Sleep don't come easy: Marathon training week 2

About that marathon training plan I put together a few weeks ago... while it is good in theory, real life application, however, is a horse of a different color (name the movie). This week, I have only run once. Once. Who's marathon do I think I am going to run with only one run a week? Before I beat myself up too much, the reason I have not run much this week is because of an abysmal few days of sleep. I have always had trouble sleeping (both falling asleep and staying asleep) and recently purchased a Jawbone UP band to help me track my sleeping habits. Jawbone is the bees knees. You have to try it. It not only tells me how much I've slept, but it also calculates how much of that time is spent in deep, restful sleep and how much time is spent in light sleep. This was my sleep on Sunday evening:

I'll give you a minute to soak in the data ...

I slept less than five hours and woke up 6 times. I only had 59 minutes of deep sleep. Needless to say, I woke up feeling terrible. This was not a good way to start the week. I had a huge presentation on Monday afternoon and I think that is what contributed to my sleepless night. I was supposed to run 3 miles after work that day, but there was no way I could bring myself to lace up my shoes. I had to get ready for work trip the next day and had yet to pack a thing so I thought it best to go home, pack and get some early shut eye. I did, but my sleep wasn't better. I got up early Tuesday morning with every intention to run 5 miles. I had my clothes laid out and jumped out of bed as soon as the alarm went off (you know get up and get er done so that I didn't lose another battle with the snooze button). I felt terrible after another night of restless sleep, but was determined to get out there. As I was putting on my clothes, it took me 2 minutes to put on my sports bra. That's when I said to myself: "this is stupid. there is no way you can run well right now. go back to bed." and so I did ... sad to have missed yet another run, but content in knowing that it is the right thing to do. Trying to push the body through such things does not enhance performance, it actually detracts from it and puts me at greater risk for injury. That morning, I got a few more hours of sleep and hopped on a plane to Las Vegas for a conference. Now I have to deal with the time difference. Great [insert sarcasm]. One positive thing about going from East to West coast is that I could go to bed early (local time), sleep for 8 to 10 hours and not miss a beat, events wise. So that was the plan. Go to bed, finally get a lengthy, restful sleep and resume running the next day.  That worked.  I got a great 6-miler in on the treadmill (hell if I'm running outside in the Las Vegas heat).

I can't say that I am back on track, but I am happy to have been able to perform well on a run this week. Getting that one run in has helped me to feel better about the nonexistent exercise all week. This morning I participated in a Yoga for Athletes workout that was ahh-mazing! Tomorrow, I plan to get out for another 6-miler and yoga class.

How is your training going? How do you adjust when life happens?

Happy Running! (or whatever it is you need to get back to running)

-Run