poor sleep – Slacker Runner

Training for:

City to the Sea 13.1 ✅
Harvest Marathon 13.1
Golden Gate Half

I wish I could I could be all sunshine and daisy’s about last week but I can’t. I am looking really hard for the shiny because I know it’s there somewhere. It has to be.

Work has been stressful, we are still down an employee and haven’t been able to replace them yet. Also, the shift back to being an hourly employee is affecting me more than I thought it would but I’ll keep trucking along.

My sleep is still crap. I used to be the type person who while being a night owl, once asleep I was dead to the world. Seriously, you could throw things at me and I would sleep through it. I would fall asleep in one position and stay that way all night. Lately I can’t fall asleep and when I do I wake up repeatedly and I toss and turn. Toss and turn to the point that my quilt and top sheet are usually on the floor in the morning. 😞 This weekend I went shopping for new pillows and I’ve ordered some essential oils to see if they help. Fingers crossed!

Loss. I was somehow lucky enough to get this far in life without having to deal with loss often. This year has been different and last week was more bad news. I really need to work on being less of stress eater.

Monday- 2 miles This was supposed to be a rest day but with all weekend off due to my stupid leg, I wanted get in a few test miles. We got out of work late so by the time I made to home town I was racing the dying daylight. 2 miles is what I was able to fit in. I was a little achy but nothing hurt more than that.

Tuesday- Rest. Something came up and I didn’t get off work until almost 7. I didn’t even attempt to run that day.

Wednesday- Rest 2 days off in a row seemed like a good idea. Plus it fit perfectly in my training plan from Ekiden Coaching. 😛

Thursday- 3.5 miles Another chance to test the leg and see if I would be racing this weekend. The plan called for 5 x400 but I knew I wasn’t getting up to 5k pace. I stuck to the 400’s but kept them around a 9:30 pace and walked the recoveries. My calves were super tight per usual and I stopped at one point to completely re-lace both Hoka’s but other than that it was ok. I realized that I will be on the treadmill much sooner than I would like though. It is getting dark so fast!

seawinner

Friday- Rough day. But I did win my entry in City to Sea from a Facebook contest so there’s that right?! Thank you to everyone I badgered into voting for me! I registered for Sunday’s race on Friday morning.

Saturday- Rest day. Went to SLO for packet pickup and wandered around doing some shopping. Shopping and food make great distractions from life right? The race shirt was tiny, like Stitch size tiny.

Sunday- City to the Sea 13.1 To be continued…😛
How was your week?

Have any sleeping tips for me?

I survived!

Haha, but in all seriousness, this was a long week. It also has had very little running so far. Tuesday was taken up by prep and Wednesday the lovely test. Tuesday was one of those times where I thought maybe I should be a morning runner- but nah- I like my sleep. No solid food for almost 2 days and the horrible taste of the prep aside- the test was easy. I went to sleep talking about my hair color and woke up in the recovery room. My mother says I was a little hyped up from the meds they knocked me out with. Apparently I reminded her of one of those funny internet videos.

Hmmm, I don't remember taking this — Hmmm, I don’t remember taking this

I took my running gear with me on Thursday hoping I would feel up to running but that may have been a little optimistic. I felt super achy all day. I don’t know if it was a side effect of the test or the biopsies but I just hurt. I figured the smarter thing to do was rest. Which ended up working out because my mom called needing me to run to the pharmacy for my dad. He went for a hike and came back with a ton of ticks!!! Yuck! Also, my mom is skeeved out about the 25K now. He had hiked part of the course and I know he never sat down. But late January should be fine tick wise… I hope. Yuck again.

Last Sunday, when I was shopping I treated myself to a little gift. I have been feeling a little uninspired and truthfully a little fluffy, so I picked up a new activity tracker, a Fitbit Flex. Not a Fuelband this time, come on I went through 3 of those in less than 18 months. Have you noticed you hardly ever hear about the Nike trackers anymore? I really considered the Garmin Vivosmart and Vivofit but I was really only interested in step tracking and sleep tracking. Plus it was kind of a steal as it was part of a Christmas sale. So far I am liking the app interface as well.

Oh, that's not good — Oh, that’s not good

I really wish I could say the Fitbit was defective but I know I was just lying to myself. I have worn it everyday since Monday and Monday was the only day I cleared 10,000 steps. But even that doesn’t really count- it includes my 3.5 mile run. Even if I cut myself some slack for Tuesday and Wednesday due to the test- that still leaves Thursday and Friday. Did I mention I have a stand up desk? Standing is not the same as walking!!! I didn’t even clear 5000 steps on either day. I don’t see how that is possible on a Friday, I felt busier than that. Thursday, we were down two people and the number was still low. Apparently I need to step it up. Pun intended. I ~~kind of~~ already knew this but seeing it spelled out on the phone means no more denial. I’m all for being a Slacker but that’s just sad. Oh, and as for sleep? I’m averaging 6 hours a night. Ouch. The only thing I am successfully completing/ exceeding is the suggested water intake.

What stands out about your week?

Are you ready for Christmas? I am so not.

Have you ever used a tracker? Thoughts?

Tag: poor sleep

Week 41 Training Recap

Standing is Not the Same