Alter-G Part 2 & Other Updates

Yesterday was my second rehab session on the Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill.

I felt very lucky to be there at all, as 24 hours earlier I had been in the throes of a freak virus that sent my temperature up to 102.9 and made my head feel like some alien was trying to break through my skull. The sickness came on me at work Wednesday in the form of violent shivering and nausea. I managed to haul myself home and collapse in bed. At that point I thought there was no way I could make my 5:15 running date the next day.

But in the morning, after 14 hours of sleep interrupted only by a trip to the bathroom around midnight, I woke up with NO fever and only a slight headache that faded to nothing by noon. It was the briefest illness I think I remember having, if also one of the more intense. I took it easy in the morning, did a few of my physical therapy exercises in the afternoon, took Will and Ruth to the annual Art Show at their preschool and then Dan took over so I could make my appointment.

Fever aside, I was curious about how the session would go this time. My calves were SCREAMING on Tuesday and Wednesday after the first session. I think this was mostly a "Whoa, what is this running thing all about?" reaction (after all, they haven't had that kind of intensity asked of them for over two months), but my new Pure Flow shoes probably contributed too. I actually looked over old racing pictures of myself to make sure that, yes, I generally do have a mid- to forefoot strike. And I think I really do--even in the finish line pic of me in Houston last January (see the right-hand column), where I was doing what passes for sprinting for me at the end of a marathon, shows me landing neatly in the right place on my foot.

Yesterday's Alter-G session was apparently just what the doctor ordered for the calves. I wore the Pure Flows again, and while there's still some calf tightness, it's quite run-of-the-mill now, and fading--whereas on Tuesday and Wednesday they felt like I had just run a marathon on them.

And what about the back? My sacro-iliac support belt got in the way of the machine's calibration yesterday, so I did the run without it. My back's left side definitely bothered me more this time, but it wasn't alarming. In the end, I managed another good two miles of running, this time at 75% body weight (yay for the increase!). The exercise physiologist in charge this time was Patty, who will also likely be the person I'll go see about Pilates once Cathy (my physical therapist) thinks I'm strong enough for that. At the end, she loaded me up with a giant bag of ice for the back and on my way I went.

My back definitely hurt this morning, so I've been wearing the belt a lot today. But I did get my recumbent bike session in (I'll keep doing those until I can run a lot more than I'm allowed to right now), and I did a few stretches and some PT exercises afterwards. Things are definitely feeling more normal now.

My next Alter-G run is on Monday morning. This time I'm going to bring my Garmin to see how my heart rate looks at the various paces and percent body weights, and how that compares to what I'm used to seeing on the bike at this point.

Sleep Update: So this month was supposed to be the month where I got in the habit of getting eight hours a night on a regular basis. I even enlisted a handful of others to go along with me on it. Well, for me, it hasn't happened. The month's only half over, so I'm not giving up, but my bad habits in this area have proven much more deeply ingrained than I thought. I love sleep! So why is it so hard for me to get myself in bed when I should? Life's just too interesting, I guess.

Weight/Eating Update: At least I'm still doing well on this front! My weight this morning was 128.4, and I'm still going strong (stronger every day, in fact!) on having no processed sugar of any kind any day but Sunday. I've found not only am I no longer craving sugar during the week or wanting to graze from treat trays brought into work, but that when I do have my Sunday treat, I appreciate and enjoy it much more. Last Sunday, I rode my bike over to the Dairy Queen on Main Street and picked up a chocolate dip cone for myself and a plain vanilla one for Dan, then rode home where we enjoyed our little treat together. That cone tasted awesome! That might be what I have to do this Sunday too.....

Could I still eat better? Definitely! I've found myself dipping into the tortilla chips I buy for our Friday night taco dinners much more often than I should. I don't eat regular potato chips at all--but corn chips....they've got my number. So I feel like they might be the next thing I eliminate, or at least bracket into just one day of the week.

That's it for now! I'm thinking of my friends Cynthia and Kathy, both of whom have big races this weekend!

Coming in May: Sleep Challenge

This is me with Ruthie in January 2007. I had an excuse for missing sleep back then.

A co-worker and I were talking a couple of years back about the little quirks and tics of some of the other people we work with. Most of the things we were coming up with were things that annoyed us. I asked her, "I wonder what they would say about us."

"Well," she replied, "you're kind of funny about sleep."

Funny is one way to put it. Obsessed is another.

I love sleep. I've never done any formal or informal testing to try to determine the amount of sleep that's ideal for me, but based on past experience my guess is somewhere around 8-11 hours in a 24-hour period, depending on how much I'm running.

