January Recap, February Stumble

Inspired by my fellow running blogger, Erin of See Mom Run Far, I decided to do a quick recap of January. Here's what I got done:

1) I ran 101 miles. This surprised me a bit, because a glance at the FIRST program schedule for half-marathon training doesn't look like it will be that much. But thanks to the rest intervals on the speed workouts, which count toward mileage, it adds up.

2) I attended seven 1-hour spin classes and four 45-minute bootcamp classes.

3) I ran long on the Boulder Half course three times. All of my long runs but that entertaining 11-miler at Flatiron Athletic Club on New Year's Day were done outdoors.

4) I did one outdoor tempo run (last week's) and was pleased to find I don't need the treadmill to keep me on pace for these faster efforts. I was hoping to do this week's outside too, but the thermometer at NIST today said -1 degree F when I picked Ruth up from school, so I think it's safe to say that I'll be indoors running at 5:45 a.m. tomorrow.

5) I didn't miss a single scheduled run and missed only one scheduled cross-training workout.

I'm very pleased with how January went!

February is off to a rockier start. Will has been sick this week, and Dan and I have found our sleep interrupted every night since Saturday. Missing sleep is really hard. I don't like to "push through it" because I will get sick if I do. I haven't missed a run (not yet anyway), but I had to do yesterday's speed workout at 7:45 p.m., not my favorite time of day for any activity; I had to miss bootcamp yesterday to stay home with Will; and I skipped this morning's spin class to catch up on shut-eye. My fingers are crossed that tonight I can sleep decently and rise early for the tempo run as usual.

This is one of the things people don't tell you about having kids. You hear about how you will be sleep-deprived the first six months with a new baby, but you don't hear about how frequent illness, bed-wetting, bad dreams, active imaginations and sometimes plain old boredom on the part of your kids will interfere with needed snoozing for years to come (four years and counting in our case).

Overall, my kids are good sleepers, but even so I can count on one hand the number of nights I've gotten eight uninterrupted hours of sleep since they were born. The most worrying thing about it for me is that their night wakings have caused a sort of low-grade insomnia in me. I rarely sleep all night any more, even when we're on a good trend and the kids aren't waking up. I'll wake at least twice, sometimes for quite a while, listening for them, my mind hard at work. And when we go through a rough patch like right now, I'll often find myself unable to return to sleep after a forced arousal, especially if it happens at 3 a.m. or later. I try and try, but sleep won't come. Not optimal for running.

Still, I'm trying to remind myself that "It does get better." I know and read about many parents with kids smaller than mine who successfully meet their running goals. I do wonder, I admit, if I am particularly physically needy when it comes to sleep.

I prefer thinking that to thinking I'm just a big old wimp.