How Sleeping Will Help Your Running

1. Have you entered my GIVEAWAY yet?

2. Are you tired? Do you want to take a nap under your desk? Because oh man, I do...

One often-overlooked aspect of training is sleep. Most of us crazy runners are crazy motivated in other aspects of our lives as well. (I think it’s something about that need to do challenge ourselves, and a kinda sick enjoyment of pain…)

Between work and running and workouts and all that other stuff we do, sleep can often fall by the wayside. I had an Aha! moment this week (yes I am Oprah, didn’t you know?), when I realized that I cannot function on 6 hours of sleep for an extended period of time (of course I knew this already, but for some reason I forget important things like my need for sleep!). I get tired. And when I’m training, tired = unnecessarily bad workouts (and Lord knows I need all the running help I can get at this point!).

When I was injured for that very long while, I noticed that I didn’t sleep as well as normal. Now that I’m back to “normal” (i.e. running every day), I need to re-adjust my sleep patterns. So midnight to 6 am is NOT ENOUGH snooze-time.

I’m pretty sure that everyone agrees that to race your best, you need to be well-rested. But people often forget that you need to be well rested throughout your training. Good training runs lead to good workouts, which all adds up to PRs and good race results.

Not only does being well-rested improve your mood, attitude, and general happiness, but it also has some more scientific affects on your training:

The study suggests that glycogen synthesis is impaired during periods of reduced sleep, meaning an athlete in these conditions is operating with less than a "full tank" and may "bonk" earlier than a well-rested individual.

In addition, levels of human growth hormone (hGH), which is essential for the repair of training-induced soft-tissue breakdown, are at their highest levels during undisturbed sleep. Interruption of deep, or "slow-wave," sleep may lead to prolonged recovery from exercise owing to decreased or absent blood levels of hGH. A study published in the clinical journal Sleep indicates that subjects awakened periodically and thus prevented from accruing 90 minutes of continuous sleep in the course of an evening experienced marked delays in muscle recovery.

So there's that. Read more here. 

 The same article talks about the importance of maintaining a consistent sleep pattern. Try to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day (I am terrible at this! Some mornings I wake up at 6am for yoga, some at 8:30…some days I run in the morning, some in the evening…some nights I go out dancing, sometimes I go to bed at 10:30….ugh, I've said it before and I'll say it again, do as I say not as I do!)

Indeed, researchers have found that advancing or delaying the onset of sleep—and thus its various cycles—by three hours leads to performance decline in a number of areas, even when the total time spent sleeping remains unchanged.

Obviously everyone is different, and some runners need more sleep than others. Your sleep needs will also vary with your mileage. The key is to find what works for you and to listen to your body! If you’re tired, don’t fight it – just go to bed! If you're so so sooooo busy and you find yourself particularly exhausted for an extended period of time, consider scheduling your sleep.

For now, I will leave you with that and sit here, daydreaming about real dreaming...

Here are a few more articles on the subject: 

Owner's manuel: Sleep your way to a PR

Become a Better Runner In Your Sleep

Tera Moody Can't Sleep

Spinning and a Smoothie

What’s the perfect way to start a Wednesday? Well, this morning when my alarm screamed in my ear, I thought the answer to that question was NO. As in, 

No I do not want this Wednesday.

No. Outside is too gray.

No. In bed let me stay!

No, I refuse to play.

(Sorry for that Dr. Seuss moment, I couldn’t resist!)

But really, my alarm went off and I had no idea where I was or what was happening. And then I remembered, Oh, I need to get up. Wait…why? Oh yeah – spinning. Because I decided last night that I would go to spin class this morning (that’s the only way these decisions can be made: the night before. If I left the decision for the morning, there’s no way I would ever get out of bed!)

Uggghhh – ok here we go. (Yes, I do actually talk out loud to myself in the morning. Sometimes I just need a Mollie-to-Mollie pep-talk!)

Spin class, of course, was fine once I got started. But what I really want to tell you about is what happened after spin: Smoothie! Because I can’t help but spend most of the class daydreaming about what I’m going to eat for breakfast afterwards.

