(tank, shorts)
A peaceful morning on our final day at a cabin.
I missed Max a lot on this trail… It’s definitely his favorite.
Hill work is speed work in disguise, which means I’ve basically done speedwork every day for the last month;)
I listened to this goodness on my run… They even talked about Sara Hall on here and how she changed her thinking to then have her biggest breakthroughs.
These have my heart:
The dogs were thrilled to be all together again.
And we had dinner on the porch.
Andrew’s childhood best friend recently moved here, and his daughter and Skye met a few days ago for the first time. They are inseparable and only a day apart in age! Brooke made them little best friend bracelets.
———————————————————————
I don’t know what it is about travel, but Beck decides that when we sleep anywhere but at home, he will stop sleeping, and come get in bed and lie on top of me at 3 am. While at the cabin this last week, I felt nowhere near how I did when my kids were babies (that first year of sleep deprivation is a pain that I can’t describe with appropriate language), but it did hurt and took me back to those days…
Of course, there are MULTIPLE times where the answer is sleep>running when it comes to sleep deprivation, but for this post, I’m going to share my argument for the run to happen. I’ll share my lessons from running with less sleep than the 9 hours a night that my body seems to require to feel optimal;)
-When I am sleep-deprived, there isn’t an amount of caffeine milligrams that will help me feel any better. Maybe I have ruined my body’s sensitivity to caffeine, but when I’m tired, I swear caffeine makes me feel worse. But running, running actually helps my energy levels for the rest of the day, whether I am or am not sleep deprived.
-My body adapts either way. Whether I’m getting too little sleep or more than I actually need, it’s pretty incredible to me how quickly our bodies adapt to changes and figure out how to survive on what we give them.
-If you aren’t getting enough sleep, maybe add an extra recovery day each week. So much of our recovery from training happens when we sleep, so take another day off than you are used to to help stay injury-free. Drop the guilt when you choose to lie in bed over a run because your body needs to recover!
-It’s nice in the sense that running when you are sleep deprived, because you really don’t wake up until the end, and so you can get a full workout in and not even know or feel anything;)
-When I am running sleep-deprived, my definition of ‘success’ changes. IE on my trail runs when I was feeling really tired the last few days, my normal goal would be to run to the top of the trail without stopping or hiking… but the definition of success changed to just getting to the top no matter how many breaks I needed to get there. Really, showing up and starting a few times a week is success during these times of life.
–You still get the run benefits if you do less. Maybe you normally run 5 miles each morning… if you are sleep deprived, drop it down to 3 miles. You’ll still get the good things that running gives to us and running will feel more manageable during this season of life for you.
-This one blends in with the above one–> You do have to chill out on yourself if you are running with less sleep than you need. Human performance is greatly affected when we don’t get enough sleep, so do not expect PRs at this point or get down on yourself with slower times. Be so proud of yourself for getting through this time period of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation has been used as a means of torture; that’s how painful it is. It’s not the time to expect to perform your best. Your ego must take a backseat. Consistency is so much more important than smashing workouts!
–Slower miles can be most meaningful. Some of my most emotional, mental breakthrough runs came when I wasn’t chasing a pace — just moving. Being tired forced me to slow down and actually tune in to what I needed, mentally and physically.
–Have hope! Things will change, your baby will sleep someday, or life schedules will return to a good place. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and this period will sure make you mentally tough.
—————————————————————————-
At what points in life have you dealt with sleep deprivation? Or are you currently in this place?
What amount of sleep do you feel your best with?
What was the last podcast that you listened to?
Anyone reading with two dogs? How do they get along?
-Beretta was definitely confused (and annoyed;) at first by Max but they are best buds now.
Source link
