I had to wake up at 3:30am Saturday morning in order to get to my 12-hour run in a neighboring town by 6am. I tried to go to bed by 8pm Friday night, but I don’t think I fell asleep until closer to 9:30. Remember, for a sleeper like me, 6 hours is NOT an ideal night’s sleep…especially before a long race. We had a shindig after the run on Saturday so I basically ran 44 miles, (My race report is almost done but I thought this gripping entry about last night’s sleep would be a better entry for this morning. BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE’S SLEEP IS SO FUN TO READ ABOUT! Right?) showered, and went to a party at a local brewery. Thank GOD the party was ending at 9pm because I was having so much fun I probably would have stayed later. We picked up the kids and I was asleep by 10:30. THEN WE LOST A DAMN HOUR, and I have a Sunday trail run I “lead” with a friend (who did the same race I did on Saturday) so I got up at 4am, but with the lost hour it was like 5’ish hours sleep. I WAS EXHAUSTED. I tried to take a nap on Sunday but only got about an hour and it was restless because I was still sore.
SO! All of that is to tell you: I was REALLY tired when I went to bed last night. REALLY TIRED.
Also? I don’t want to spoil anything for my upcoming race report but I was also kind sunburned, which is also weirdly draining. WHY IS IT EXHAUSTING TO BE RED? I don’t know. But I felt like my sunburn made me more tired and maybe I was just delusional but either way…TIRED and RED.
I decided to do something I never/rarely do on purpose last night. I slept without a clock accessible. See? I typically wake up naturally before 4am, often as early as 3am, I look at the clock and see, “Oh? 3:15? Better get up for the day!” because I always feel like I have SO MUCH TO DO, that I have to be up that early. I decided I’d removed that stimulus and see if I could get a little more sleep. I know that I would “feel” how late it was if it got to the point where the kids would be late for school, so I wasn’t worried about that, but I was hoping I’d get to sleep past 4am this way.
I SLEPT UNTIL 5:15AM!!! HOLY CRAP THAT IS SO LATE!!!!
I was so proud when I came downstairs and looked at the clock. I was like, “Ooooohhhh…this is what NORMAL people feel like!”
Although, 5:15am might even be a little early for normal, but still! Later than 3:15am!
I know I couldn’t do that every night, I did wake up once (probably about 3am) and toss and turn a bit worried about what time it was. But I told myself Kim, it’s ONE DAY. If you sleep later than usual it’s okay and it will make everything else BETTER. If you get up too early today your emotions will be shot and you’ll spend the day crying over cute puppy vines. So I went back to sleep. That pep talk only works if this is a rare thing and I’m extraordinarily exhausted.
I do feel a LITTLE frazzled not having my solid 2 hours of “ME” time in the morning before the rest of the world wakes up, but I think the trade off will be better in the long run. Exhausted Zoot makes bad food decisions so I’m trying to keep her rested so she can get back to being as fit as she was several months ago.
Bring on Monday!
Yay for getting more sleep! Sometimes I’m going to bed in Mountain Time when you are getting up 😉 I’m a night owl so I tend to stay up and sleep as late as possible before I have to get my daughter to school and me to work. My” me time” is after everyone else goes to bed
Until a month ago, I slept till way late and went to bed kinda late. Then I started a babysitting job that required me at their house at 5:45 A.M.! Wow, that’s really freaking early. I was excited though because I was able to get two runs in before I had to babysit the first week. The next week was too cold, then the hubby has been out of town so I can’t run and leave my kiddo here on her own… I have to say, I have started to like getting up pretty early and getting my day going. I don’t love the fact that most nights I am in bed at the same time as my kiddo, but maybe I’ll get use to that.