And this smoothie was a major win. Smoothies are great because you really don’t need any kind of recipe. Just take things that you like and blend them, adding liquid until you get to your desired consistency.

This morning I did:

      -       ¼ banana

-       6 cherries

-       ½ peach

-       Frozen pineapple

-       Vanilla yogurt

-       Cherry juice

This smoothie was sweet and refreshing and oh so satisfying. I ate it with a Cherry Vanilla Bran Muffun (are you intrigued? Look forward to that post next week!) Basically a great way to end my workout and start my day!

When To Run - An Exhaustive Scientific Study (or Exhausting - depending on my mood)

It’s Thursday, which means that I should be blogging about a book. However, this past week, though heavy on running and eating, did not involve a whole lot of reading. I just finished The Poet of Baghdad last night, and will be starting on Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan today. So look forward to that post next Thursday.

In the mean time, I’ve been considering the pros and cons of running in the morning versus running in the evening. People assume that to be a runner, you must hop out of bed every morning at ungodly-o-clock, and skip out the door for a refreshing and lovely run. 

Bzzzt! Wrong. At least that’s not how it works for me. I would love to be that girl with the flipity pony-tail and trendy outfit, cruising along at a brisk pace without a care in the world every morning. But let's be real - I am more of the roll-out-of-bed with a groan, grab the least offensive-smelling pile of clothing, and throw myself out the door (both eyes may or may not be open yet) kind of person.

But maybe it’s just because I’m not used to running in the morning. I mean, who’s to say that once I get in the habit of a.m. runs, my quality of life will improve ten-fold? Doubtful…but possible.

Let’s do this scientifically, shall we?

Flashback to Mr. Garrett’s class – freshman year of high school (where I once lit a trashcan on fire accidentally…proper disposal of chemicals…whoops!).

Anywho, nobody died. Here we go!

Objective: To determine the best time to run.

Hypothesis: One time of day is preferable to others.

Materials:

-       Me.

-       Running shoes.

Procedure:

1. Run in the evening for a few days.
2. Run in the morning for a few days.
3. Weigh the pros and cons.

Data:

Running in the Morning:

Pros

-       I spend the rest of the day doing whatever whenever, and eating whatever whenever, because as far as I’m concerned, I have already accomplished everything I need to do that day.

-       It’s light outside.

-       There’s not much traffic.

-       When I run in the morning, I shower in the morning. This results in clean blow-dried hair for work. But wait...I’m not impressing anyone at work…so this might go into the pain-in-the-ass category…which makes it more of a con than a pro.

-       When I get off work, I can meet up with friends, go to evening events, or just lay on my couch - totally guilt free!

- Races are usually in the morning, so it might be good to be used to running at that time.

Cons

-       Getting out of bed.

-       Eating breakfast at work. (Of course, I could get up earlier to run, which would give me time to eat breakfast and read the paper at home before work…but well…see Con #1.)

-       My legs feel much heavier and tighter in the mornings. I can’t run as fast.

 

Running in the Evening

Pros

-       Re-energizes me after a mind-numbing day at work.

-       Gives me something to look forward to in my day. (This is also a con…see below)

-       I am much more likely to have a good run in the evening than in the morning.

-       I have time in the morning to relax, eat, and get stuff done before work.

 

Cons

-       Running at night can cause insomnia.

-       I get off work at 6. So I don’t start running until 6:30ish…which means that by the time I’ve cooled down, stretched, and showered, it’s 8…and so I don’t sit down to eat dinner until 8:30 at the earliest.

-       I sometimes spend my day thinking about how much I don’t feel like running!

-       It’s dark. (Damn you daylight savings!!! Seriously, only like 2% of the U.S. population is farmers…so why do we still do this clock change shebang???)

Analysis:

So there you have it. The pros and cons.

To address the possibility that I may just not be used to running in the morning, I refer to the fact that I have been doing morning runs for the past week…and they haven't gotten any better. I have done the morning run thing for extended periods of time. I worked at a summer camp where we had a staff meeting at 6:30 every morning, and from there worked all day until lights out at 9:30. Thus, every morning my alarm went off at 4:50 am. I saw the sun rise every day that summer, which is kind of awesome, but kind of awful at the same time...

