Sunday, March 20, 2011

Taper Weekend Alcohol Problem

I seem to suffer from Blog Jinx! No sooner do I post talking about my recent good pattern with sleep than I make a big mistake and mess up that pattern.

The mistake this time? For once, it wasn't sweets. Nor was it related to my oft-blamed children (my son did wake up with a wet bed, but I was already awake at that point, so I can't blame him this time). No, it was the one thing I failed to mention in my prior post: alcohol. Specifically, a tasty Portuguese white wine my husband has been bringing home recently to tempt me with.

Our awesome neighbors, whose four-year-old is the third Musketeer to my twins' duo, hosted a spontaneous cook-out last night to celebrate the return of our perfect warm-season Colorado weather. My husband brought said white wine. And I, buoyed by an exhilarating 8-miler earlier that day (stats from my Garmin are linked below)....well, I overdid it on the wine.

Now, I didn't drink so much that I was really drunk. That doesn't really happen any more. I also know how to combat tipsiness and possible hangover symptoms by drinking lots of water, which I did last night. But alcohol affects my sleep as much as caffeine does, regardless of whether I rehydrate. In a way, alcohol is worse than caffeine. Because while caffeine makes it hard to fall asleep in the first place, alcohol makes it easy to fall asleep but nearly impossible to stay asleep. So though (as promised) I turned my light out at 9:30 p.m. last night, I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and wasn't able to go back to sleep for three hours.

Ugh! Stupid! Do I have a race next weekend or don't I???

Suffice it to say, I've learned my lesson. Bedtime tonight will be even earlier. And there will be no alcohol in my life this week (or in the foreseeable future, as I'm starting Matt Fitzgerald's Quick Start plan the day after my race).

With one week to go, the race directors sent a weather forecast. It's looking great, but heat and wind (my two nemeses) could still happen:


And here are the details from yesterday's run. It was fun, mostly on the Bolder Boulder course.

1 comment:

  1. Alcohol makes me sleepy. Next time just pop a couple of Tylenol PM's and you'll be good to go.

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