Day 4,384—Leaving my Headphones at Home—

 

        I didn’t listen to anything today like yesterday, and it has been refreshing to have some time in the morning to be alone with my thoughts. For the kinds of distance I did today, the time usually goes by faster when I don’t listen to anything. I have audiobooks I am listening to, so I don’t like being behind on that, but going back to no input has been rewarding. I felt like I was maintaining a controlled pace while working to improve my form. I went over to the trail, which is a little under 2 miles, and was disappointed to find they had cut most of the high grass, so I couldn’t see where the trail was for large portions, which made me go back and forth a few times when I was trying to find the trail. This slowed me down some, but I have to stop thinking about pace! I did too many races last year, and my body is paying the price. Right now, if I want to keep running, I have to run conservatively in terms of pace. I also think doing more trail runs is helpful because of less impact. I don’t know if this is realistic, but I am going to try to run the Chubb once a week leading up to the Berryman. I wonder if the river will be lower this weekend. It should be some, I imagine, but I doubt there will be a complete transformation. This week I need to get in some decent miles, so my goal will be to get close to 80 miles, but we will see. The problem with the mile goal is that if I am doing trail miles, I won’t be able to do as many in the time I have. I can always get less sleep, but sometimes it has diminishing returns. This week, I will sacrifice sleep for running, but next week I won’t! Also, thank you, everyone, for commenting on my streak anniversary! I should also be celebrating how long I have been writing this almost every day. It has to be close to 5 years by now.  

   I was reading more about the Berryman 50 last night, and I am surprised by how excited I am for the race. This will be my 5th time doing it, so you would think by now there wouldn’t be much to be excited about, but I read that the medals and the swag will be different this year, and I am excited about my plan to go camping. I gave Travis trouble for camping last year, but the more I thought about it, I decided it was the way to go. I get stressed out driving there first thing in the morning. It is an hour and a half from my house, so I can make it on time if I leave by 4 a.m., but that’s always stressful: getting up at 3, doing some last-minute packing, and then driving in the dark on roads with little light. Also, I need to practice camping for the Mohican, which is only two weeks after the Berryman, so for both of