Sleep is Awesome

Today I feel like a new woman.  And it’s all due to sleep. Yup.  I knew I was tired. I knew I had been tired since Saturday honestly, but sometimes just knowing you are tired and needing more sleep doesn’t actually result in more sleep. I wasn’t sleeping bad or going to bed too late. It just clearly wasn’t enough.  I know it wasn’t enough because last night at like 9:30 while sitting on the couch I fell asleep. This is very RARE for me.  And if I am doing this, it means I clearly needed it. This was my body just shutting down and saying, enough.  I listed. I didn’t even try to fight it. I woke up on the couch with the TV going at like 10:30 and immediately took my very tired body to bed.  My body was just asking me for more rest and I listened.  And therefore this morning I woke up feeling MUCH better. I didn’t even actually realize I was feeling bad until I woke up today with a whole hell of a lot more energy and zest for life.  Good freaking times.

So last night I went to the gym for a second workout, focusing on strength training.  I got there slightly late and just immediately went into abs/core class without warming up.  That kind of sucked because honestly I kind of hate this class.  I hate it because its slightly a joke to me.  I am not even sure why this class exists.  I think people “think” they want to work their cores to get killer abs but honestly abs are never ever actually built by doing ab exercises.  You only get abs by leaning out and then they just come out.  Of course, I mean having a strong core is important, don’t get me wrong.  My core is necessary and required for everything I do but I honestly feel like I work my core and abs all the time every single day in every single activity/exercise that I do.  Running works my core.  Lifting any muscle group engages your core.  I guess what I’m saying is I think it’s not really necessary to intentionally work them.  But alas, people love this class. I think they like it because they think they are going to walk away someday with a 6 pack and honestly because it’s a freaking easy class.  And somehow they feel better about themselves having done a 30 minute class and they like this one because you don’t sweat and you don’t have to work that hard.  I prefer to drip sweat personally.  That’s more my style. Ah ha.

So anyway, while I was doing this class I actually kept thinking, why do I even take this class? In half an hour my heart rate never spikes and I burn like 60 calories.  I think I must have a crazy low resting heart rate which doesn’t surprise me. In fact I am going to go google right now what a good resting heart rate is because I know when I am just doing my thing and wearing my heart rate monitor it is in the low 50’s. Okay so I did just google it.  It says:

1.    100 beats a minute

2.    A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats a minute. Generally, a lower heart rate at rest implies more efficient heart function and better cardiovascular fitness. For example, a well-trained athlete might have a normal resting heart rate closer to 40 beats a minute.

That was just the top result.  In continued reading, at an article at Runner’s World magazine it says that endurance distance runners typically develop slower resting heart rates. And it’s very common for someone to dip into the 40’s. Phew.  It says that training also increases the heart size so it can effectively endure and pump more efficiently.  There is a lot of technical stuff here but you get the idea.  Hmm. I kind of love this.  I thought my body was inefficient actually because I was just sitting there and looked down and it was like 52 or something and I was like damned, my body doesn’t like to work hard does it.  Turns out this is a sign that I am an endurance athlete. Cool.

But with all that said, you kind of get my point why burning high calorie volumes is harder for me.  My heart is pretty efficient at pumping these days and therefore it requires a lot of effort to get it to burn.  Kind of a double edged sword really.  Yeah, my heart is efficient.  Blah, therefore I have to work twice as hard to get it into working out mode.  Geesh.  I actually already kind of knew this information.  In fact I know my heart has to be pretty efficient at pumping blood and oxygen because I can endure the distance run and feel okay.

So net result, a ½ hour abs/core centered class does shit for me.  30 minutes maybe 60 calories.  Womp, womp.  I guess there are other benefits. I keep telling myself that.  The main reason I do take the class is for Amanda.  Because well, I want to support her.  And well, it just seems like what I am supposed to do. So I do it.  Not sure doing crunches and side twists and side planks really is all that efficient for me.  But then again, its stuff I wouldn’t do and it does help my core.  But honestly at this point in my life my core is pretty solid really.

