Sleep?

In the book Ultramarathon Man, the author uses the quote, "sleep is for wimps".  I laughed when I read it a few years ago and I keep trying to remind myself of it being a dangerous way of thinking: the body needs rest.  That said, I usually go to sleep between 10 and 10:30 but my wake up times seem to be creeping earlier and earlier into the wee hours of the morning.

This week we had some good weather at the start so I slept in on Monday until 6, which is my normal time to get up for the school day, and rode for two hours (40 miles) in the afternoon.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays are double workout days when I like to be rested for my evening swims, therefore I try to run or ride before school.  This week I got up at 4:45 on Tuesday to do a steady ten-mile run and 5:00 on Wednesday to do a one-hour speed workout on my bike trainer in the basement.  On some Thursdays I run in the afternoon but we had a play to attend that Gracie starred in this week; so, Thursday turned into a 4:30 wake up for a 10 mile run with a speed workout in the second half.

I try to listen to how my body is feeling but hearing what it is telling me is sometimes difficult to discern.  On some days we will have beautiful weather and I will feel like running or riding longer than planned for; on other days I feel like wimping out and cutting workouts short.  This is where a training plan comes in and, fortunately, mine is custom tailored and I'm trying to follow it the best I can.

Sleep can be difficult to judge too.  I'm usually tired in the afternoon after school but seem to get a "second wind" around bedtime; I try to avoid naps because then I'm definitely not ready for bed at a reasonable time.  However, on Thursday I snuck an nap because I volunteer on the overnight shift at Greece Volunteer Ambulance and sleep is never a guarantee.  We only had one call on the shift so I felt pretty rested on Friday, which also happens to be a rest day so everything worked out well this week.

Saturday is a long-ish ride (3 hours) and I think I'm going to wimp out and ride in the basement due to the cold temps.  Sunday is a 12 mile run and then Monday starts the whole thing over again.  Hopefully my sleep duration and rest days will work for the rest of the training plan (knock on wood).

On another note, I started the push for fundraising at school today and am truly humbled by the generosity of both staff and students- what great people.  Next week the fundraising continues and News 10 NBC visits to do a story on how my students are helping me out.

One more week until spring break, but who's counting?