Training

I'm signed up for a 5K in 3 weeks. I'm nowhere near ready, but 3 weeks is long enough to make some difference. The thing about training is, you can't cram it all in at once. I know I will be standing on the finish line, regretting the training opportunities I've already passed up.

For running, I need strong legs and good aerobic conditioning, heart and lungs. My training opportunities to run are limited, mostly in the morning, and I need to be realistic about how hard I can drive myself.

I did well this week, though not perfect. The weather is so insanely beautiful I have a hard time justifying not being out side all the time. but for some reason, I'm suffering from some pretty extreme sleep disruptions. I'm doing what I should: out doors often, cut out the computer before bed, eating pretty well, exercising much more than before. I mostly fall asleep as my head hits the pillow, but I'm spending literally hours in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep. It's stress, both with kids and at work, and here us big much more I can do about that. I take melatonin as I go to bed, but I don't want to take more in the middle of the night.



This is what a bad nights sleep looks like. The darker grey is sleep, the lighter grey is tossing and turning. The gap in the middle is where I gave up and got out of bed to read- an actual and not terribly exciting book, not the iPad, with its disturbing blue frequency light.

The lack of sleep makes it harder to train in the mornings. I still did well this week. Sunday I did a serious training run outside. Monday I had my gym session, followed by a stolen 15 minutes on the treadmill with three fast sprints. Tuesday I got to the treadmill. Wednesday and Friday were busts for running, but I did another set of interval sprints on Thursday. (The reason the time is "stolen" is because I end up a few minutes late got work. It doesn't really matter, though.)

I'm also taking the opportunity to walk most days at lunch. Only a mile or so, at a brisk pace in this beautiful weather, but I figure it's all helpful for strengthening the legs.

Of course, I'm tracking all this mileage in an app. A good couple of days look like this:



Today, a street festival beckons. More walking. Totally delightful weather for it, too. There is also a pie eating contest..,

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