Sleep Cycle

What do they say about mistakes. Something like we don't make new ones, just the same old ones over and over.

I am a little like that with sleep. I have a bit of a realisation that I am not getting enough sleep. Make an effort to improve on it. Feel good. Start getting a bit more complacent with it. Start getting less sleep. Wake up one morning exhausted. Have a realisation about sleep.

You would think I would learn, but apparently not. Luckily I am not alone in the human race with my inability to learn from the past.

So perhaps unsurprisingly I had a realisation about sleep this morning. Hang on a second you have just come off a recovery week, how can you be tired. Well strangely enough, my recovery week didn't actually recovery me much sleep. Between travelling, the little bit of training I did last week, children and the above mentioned complacency, I have been down on the sleep hours. It caught up with me this morning and I ended up going back to bed.

I am a big one for the value of sleep when it comes to recovery. I have said on this blog numerous times before that as society I don't think we get enough sleep. Certainly not in Australia. With the busy lives we all lead I think often something has to give and too often that thing is sleep.

Last night for instance, I had no reason to be in bed late. Not on paper anyway. I was trying to put the P5 back together for my ride this morning. I had done a bit of it on Sunday, but had run out of time to finish it. Last night I was just doing the last bit, shouldn't have taken long. Except that it did. I wanted to get at least some stretching done too. Oh yeah, I can squeeze some of that in, and a bit of this, and a bit of that too. Suddenly, late to bed. Only 10 minutes or so later than I wanted. But those 10 minutes or so add up when it happens every night.

Why do I consider this to be so important. Well mainly because I think sleep is one of the biggest performance enhancers we can get. Have you ever trained after you are properly rested, it is amazing, hills are smaller, head winds weaker, pools shorter, everything is easier. Sure we can fake it with caffeine etc, but it isn't the same. And that is just when we are feeling fine, throw in sickness or an injury and it is even more important. When do you think your body heals itself? If you aren't giving your body that chance to sleep, then you are just prolonging that illness/injury.

Tiredness perhaps wasn't the only factor this morning. It is winter, so it is cold and dark out on the bike. It takes an extra little bit of motivation to train properly in winter and this morning perhaps I was just a little too tired to find it. Usually I would push through that, but sometimes you don't and I am at about the only point in my training phase where perhaps that is not the end of the world. I may jump on the bike tonight, but there is a growing probability that I won't. Like a lot of triathletes I have a hyper developed guilt gland (that is a thing right?). I usually can't even dream about skipping a session without feeling bad. When I miss a session and I feel totally fine about it, it is usually a sign that the body is requesting it. I am feeling fine right now. I know just the other day I was feeling keen to get back to it and I still am. But it will still be there tomorrow and so will I.

Before then though, more sleep. Or at least I will be trying to.