Training & Sleeping

Things are back to normal again with me back at work and holidays something of the past. I did some good training during the holidays and never missed a session. My total distance for December was 265.5km and this is really good for me at this stage. I did a few long runs during the holiday and never felt very tired. Overall it seems my body handled the December training very well. In fact, this morning was the first time since the end of November that I felt a bit tired overall on my run.

This made me think of my daily schedule and the difference between training while on leave and training while working. It seems the holidays were better for me than I realize and the few extra hours of sleep per week were really good for me. I also think relaxing through the day is much better for recovery when compared to spending a day at work.

I never slept late during the holidays and was up between 4 and 5 AM every day to run. On my rest days I slept a bit more than normal and was up at around 7 AM. My average sleep per day during my leave was about 6.5 hours. Normally this is about 5 hours. I think the 5 hours aren’t enough and is one of the main reasons I’m more tired overall when working. I run in the morning and get up between 4 and 4:30 during the week depending how far I’m running. Going to bed a bit earlier seems to be something I need to work at.

I try to be a normal family guy when I get home at night. This is usually somewhere between 18:00 and 18:30 and sometimes later as work requires. I just have too much to do during the few hours before bedtime and usually don’t get to bed before 22:30 or 23:00. Not good if I have to be up for the next run at 04:00 again.

Still, I go through the day much better with little sleep and a run than with more sleep without a run. It’s working for me at the moment, but after this holiday I realize I definitely need to try and add a few hours of sleep somewhere each week.