Since I had my kids five years ago, I've gotten nowhere near that amount. At first, of course, with tiny babies, there really wasn't much choice in the matter. You get what sleep you can, when you can. But once my kids grew out of that newborn stage, they got to be pretty good sleepers pretty fast. Sure, we have lapses, when one is sick or when my son is on a bedwetting jag. Sometimes they have a nightmare or need help in the bathroom overnight. But mostly we can count on them to go to bed around 7:30 p.m. and sleep until 6:30 or 7 the next morning (my daughter, a morning person like me, gets up with the sun, so this time of year she's up on the earlier side of that).

So why am I still not getting enough sleep (my occasional problem with insomnia aside)?

Because I haven't made it a priority. Once the kids are down, I like to putter on the computer, hang out with my husband (a total night owl--this is the only way in which he and I are ill-matched), read or (lately) do physical therapy stuff that I didn't get done earlier. By the time I head to bed, it's often after 10 p.m. and sometimes pushing 11 p.m.

Now, I think, is a good time to start pushing my bedtime to where it really needs to be: 9 p.m., or 9:30 p.m. at the latest. This is the time that will allow me to rise comfortably for my workouts at 5 a.m. and give me a nice extra cushion on mornings where I don't have to do that.

So my challenge for the long month of May will be to go to bed by 9:30 p.m. on nights when I have to wake up early the next morning, which is usually three or four days per week. It will set up good habits that will carry over when I return to running and training for races, and it will be better for my health overall.

How much sleep do you need? Are you getting it, and if not, why not? Care to join me in May to try and change that?

All you have to do is email me your sleep goal (which may be different from mine) by the evening of April 30 (next Monday). I will check in with you via email every week to see how you are doing. At the end of the month, I'll have a small prize for the person who comes closest to meeting his or her goal.

Sleep Plan

I have a marathon training plan. I have an eating plan (sort of).

With my tune-up race (the ZOOMA Women's Half-Marathon) in just over a week, I think I need another plan: a sleep plan.

So I've created another column in the wonderful, geeky training plan spreadsheet furnished me by McMillan Running--and this column outlines when and how I will sleep over the next 10 days and nights. If it's successful, I'll plan it all out through the big day at the Top of Utah Marathon in September.

How will I know it's successful? How do you measure sleep success? Not sure yet. But I have a feeling it will be obvious.

So here's the plan:

General:
For naps--I will not fret if actual sleep doesn't occur. I know from experience that if I need it (and my kids comply with the plan by either staying in their rooms or napping themselves), sleep will happen. If it doesn't happen, usually it means I didn't need it. I won't fret if I can't sleep at naptime. Dr. Andrew Weil, the popular alternative medicine advocate and a big proponent of naps, says any time with your eyes shut and your mind free of distraction is good for you.

Friday 7/8:
Daytime: Nap--40 minutes (checked off; I just finished it)
Night: Bedtime @ 9 p.m., no excuses; long run is tomorrow, I have to get up early to avoid the heat and this has been a rough sleep week

Saturday 7/9:
Daytime: Nap--easier with husband at home, if body wants it
Night: Bedtime by 10 p.m. (don't have to rise early the next day)

Sunday 7/10:
Night: Bedtime by 9:30 p.m. (nap not possible because I work Sundays, but I don't have to rise early on Monday; I can do Monday's easy miles on my lunch break at work)

Monday 7/11:
Night: Bedtime by 9 p.m. or earlier if possible (speed workout scheduled for early a.m. Tuesday)

Tuesday 7/12:
Nap (if needed): Since I don't have to be at work until noon on Tuesdays, if I feel drowsy after my speed workout and breakfast, I will take a morning nap, skipping my weight training class. The kids will be at preschool. At this point, I feel sleep trumps weights.
Night: Bedtime by 10 p.m. (would go for earlier, but I work until 9 p.m. on Tuesdays so that's not possible); spin class scheduled for early Wednesday a.m.

Wednesday 7/13:
Night: Bedtime by 10 p.m. (don't have to get up early for Thursday's easy run)

Thursday 7/14:
Nap: If possible (home with kids)
Night: Bedtime by 10 p.m.; no workout scheduled for Friday

Friday 7/15:
Nap: If possible (home with kids)
Night: Bedtime by 9 p.m. or earlier; this is two nights before my race, and I've read in numerous places that the night two nights before a race is the key one; I'll be in a hotel with no one to wake me for a potty trip (daughter) or a wet bed (son), so I plan to crank up the white noise (A/C) and sleep sleep sleep. On Saturday I have just a 20 minute easy run to do.

Saturday 7/16:
Nap: if possible (but I don't think it will be because I'm working packet pickup)
Night: Bedtime by 9 p.m.? Not sure this will work out, because I always have butterflies before a race, but I won't stress as long as I slept well on Friday night.

