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I'm in the "long run" part of marathon training (should've been there a week ago), and that's always the tricky part when it comes to eating. This is where my appetite is volatile. If I eat too little, I get in trouble with the long runs, and if I eat too much, I gain weight. I think I should err on the side of gaining weight for this month. If I break even, it's a win. In recent years, I've had inadequate training for all the marathons and half marathons I've managed to do, and I must stop doing that. It's dangerous and miserable!
In my new financial situation, I've been looking for ways to save money while still living the life I want, and I discovered a whole subculture of people who use their Prius as an RV. Some people go to extremes and even LIVE in their Prius because they have a traveling lifestyle and want to be minimalists. I won't to that level, but I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only weirdo who has slept in the car by choice, being too cheap to get a motel room. I've done it a few times when I've traveled and only had a few hours for sleeping, and didn't particularly need a shower.
I met an older couple on my trip who were traveling in a conversion van, and that always appealed to me as a "minimalist RV" type of thing. But it made me think of how I'd like to do it -- to go even smaller, and use my Prius. Now I have discovered other people who do this, and I can get a lot of good tips from them.
I don't have another road trip planned for at least a year, but I'm already excited about it. There's a tent-like attachment you can purchase for $100 that goes on the back of the Prius to make it more like a camper, and I plan to get one of those and stay in campgrounds. I won't use it when I do "stealth camping" (staying in Walmart parking lots or even hotel parking lots, where I don't want to be noticed). I'll also rig up some black-out curtains for car camping.
I know this isn't for everyone, but I HATE spending gobs of money on hotel rooms. As much as I enjoy the comfort, the spending takes a lot of the pleasure out of it if I have to do it every night! I have fond memories of family vacations when I was a child and we stayed in campgrounds, but I don't want to pitch a tent. This sounds like a great solution.
OK, today is my 16-mile run, and I have a bunch of other things to get done as well, so here I go...