Magical Healing powers of Sleep

I didn’t realize how freaking tired my body actually was until last night. Apparently waking up at 4:30 AM on Sunday, running for 2 ½ hours and then not really getting in any sleep was harder on my body than I had originally thought.  It’s not like I did anything on Sunday afternoon other than sit on the couch but I couldn’t sleep.  I don’t really take naps during the day. Not my style.  Chris slept for 4 hours.  I did not. But it really caught up with my yesterday big time.  I really felt exhausted in the afternoon. Unusually so.  I did leave work early yesterday to go to my niece’s practice 5k, which for some reason ended up being a total joke.

When I say total joke it’s because all the “adults” claimed the course was a 5k. I had my Garmin on and was like umm… I don’t think so.  It was exactly 1.67 miles. I trust my Garmin. And according to my Garmin, which I started when we started running and stopped when we finished, it was 21 minutes.  Somehow when we crossed the finish line they wrote times on the girls arms and they wrote down 32 minutes.  I do not understand a single thing about this.  It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, it’s not competitive and the little girls don’t care but I just was baffled. Where the hell did you get 32 minutes and how on earth did you think a 1.67 mile course was close to a 3.1 mile course. Confused? And clearly these women were not runners because honestly a 32 minute 5k sounds like a very decent time to me and most of these little girls were not runners just little girls and this would be a pretty great time for a 5k.  Most of them walked portions of it.  I was just totally confused mostly. I just don’t understand and that was my biggest issue.  BUT it was ultimately about supporting my niece which I was thankful I was able to do.  The big finale to their Girls on The Run experience is May 30 at Oregon State University’s track. They will run a “real” 5k, and I’m sure it will be a real distance actually and I am signed up to be her running buddy.

Anyway, so I did this like 1.67 miles and then I just felt tired.  I drove to the gym afterwards anyway, but I wasn’t really sure what the hell I was going to do.  I thought very strongly about skipping it. But for some dumb reason I went in.  I didn’t want to run.  I was pretty certain my body needed the break. So instead I got on the stair climber to warm up. 10 minutes and I was just done.  I decided to try and do some upper body work.  It was pitiful and ridiculous honestly.  I did a few exercises and my head started throbbing. Like tired aching headache from exhaustion.  I barely did anything. Burned another 150 calories and then was like, fuck this, I’m going home.  So I did a total of like 300 calories burned yesterday. But I really knew my body had hit its exhaustion level.  I just decided it was better to listen to my body.

I got home about 7 PM and immediately sat down and wanted to sleep.  I forced myself up to change my clothes, pack gym clothes for today and then eat something and then I lied back down on the couch.  I reclined the couch and I am pretty sure by 8 PM I had fallen asleep.  I would go in between moments of sleep and waking up for a second to make an incoherent statement at Chris until about 10 PM when I finally woke up enough to move to bed.  I went to bed and pretty much fell fast asleep not waking up until 7:30 this morning.  Clearly my body was beyond exhausted.  I needed that sleep. I do feel a little bit better today as a result.  I just needed sleep.  Crazy. And better to ultimately listen to your body than force things.  That is a lot of sleep I got last night.  If you count the sleeping at 8 PM on the couch that is a solid 11 ½ hours of sleep.  I needed that.

Especially because tonight I want to get in a solid workout.  My training plan has me running 3 miles tonight and then I want to do legs.  I want to do legs tonight to give my body time to recuperate and not be sore by Sunday for my next half.  I will work up a leg workout actually and stick to it solidly.  I will run my 3 miles.  I have (2) more 4.5 mile runs I am supposed to complete this week.  I will get it done. 

The good news is that I woke up today feeling excited and ready to work hard and reach goals. This was probably all the sleep helping me out on that front.  I feel pretty good.  And mainly I am slightly excited for a rematch at the 13.1 distance this weekend.  Is that crazy? I feel ready to try it again.  It’s that high you can only get from running an organized race and pushing thru some fairly crazy distances and/or miles.  Everything seems more manageable and less hard in hindsight. It’s like I have already forgotten how painful and taxing it was last weekend and now I’m back to the high.  Jonzing for another go at it. Such is life for me.

And I finally think I’ve gotten Chris more on board with everything.  It’s hard when you are out of practice to get excited but after last weekend I think he is feeling it. We are both in eat clean and healthy mode to prep for Maui.  As we like to say, it’s truly Go Time. 

And with that my weight seems to be steadily stalling at 153. For what feels like forever I can’t seem to budge to far from the 153 mark.  But I guess I should take that considering the almost weeklong like indulgence I had in Vegas last week.  (It was really 5 solid days of shit, really shit eating!)  I am confident that with my renewed spirit and effort I should be able to reach my goal of 140 by September.

Anyway, feeling pretty a okay right now. Thank goodness for the magical healing powers of sleep. Right?  Have a fabulous one and I shall return tomorrow.