Day 4,231—One Big Cloud—

 

       No rain today, and it wasn’t cold either. I put on my gloves and hat just because I thought I needed something, especially for these shorter runs, but I was truly fine and probably didn’t need my hat and gloves. When I went outside, I noticed the absence of wind, and I thought about what season it felt like. It is not the end of November yet, but it feels like the end is already here because I don’t have work all next week, and when we return, it will be December. Once it is December, it will be only three weeks until the next break. I cannot wait for my class to be over, but I have a big project due next week, and then the class is over the week after that. I am surprised I am not getting more irritated with taking a break, but I think it will be good for me. I still need to be active, and I am not going to risk doing nothing, but I need to dial the running back temporarily. I am giving my running a short-term break through November. Although I am going to risk running a long run over the weekend to see how I feel, just taking these 4 days so far has made a difference. I don’t know if I have given up completely on running another 100 miles in December, but I do keep reminding myself that I have already completed four 100-mile races, one 24-hour race, and one 200-mile race. That is by far the most race miles I have ever done in a year, so I am not planning on taking a year off next year. I still want to aggressively plan my races for 2026, and I still will need to do some kind of special run for my birthday, but I just don’t know what it is going to be yet. I still cannot believe my birthday is only a couple of weeks away now. In 2016 I had a good year at the time and then that started a slump I had for a couple of years, so now I always think of that whenever I feel like I have hit some kind of milestone. 

I had such a crazy day at school yesterday. A parent refused to tell me why she came to the school and then broke out in some kind of religious ritual. It was something I am not going to forget for a while. What will today bring, I wonder.