#Janathon Day 6 – treadmill run, and a discussion on sleep.

Day 6.  Slept a little rough, with some really, really weird dreams.  The sort of dreams that you wake up with your heart pounding and your head full of emotion and confusion.   The last of these times I woke up, I got up as people often do in the middle of the night, did what i needed to and went back to bed.  Quick time check – 5:25.  Alarm goes off in 5 minutes.

I feel robbed.  As I had gotten out of bed, I had already been looking forward to going back to sleep (lesson learned: check time BEFORE getting out of bed).  Since my heart was so set on being in my warm cozy bed, you can see how THIS conversation went:

Sweet!  Woke up before the alarm!! WOO HOO!! Don’t have to worry about it waking the wife up!
But… Sleep.. Cozy Bed… Best Part of the day right here…
Man, you are going to be able to work out first thing!  That means you are wide awake and ready to go!  Remember? These are the sorts of days where you may not even remember to get coffee until 10 am!
How on earth do you think that is a GOOD thing? Coffee is life.  Now go away, the bed is warm.

That’s about the right size to start the day.. If I don’t run in the AM!

You do realize that you don’t have a prayer of going back to sleep right?
Of course.. But this laying in bed, nice and cozy – that’s my favorite part of the day!  Getting out of bed? That’s my least favorite.. You are asking me to give up my favorite part and jump right to my least favorite!
Yes.
That’s Ridiculous.  (Time Check: 5:38)
Ok, let’s try a different path.. What is your exercise plan for the day?
Umm. I was thinking 3 miles, with the mile combined warm/up cool down..  Only I can tell that my legs are still tired, so that may not be the best
Ok, you know if you don’t get up and work out, you will be annoyed with yourself the rest of the day right?
Umm.. yes… But I’m not sure where you are going with this…
Well, if your legs are more tired than you expect, it makes sense to keep your workout at a light level right?
Right……
So how about, you stay in bed until 6, giving  you another 17 minutes.. Then cut down your run to 2 miles?  If you do, it will give your legs some more rest, you get to lay in bed longer, AND you get a work out in..
Hmm.. I think I can agree to that…

And that is how my morning went. I did indeed stay in bed until 6, then I got up did a .25 mile warm up at 3 mph, followed by 2 miles running, and ended with a .25 mile cool down.  I have to report that my legs WERE tired, so I kept it at a nice easy 6 mph.  I followed up the run with my usual static stretches.  I didn’t get the plank in yet, but since DJ Kirby has been sharing with me how effective they seem to be –  I promise to get one in today.

So, now the discussion on sleep.. or rather another discussion on sleep (its in the title of the posting, so I have to go there):

I hit my first discussion on eating yesterday (aka nutrition), and almost every post is about exercise.  That leaves the third leg of the “healthy tripod” – Sleep.  This is probably the one that we, in modern society, have a tendency to skimp on the most.  Sadly, it is just as important as the other legs.

The National Sleep Foundation (now they don’t sound biased about the importance of sleep, do they?)  is all in favor of exercise, but wants us to remember a few things:
1) Your body’s metabolism is boosted from exercise, and this boost can take up to 3 hours to settle down.  Now, what this means to us – is that if we exercise in the evening, sleep can be harder to come by in the 3 hours following.

2) Since exercise can boost your core temperature for up to 6 hours, you may want to plan on having that extra blanket you can grab in the middle of the night – if you do  your exercising in the evening!

Now, something worth mentioning, is how sleep can affect motivation. If you are really tired because you stay up late, then it is harder to get out of bed in the morning and exercise..  Then, with out the energy expended through exercise – it may be more difficult to fall asleep.  Conversely, if you sleep well, it’s easier to get up and burn energy through exercise.  This will make it easier to get sleep at night, because your body is tired!  Obviously, worrying about tomorrow (and other items like caffeine intake) can still affect the quality of our sleep.

I will come back to the importance of sleep, and different aspects of what we gain from a good nights sleep another day.  Since I post my internal ramblings, this post is getting plenty long!    One last thing – How do you motivate yourself to get out of bed?  What tricks do you have that keep you from rolling over and going back to sleep?

About Robinson

I run, because I am a runner. Having realized that I have always "been a runner" - even when I went years with out running, I am learning how it has integrated itself in all aspects of my life. When I started running in highschool, my perspective on life changed. Funny that I didn't realize how much it had affected it until just recently.