The Devil's Bean and 2014

Things are moving along as I look toward planning the 2014 season.  Per usual, the lottery gods did not smile upon me but I'm sure I'll figure out a way to have some fun next year.  I have my roll over to Grindstone 100 in October since it was canceled due to the government shutdown and I think I'm going to head back to McNaughton Park in Pekin, IL in April to hit the Potawatomi 100.  I'll throw some races in there along the way before and between, but as of now those will be my anchor races. Training is going well as I set my base and begin growing out my average monthly miles.  While the weekly miles are not quite where I want them to be yet.  The weekend miles are going great.  I'm moving my average Saturday runs from about 21 miles to 25-28.  In fact, yesterday these 3 dudes cracked off 32 miles in the cold temps.

I also have not drank a cup of real coffee in over 3 weeks! This is pretty big for me.  I'm (was) a coffee drinker.  The smell of it, taste of it, finding new beans, the ritual of making it in the morning... I love it!! But I was having some cramping issues that I could not track down so I decided to take a shot at getting off the stimulants and see where that would get me.  It seems that the cramping has gone away and as a super added bonus, I sleep like a baby.  I go to bed early.  I don't get up during the night to go to the bathroom.  I wake up alert.  It's pretty great. There are also some potential athletic benefits to more sleep so overall it seems to be the right move to make.   I do miss it and think that eventually I'll have a cup every now and then just to enjoy it.  Ultimately it feels great to not be so reliant on something every morning to wake up.  Plus I am over the headaches and wanting to punch the walls from the withdrawals so I figure it's best to stay off it a bit longer.