After yesterday's happy post had a little less of a good time today. I said that I've been sleeping badly - it's not so much the sleeping badly as the waking early that is beginning to get to me. I seem to wake up at around 5 / 5:30 with my head spinning with arrangements, plans and to-do lists. Felix has been waking up really early as well and so I'm kind of anticipating his coming into our room, so it's all been a bit exhausting. And today it caught up with me - after one lap (1.4 miles) I simply had no juice left in the box. All used up.
So what to do? Well, I've kind of accepted the early starts. I go through this from time to time and as long as I steer clear of caffeine in the afternoon and evenings and stay on the wagon, I can cope. Getting Felix to stay in his bed takes some concerted effort - hard to muster when you're tired which is how I get into these vicious circles to begin with - but I'm going to have be stricter with myself and just patiently take him back to his room until his rabbit clock tells him he's allowed out of bed (if you're fortunate enough to live a life which does not include a clock with rabbit ears and eyes which "wakes up" when the alarm says so - count your blessings and ask no further). And as for me - earlier bedtimes I guess.. I have no problem with falling asleep anytime from 7:30 in the evening but there's just so much to do! And then it's nice to have an hour to talk to my husband without being interrupted by the phone or the kids and before I know it it's 10:30 again and I'm still not in bed. So - that's going to be my strategy. I'll hopefully manage another 4 tomorrow morning. Then it's a rest day on Friday, 5 miles at race pace on Saturday and 11 miles on Sunday. It should all be do-able, provided I get some sleep...
Looking ahead got a big week of running next week - it's the Lincoln 10K next Sunday and in that week I've somehow got to wedge in a 17 miler as well. As I'm working my last few days in this temping job next week my schedule's kind of crowded but I might be able to do it on Friday after work - a couple of hours running should sort me out. And this should force me not to push it too much during the 10K 2 days later..
Finally - drumroll and general shouts of excitement - I'm going to be interviewed for the Fitness Rocks podshow! I've been a fan of the show for some time. On the show Monte Ladner, a doctor, usually picks a topic in the area of health and fitness and then reviews medical studies about this topic. The topics range from heart disease in women to the benefits of pomegranate juice and green tea - and far beyond. To me the refreshing thing about his show is that, because he discusses legitimate medical studies, you get a detailed and accurate point of view about topics which are often "dumbed down" in the media. Dr Monte is a great fan of what he calls the Mediterranean diet (by which he means, put simply, a diet high in fruits, vegetables, pulses and grains and low in salt, sugar and processed foods). If you're interested drop me a line and I'll send you some pdfs he's sent me about the Mediterranean diet and healthy foods. In addition, he's a great believer in exercise and maintaining fitness, for physical and mental reasons. A couple of weeks ago he asked for e-mails from people who have effected a lifestyle change in their life and, having gone from being an 85 kg couch potato to a 61 kg runner I shared my story with him. So I'll let you know how it goes and when it goes out!
I'm sort of nervous about it but I would like to do it because changing my lifestyle has had such an enormous benefit for my life in so many way. If listening to my story can help one person feel that they too can do it then I'm quite happy to get past my nerves. Because it's true - if I can do it, anyone can..
In the meantime, if any of you have any fixes for falling back to sleep once waking up (and no I will not do Tylenol PM and a glass of wine at 5:30 am) please send them onto me.
Till then, happy trails and sleep well (well, better than me anyway..)
4 comments:
Petra,
I'm excited for you to be talking to Dr. Monte. I too am a fan of his show. Thanks so much for reading and commenting on my blog. It's very encouraging to know that I am part of a virtual running community. I don't know if I've ever gotten used to the sleep deprivation that kids bring, but I do know that running has helped my crankieness resulting from the lack of sleep.
Thanks Chris - hopefully it should all come out alright on the podcast.. You're right about dealing with the crankiness - no kidding! I'm a lot better after a run!
I know this post is a year old, but it's very inspiring. I'm really happy to know that even super fit marathoners have days when they can't even run 3 miles! I've been working out really hard lately and doing Bikram yoga on the side for my knees and haven't given myself much rest (even on my "off" days, I still do the yoga). Today I was on the treadmill for just 20 minutes before I decided to quit. Usually I get totally "high" by that point and all the aches and pains go away, but I just felt fatigued and worse. I'm always afriad of losing fitness if I take too many days off running, but sometimes maybe it's better to do that than to push to extreme fatigue. Usually when I rest up, I find I can go longer and I feel more relaxed and powerful, but then there's a fine line between resting too much and healthy rest, don't you think?
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