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September 27, 2013

I'll sleep when I'm dead

Turns out I don't write well when I'm fatigued. I don't do much of anything well, when I'm fatigued.

I've been fatigued all week. Sunday's long run took a lot out of me, as it has the past few weeks. I'm not certain why, since the distance hasn't changed. Maybe it has to do with the increased mileage during the week. My mid-week runs are now both 6 miles, in the very hilly Solon park. I'm not really timing any of my runs and I'm spending at least some time walking every time out, so I don't think it's that I'm pushing harder that way. I started to write a post about the shin issues that have plagued this running season. The TLDR (too long didn't read) version is I need to stretch and roll my calves more. At least that seemed  to help on my last run. It wasn't perfect, but definitely better. I did add a very short sprint run Saturday. Ninja and I raced light pole to light pole for about a mile, then walked back. Good times, and not likely to have emptied my tank the way it has been lately.

My fatigue might also have to do with the push-ups I've been doing daily. I was up to 100 push-ups a day for a minute, though the last few days I've slacked off a bit. I even had 2 days where I was doing them in sets of 20. Now my upper body is fatigued enough a set of 10 is a challenge again.

I'm having allergy issues too, which isn't helping. I'm not certain how much the allergies are related to autumn, and how much to my crappy diet of late. I got completely off track while on vacation. I've had moments here and there since, but haven't really gotten my diet back together. I'm certain I'd be better off completely without sugar and grains, but I can't seem to convince that whiny little kid inside that ice cream, chips, and candy are off limits. What happened over vacation and since is proof enough I can't have "just one."

None of this is helped by the fact I'm not sleeping well again. I haven't figured out the cause of that either. It could be my poor diet, though I think part of the diet issue is in direct result of the poor sleep. I eat crap because I'm tired and looking for energy. It starts with sugar-laced coffee about mid-day. Turns out sugar is something of a gateway drug to grain-based foods, at least in my world.

The poor sleep might have something to do with my hydration levels, which have dropped by half since I stopped drinking soda. I've still not had any soda, and I'm finding I enjoy teas I thought I'd ruled out without sweetener. My tastes must be changing. Unfortunately, it appears I don't like the unsweetened teas as much as I did the teas laced with Monster. I have to seriously think about drinking them, which has not been happening.

Ultimately what all this means is, workout-wise, this is a down week. I actually did not run my 2nd 6-miler yesterday as planned. I will not run it today, as back-up planned. Hopefully by Sunday's long run time I'll have gotten enough sleep to catch up on the week's worth of 4 and 5 hour nights.

At least it's been a good week, work-wise. I was able to work on a card in the Bacon Patrol product. I didn't get it done completely solo, but I am content with the progress I made on my own, and the card passed the first time through QA. That is an accomplishment. I finished the book I was reading, wrote my reaction paper, and am on to the next book. I also created a Trello board for books I want to read in the future, so I can prioritize and keep track. Goddess, your book is on the list as my current non-work read. I will hopefully have edits on the first chapter for you by the end of the weekend.

What I have to do now is figure out how to schedule in my learning. I need to spend probably an hour a day learning C# coding. Starting at 8 or 9pm is not working for me, which means after work does not work for me since that's when I get home from my runs. I could maybe make it work 2 days a week, which would be better than I'm getting right now. I just need to find a way to make it happen, instead of sitting down to my computer and looking up from YouTube several hours later, wondering where the evening went. Fatigued + Learning do not go well together.

I'm also secretly amused that this is happening directly after I decided to move my bedtime up an hour. Never fails, as soon as I make a decision regarding sleep, diet, or training, I sabotage myself and the decision goes out the window. I'm not letting up on this one though. Not getting enough sleep is likely a direct contributor to my poor late night eating habits. I am determined to figure out how to feed this body, without overfeeding it. I believe sleep is a key factor. It can't hurt other areas of my life, either!

1 comment:

Lorraine said...

I find that lack of sleep definitely contributes to poor eating habits, as well as making one feel crappy!