Driving from race to race I can be on the road for lengthy time periods. I generally spend at least 10 hours on the road a week during the hot time of my race season. As traveling in a car has a sense of vestige, it has a tendency to wear off after your fifth straight week of being away from home. So how do you keep your sanity through this crazed “travel life”?! 

If I’m on the road on my own (so I end up doing all the driving), the task becomes a lot harder to keep myself entertained, but I have a found a couple tips that really do help. 1. I try to wait to eat till I’m actually on the road because that can use up a good half hour or so. 2. I create a fun upbeat playlist to keep my mind flowing and my heart racing so I don’t get so drowsy. I’ve found that creating a playlist is a lot better than just scrolling through all my songs, because that can get tedious, and very discouraging when you suddenly feel like you've failed at purchasing hip songs… queue drowsiness and depression... -- Which brings me to 3. Find an in-depth audiobook. Listening to someone read to you, sparking thoughts, uncovering what you believe, keeps your mind engaged and upbeat. 

If I am riding with someone else in the car, so I am not driving. Its obvious that you have a friend or family member to unravel conversations to entertain both you and the driver. If not talking though, I have a tendency to bring a stack of magazines to read up on. It is fun to read a handful of articles, but not have to get super engaged in an entire book (I've never been a huge reader). Also, for myself, I have quite a bit of social media to take care of on a regular basis, so times like these are a great opportunity to catch up on replying to lost messages and fan pages. 

Regardless if your travel weekly, or once in a life time, it’s always a better trip the more prepared you are. Pace yourself, laugh a lot, encourage yourself, and enjoy your downtime!! :) 


Living by Faith,
Mianna