The Need For Zzz’s

My goal is to get at least seven hours of sleep every night. When I do, I operate quite well with my busy schedule. Considering I usually wake up at 4:30, it has taken some time for me to develop the habit of getting to bed by 9:00 so I am asleep by 9:30. The reaction I get when friends call at 9:40 – “oh, I woke you?” is funny. Most people have the 10:00 cut off time to call. Last night I was turning my Kindle off and the lights by 9:30 and on my way to sleep. This morning? I could have slept all day. I managed to get up by 5:00 and still get to the pool. Coffee and chlorine usually work wonders in waking me up. Not so much today. After my swim I still needed another cup of coffee to get going.

Fortunately today was my active rest day, so I only swam 2,000 meters. Despite my sleepy state of mind, my body was still working well. I ended my workout with 2 x 100 fast. And I was able to do just that – both were 1:57. For me, that is fast. Because I did get a good night of sleep, I did well through the day and the fog lifted. But I find it odd, even after sleeping 7 solid hours, I was so tired this morning. Then I remembered I am peaking in my marathon training and my body is requiring more rest. I am almost giddy knowing I can sleep in tomorrow morning. In geek athlete language that translates to 6:30. Maybe even 7:00. Normally on a Friday morning I am on my spin bike pedaling away at that time. I have a medium long run tomorrow afternoon, so that is my primary focus.

Knowing what to do and actually doing it is a struggle of the ages. Here I am typing after 10:00 in the evening. I did more today because I didn’t have a workout in the evening and I get to sleep in. Well, I won’t get much more extra sleep if I don’t get to bed soon. Unfortunately sleep is not like reading a book – it is not easy to catch up on. But developing the discipline to do what I know I should do, well that is my work in progress and I am progressing. One day – and night – at a time.