Now, after core class I looked at my pettily little calorie burn and was like, whatever.  I should probably lift now.  Lifting has really gone by the wayside lately.  I do miss it.  I am looking forward to a return to some heavy lifting sessions once Maui occurs.  I was wondering around for a second last night and then Amanda was like, here you can do my upper body workout and she handed me her paper.  So I said, cool.  Sure.  I don’t have to think about it so I just did her stuff.  This is the benefit of having a trainer friend.  So I did her brutal upper body workout and I felt better.  Once again though the calories burned thing is just well way off. I was there a decent amount of time and lifted and got wonderful arm pump and ended up burning like 200 calories.  Oh well, right?  I have long known that lifting does not result in the calorie burn for me.  But I do know that lifting is GREAT for me.  I did not ever have the muscles or shape I do when I just ran.  It’s lifting and I need to make a consistent effort to keep at that as well.  Lifting is important. And I haven’t done a proper leg day in months.  I won’t until after Maui at this point because my legs are already getting so brutalized with the running.  Thank goodness I have already developed strong legs to handle the burden. So with all that said, this was the end result last night.

I went home, and ate and then ate some more. I can’t stop eating these days. I am just hungry.  But as I have been saying, so long as its decent food choices it’s hard to get too mad at myself.  So what I ate 2 Greek yogurt cups instead of 1.  We are taking about an extra 100 calories of freaking Greek Yogurt with protein and good stuff.  It’s not like I ate 100 calories of crap.  I was tired. I didn’t even realize how tired and I sat down on the couch to watch some TV.  Chris came home and I was drifting. I could feel it. But I couldn’t resign myself to the fact that I needed to go to bed so instead I ended up just falling asleep on the couch.  At like 9:30.  So yup, that happened.  But after I woke up and went to bed I really did sleep well and that was good. Well, that was not shocking since I woke up at 5:30 which is EARLY for me and ran on top of it.  No wonder I fell asleep at 9:30.  So that happened.

But boy I felt good this morning.  Side effect of getting the sleep you didn’t realize you were missing in your life.  I just felt great and excited about things.  My legs feel like they might actually want to run. Maybe?  We will see.  But I am just excited again about life and goals and that’s always fun.

So I went to work and have been doing stuff and checked out the calendar and yup, 30 days from today I will be in Maui.  30 freaking days my friends.  This is terribly exciting to me.  And I made this collage.

 

Those photos are the pictures from my room online.  I rented at VRBO.com I have rented there previous trips and it’s all legit and stuff.  But I got to hand pick this room and it has two balconies, it’s a corner unit. I am excited.  My room is perfection.  This hotel is perfection.  This place is just my Paradise.  So yes, 30 days until I am there. 32 days until I run and change my life.  Yes, I do feel changed already for sure, but I know after having accomplished the goal it’s going to be a blissful vacation for me!  So there you have it.  My life all back up to date for now.

Tonight, I feel on top of the world and am actually looking forward to my 3 mile run and then my actual favorite class at the gym. Strength Training!  Love it!  So today I feel energy high and therefore right now at this moment I’m excited to kill it.  I am sure I will crash later in the day as I typically do.  But hey, I feel great now so I will just roll with it.  Just shows you how important sleep really is!  Then tomorrow night is my “easy” night at the gym.  It’s just boot camp class which can be quite tough. But it’s just an “easy” night typically.  Then rest Friday and then Saturday morning I am waking up and running a lot of miles.  There was no actual organized half marathon this weekend which kind of blows.  But one of the local running companies organized a free half marathon run.  No medals, no actual race, but a group run of 13.1 miles. So we are going to do that and then run MORE miles afterwards to get up to like 16 I think.  Technically this is the long run I was supposed to do last week.  Yes, I ran 26.2 miles last weekend but not in a row so I am anxious to try and run 16 all at once to see how I fair at that.  Of course I’d like my legs to feel a little fresher than they do now. But after my 3 mile run tonight I won’t run again until Saturday so that should probably do the trick.

Okay, need to eat a snack now. MMM. rice cakes with peanut butter!