My batteries need recharging ...

So in response to my friends' sensible suggestions, I tuned out the quadrennial unpleasantness on Tuesday and read trail running and training sites.

And I stumbled across this, from Mario Fraioli, this which perfectly captures the condition that a summer devoted to eldercare (which included a little running) has left me in this autumn.

The tendency to keep pushing in an effort to make progress is hardwired into my personality: Once I get going on something, I suck at shutting off for fear of not continually making gains. That’s not to say I never stop working during the day. I most certainly do, but when I “stop” working (a multifaceted endeavor for me) it’s rarely a deliberate, restful respite; it’s more of an excuse to temporarily invest my energy into some other project until I go back to whatever it is I was originally doing, even if I was “just” answering emails or editing an article while eating my lunch. ...

... It’s hard to be at your best when the battery is always operating at only a half or three-quarter charge (or less!). Constantly draining it all the way down without letting it recharge at regular intervals along the way is unsustainable practice, despite our best intentions to convince ourselves otherwise. ... There’s only so much juice in our batteries.

I’m often crawling into bed physically and emotionally spent at the end of it, much like when I was when I was training really hard many years ago. At best, I’ll wake up the next day with maybe a 50 or 60-percent charge. After another day of draining that down without properly resting and recharging, I might wake up at 40 percent. And then 30 percent. I’m not really being all that productive when trying to function at these levels but yet I keep pushing, which in small doses can be a necessary and beneficial step on the road to making progress. But going all-out all the time is a bunch of bullshit. ...

How long will recovery take? I currently have no idea. Trails will help, if I don't push too hard.