Ah schedules.. the bane of my existence; which is ironic given that they’d help a great deal and alleviate a lot of stress. Starting this whole thing, I was gung-ho and just dove in; which is great but about two weeks ago, it really started hitting me: I need to do a better job with this. For real though, not just as a topic to tell you guys about. I bottomed out motivation and energy wise over the holidays. One week I think I missed 4 of my workouts; I just did not have the energy for it.
I do think I was getting sick / run down and needed to rest and it’s a struggle for me to eat right, I know what I should be eating and have done this in the past with varying degrees of success. I tend to binge more at night, which then in turn keeps me up later and it’s a vicious cycle that ends up being hard to break. Imagine for a moment you’ve spent a significant amount of time going to bed late and then one morning trying to buck this trend by just ‘waking up early’. You get 3 hours of sleep cause you want to be up early so you can start your day, but you are so exhausted that you just can’t function so you end up taking a nap and poof right back where you started.
It’s hard enough breaking a terrible sleep cycle but trying to do it when you have to head to the pool.. then go for a bike ride? You are already exhausted from forcing yourself to wake then you have to go workout. It becomes damn near impossible to break this cycle.
The obvious answer is “go to bed earlier stupid!”. Which is a great idea if worked every time. I suspect some of my problem is mental at this point; after having spent the better part of decade going to bed late. But I do notice a trend when I am sleeping decent regular hours. I STILL have problems getting up in the mornings, like I legit just never seem to get a good nights rest. Perhaps it’s understandable that I sometimes avoid going to sleep early and stay up.. cause whats the point if I am just going to wake up exhausted anyways?
Note: I’ve been to sleep clinics quite a few times.
Now this isn’t as grim as I making it out to be; in the intervening years since my early twenties I have discovered quite a few things about why I get a terrible night sleep and they are usually the following:
- Allergies
- Going to bed when I am passed tired (ie: too late.. and didn’t go to bed when I was feeling tired)
- Fucking Diabetes
Allergies are ruthless.. and they have just gotten worse and worse as I get older. it’s a losing battle here. One day I’d like to breathe through my nose during a run.. one day.
That 3rd one is a bit of a shit show. When I was in a relationship over the past few years and not alone in my apartment, that actually made things less stressful. I’m not sure how many other people are like me in this regard but I suspect there are a few… I tend to go to bed a little higher than optimal solely out of fear of dropping too low in the night. Needless to say when there was someone else around this was lessened, at least they could do some glucagon magic on me if needed, not so much by myself. It’s a legitimate fear of dying in the night; but this is less conducive to getting a decent sleep. For me at least, the higher I am the worse I sleep and generally the more I get up to pee.
The point is floating way out there now so let me reel it back in. As I’ve mentioned previously, I did P90x before; it’s intense and it is every day so I’m no stranger to the effects of exercise on my blood sugar. However, the exercise I am doing for my training schedule is definitely new to me. I’m still trying to figure out my basal rates while training, and then after training. Example.. I was 18.0 (324) one night.. I reduced my basal to 65%.. gave no correction and in the night dropped significantly.. and woke up at 4.2 (75)… but then another night, I’d be around the same, having done the same workout that day, do the same at night.. and wake up at 16.
Fucking diabetes man… sometimes it makes no sense at all. But then… I’d get a lousy sleep.
So where am I going with all this? Who knows… I just keep plugging away hoping to get some kind of hold on things.
Everything ties back to sleep. Weight gain, performance, insulin resistance all these things change in relation to how fit you are, but that’s also governed by how much you can put into your workouts.
Why am I even talking about sleep? Well, if I were just training for a marathon.. or some kind of ‘normal’ intense sport.. I could get by with the status quo of how I’m living right now; but I know can’t keep doing things the way I am there is just isn’t enough time. The distances are slowly getting higher and higher.. and come spring I suspect that some of my rides will be double what they are now and I will be forced to get stuff done in the mornings if I have any hope of maintaining a working life.. or social life of any kind. Mainly for my sanity too; I need a personal win here; Training is a lonely, and repetitive process as it is.
I’ll leave this on a positive note; I’ve gotten a much better handle now on how I react to the workouts I am doing. I now know I need to eat something before I go for a run otherwise I will just be tapped out a few miles in; or I know I have to have some kind of electrolyte / glucose sport drink while I do my swims to keep my energy levels high.
And recently I just rocked a 5.2mile run. Noting epic in terms of speed, but a great consistent run where I felt good.
I am getting stronger and my fitness is improving, I can see and feel that. Just need a few other things to fall into place.
Onwards.
Keeep it up Hank. I’m pulling for you.