okay. It gave me time to stretch and meditate. I saw two baby deer running as fast as they could toward me, and then they went off toward my right, going at full tilt. Running with the weighted vest felt almost normal today. It didn’t bother me at all. Instead, I was able to keep my phone in a pouch and play music softly as moved through the foliage.

I was amazed after only 3 days of wearing the vest and 5 days in a row of wearing a vest it is almost completely normal. I might change my mind in the future about how useful this practice is, but I have always believed that you have to train how you want to compete, and I know wearing the vest always bothers me during a race, so this seems like a good solution. I don’t know if I will keep it every day until the race, but I figure this week and next week at least.

         That last week before the race, I might want to intentionally stretch and take salt baths during the time I usually spend running. I did a good amount of training for this race, and although I want to run roughly around 50 miles (ca. 80 km) this week and 30 next week, by the last week before the race I will be putting up closer to 1–3 miles a day. Regardless of everything else going on, I felt great this morning running through the nearby trails.