Balance

The count down is on until our Darwin Trip. Excitement in our house is rather tangible and growing. We are all rather looking forward to it.

My heart has continued to behave too. Today I spent a bit of time on the trainer and a bit of time in the gym and both sessions went well. The improvement of my heart heart has given me more confidence that lack of sleep was a contributing factor. I think I am probably feeling less stress than I was last week too, but really it has been the extra sleep which has been the big improvement.

This latest episode has been a vivid reminder to me of the importance of sleep. I have always said that sleep is the most effective and most underutilised performance enhancer available. And its free. People spend a lot of time and money trying to gain the performance and training improvements that can come from simply ensuring you are getting enough sleep each night.

For me the magic amount of sleep is 7 hours. I can get a bit more than that but I usually struggle, my body typically wakes up not long after 7. I can survive on less than 7 hours, but if I try and do it for too long that is when I start to feel it. Last week was the culmination of about 2 weeks where I was never quite getting 7 hours sleep. More often than not I was barely getting 6 and a half hours. Combined with the long ride a couple of weeks ago and that seemed to be enough to push my body over its limit.

I always found similar results when I was training properly too. Sure in Ironman training you are often weary, but it was when I wasn't getting enough sleep that I really struggled. Conversely,when I was consistently getting over 7 hours sleep, that is when everything started feeling a bit easier and the quality of training improved too. I know it sounds like a lot to attribute to proper sleep habits, but that is genuinely how important I feel it to be.

Sleep more, recover better, get sick less and train harder and more consistently. It is one of those 1%ers that can add up to make all the difference.

How much is the right amount? Well I think that's pretty personal. As I have said, 7 is about right for me. For my wife it is probably more like 8. A lot of the recommendations is for between 7 and 8 so those numbers sound about right. I know a lot of people feel like they can survive on less than 7 hours and while that may be true I say there is a big difference between survive and flourish. If you are doing something demanding like training for an Ironman your body needs all the help it can get. Short changing yourself by not getting enough sleep seems like a pretty short sighted strategy. No matter how well you think you are getting by on 6 hours of sleep and coffee, I guarentee you will train and race better on 7 hours, or perhaps even more.

Unfortunately for us busy people who are trying to cram every minute into our lives, sleep is often the first thing to suffer. If we are busy trying to fit in work, training, family and everything else, we usually make up time by cutting back on sleep. It is an understandable thing to do, but once again, not the best approach to take for an endurance athlete. This is one reason why proper planning and guidance is so important for people wanting to train for events such as Ironman. Planning to ensure the right amount of training is being done, while also allowing enough time for the other essential elements such as rest and recovery, as well as occasionally seeing your family.

It is a very difficult balancing act, but one that is very important to work on.