Sleep better by getting up early (I hope)

Today is a rest day and I am sitting here typing at 5:00am, due to the cunning plan I developed at the start of the week. I have been finding it a real struggle to get up some mornings, especially the 4:40am starts to get to swim squad. I have found that even when I get in 7-8 hours I still battle for the first 30min or so to get moving. Now, I know this is probably common for most folks, but I thought I would see if I could make some changes to decrease the chances of the dreaded, 'reset and roll syndrome' (reset, as in the alarm, for later). One of the things that I often tell clients (I work as a child and adolescent psychologist) with sleep problems, is that having a routine is very important to getting quality sleep. I have found lately, that I haven't been getting up at the same time on any two consecutive days. It can vary by up to three hours between a swim squad day and a rest day. I think this may be a big part of the problem. So, because I can't move swim squad to a later time, I have moved my waking time to an earlier one. I try to be in bed by 9:30pm at the latest, which isn't too bad as I just watch TV or surf the net anyway in the evenings, so I get 7-8 hours each night. Now, I haven't had overwhelmingly positive feedback on my plan from those I have deigned to share it with (non-believers!), but that doesn't usually stop me anyhow. One of the benefits of my plan is plainly clear, on non-swim squad mornings such as this morning, I have a spare 2 ½ hrs to waste use constructively. Another is that I can go to work half an hour early and finish the same in the afternoon. So far so good (it has only been a few days), but I will see how it goes.

Training is going pretty good, I can run pain free, I just have to avoid the “its all better, who needs stretches and strengthening exercises” thing and I should be all good. Last night I had a pretty intense magtrainer group session, and my knee didn't have anything to say at all, so fingers crossed.

Hopefully my new early to rise routine will also mean more time to blog too, win win for everyone.

Sleep and Ironman training

I went out for an “easy ride” for 3hrs this morning. The group I rode with was a step up from what I am used to, which was great for the fact that it will benefit me greatly to train with athletes at a higher level than me, both for the physical step up and for the motivational,inspirational step up. I can learn from people doing Ironman well and apply this to my training.

What made this morning not so great, was, for the first time in months, I went out in the city last night. We went out for a great dinner, I highly recommend teppanyaki restaurants for a great time with friends. We then went out to a bar which was nice, but this meant we got home about 1:30-2:00am. I got up just before 6:00am to head out for this ride, and as I struggled along lacking any gas on the hills, I remembered a couple of good articles I had read, on the importance of sleep to Ironman training. They make some good points and you should check them out. I, for one won't be hitting the town again any time soon. I don't feel its worth the cost to my training. Of course special occasions will be celebrated, but the going out for the sake of it is not on my agenda for a while.

Sleep more, train better, race faster
Sleep Your Way to Better Performance