Some days, I’m really glad I got my run over with in the morning. But some days when I run in the morning, I miss running after work. I don’t know what to do with myself because I feel like I should run, but I actually already have. Weird, I know.

Conclusion:

Ok, the truth is that this whole “study” was a farce. Because I already knew my conclusion. Yes, I realize that all signs point to the fact that I should run in the morning. Except for one all-important fact: I don’t like to! Of course I can, and due to evening activities, I often do. But in an ideal world, I would do all my running in the evening (well, if we’re talking ideals – then I would do my runs at 3pm. However, employment gets in the way a bit).

Here is a progression chart to illustrate (in order of goodness):

1. Great Run (pm)

2. Ok run (pm)

3. Great run (am)

4. Ok run (am)

5. Bad run (pm)

6. Bad run (am)

What I’m saying is that my best-feeling morning run is only as good as my ok-feeling evening run. Got that? And a bad morning run is a whole new level of awfulness!

(The biggest reason I hear from other people for running in the morning is that if they don't do it first thing, they won't do it. Personally, I'm going to run. Period. No matter what. So that's not my issue. But it is worth considering if you're debating your own pros and cons list.)

Thank you for bearing with me through this “very scientific” analysis. Everyone has their own preferences – those are mine.

Here are some other opinions on the subject:

Late Afternoon is Best for Exercise
Research shows that the optimal time to exercise is when our body temperature is at its highest, which, for most people is 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (body temperature is at its lowest just before waking).

Tips for Running in the Morning (if you must, you might as well do it right!)

Morning Runs - Morning is the waking time, the being time, the small part of the day when we remember who we are.

When To Run - RW Article

Eating for Your Morning Run - this is a major issue for me! And probably one of the main reasons I don't like running in the morning. Empty stomach = tired, hangry, and a bad run. 

 

Sleeping and Running - WHY Won't They Mix???

Logically, running should make you tired. It should make you tired and sleepy and I should have amazing sleeps after hard workouts, right? WRONG!

Not being able to sleep is a major problem in my life. I do ridiculous things. In my crazy-tired-but-unable-to-sleep state last night I deluded myself into thinking it would be a good idea to eat an embarrassing quantity of ice cream at about 2am. 

Ridiculous. (And I think my waistband feels tighter today than usual...see what I mean when I say this is a problem?) 

AND the problem is only exacerbated by the fact that there is suddenly NO COFFEE in my office. That's right, the kitchen that used to provide me with so much joy about 3 times a day is now running dry. WFT NatGeo? Who is in charge of ordering coffee? Can I become that person? I've even ventured to other floors to "borrow" their coffee - for some reason the whole building is coffeeless!

Ok, back to my subject:

 After a night of wide-awakeness last night, I happened across some articles about running-induced insomnia. I’ve noticed that I have a hard time sleeping after hard workouts, but I never really thought much of it (rather than getting annoyed at like 2am when all I want to be doing is snoozing!).

It turns out that running produces endorphins and wakes you up, which overall is a good thing (think of that great post-run high feeling), but can be a problem when you run in the evening.

Some people also blame sleeping problems on over-training, but I think it’s probably more of a time-of-workout issue.

Good advice on ways to deal with this issue, however, is sadly lacking. Maybe there just isn’t really a solution. Suggestions include:

- Running in the morning (which I DO NOT enjoy), 

- Running at least 3 hours before going to sleep (I already do that, usually it’s about 4 hrs – if I could run even earlier I would, but I have this situation called work that I go to every day)

- Doing yoga or calming routines before bed (hmm…maybe…).

 

So here are the links if you have this issue too. I can’t promise you much help, but at least you’ll know that you’re not alone in your late-night awakeness! 

Advice from "Ask Coach Jenny"

http://askcoachjenny.runnersworld.com/2009/07/sleepless-in.html

 

“Can running affect your sleep patterns?”

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/news/article.asp?uan=2035