Sunday 7/17 (post-race):
Night: Bedtime by 10 p.m. (no need to rise early as Monday is a recovery day); a nap won't be possible as I am driving back home from Colorado Springs and will be eager to see my family

There you have it! Terzah's sleep plan! What do you think? Have you ever followed a sleep plan? Am I totally nuts and obsessed with sleep?

Another Boulder Moment:
This morning Ruthie asked me if I would buy her some biking gloves.

"Biking gloves?!" I asked. "How do you know about biking gloves?"

"You (that's "you" as in "Anyone who rides a bike the right way, silly mommy") need them," she told me. "Lyra and Julian have them."

Lyra and Julian are in Ruth and Will's preschool class, most of whose members know how to ride a two-wheeler now (putting them about two years ahead of when I learned how).

But really? Biking gloves? For four-year-olds?! Should I get her these lovelies?

Just kidding. We'll consider these (maybe) when she moves up to hand breaks.

Touching the Waters

My sleep obsession has deepened. I didn't think it was possible, but it's true. In fact, I'm going to go take a nap after I get this post up before I'm due at work at noon.

The reason for wanting more sleep? My son Will woke up from an uncharacteristic nap on Saturday with a runny nose. I hoped it was allergies. But three days later it's still with him, and now comes with a cough. Yesterday I began to develop that thick feeling you get in the back of your throat when a virus has breached the defenses. By noon at work I was tired enough that I did something I haven't done since I was pregnant and stretched out on the break room couch for 20 minutes. My dad calls these short siestas "touching the waters of sleep," the idea being that you don't immerse yourself completely in those dark alluring depths--you just get a refreshing taste. Yes, my dad is as obsessed with sleep as I am.

Last night I had the light off at 9:02 p.m. I woke up at 5 as usual this morning and did my last speed workout, a quick 6 400s at a 7:13/mile pace, more for staying sharp than adding anything to my training base (hopefully that's established). That felt fine, and I sucked down way more water than usual. When I got home, I helped Dan and the kids get out of the house. And now I'm about to go put my PJ pants back on and crawl into bed. Having a cold for this weekend's race would break my heart. Perhaps my old friend Sleep can help me keep it from developing further.

I'll blog later in the week about my other current obsession....My Half-Marathon Playlist.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Awake When I'm Awake, Asleep When I'm Asleep

Those of you who have known me for a while already know that sleep is huge to me. Talking with some friends from work about our pet peeves the other week, I asked them: "What annoying qualities do I have?" And one them said, "Well, you're kinda funny about sleep."

It's true. I'm obsessed with sleep. In some ways, I always have been. I never really liked road trips in college because they were hell on sleep. Nor have I ever thought sleepovers were very much fun. They should be called wake-overs, in my opinion. But back in those days, it wasn't too much of an issue. Catching up wasn't hard. Running, of course, is great for sleep, and sleep is great for running. Want to run a marathon? You need to get at least eight nightly hours and often more. Sign me up! was my thought.

Then I had my twins.

This is what the first couple of months with twins were like.

Not only were ten hours of sleep a night not happening, I was lucky to get three in the first couple of months. Even when the newborn stuff eased up, six straight hours was a coup. See, people warn you about newborns (though no description can capture the addled, torture-chamber sensation of too little sleep, sleep interrupted, no idea of when normal sleep will return). What they don't warn you about are the things that will keep interrupting your sleep for the next few years. In no particular order: illness--yours and your kids'--you'll get sick more because they do; sociability (sometimes babies and toddlers are just, well, AWAKE at the very wrongest time, and they want to play); leaky diapers; learning to walk and talk; potty training and bedwetting; nap strikes; nightmares and imaginary monsters....I could go on. Twins are two times all of that.

Now, after four years of ups and downs with sleep, we're in a great pattern. The kids sleep well most nights, to the tune of at least ten hours. And on the weekdays when I'm home with them (Thursdays and Fridays), I almost always get to nap. My daughter at four still requires an hour and a half or so of afternoon shut-eye. In fact, she asks for it. (I'm so proud.)

Her brother is the opposite. He doesn't really need a nap any more. But after a rough start, when he had to get used to playing by himself, he's become a champ at "quiet time" in his room. I can hear the click of Trios (a Lego-like building toy he loves) as I drift off to sleep. Usually it's still clicking away when I wake up an hour or so later. Sometimes I find he's emerged from his room and is playing in the living room by the time I awake, but that's OK with me, as long as he's unobtrusive.

With the kids settled down, I've had to correct a few bad habits of my own to start getting the kind of sleep runners need. The biggest thing has been to get myself in bed before 10 p.m. It's hard to go to bed early when the evenings are your only "adult" time. But it needs to happen if that other key activity--improving your running--is going to occur. A 9 p.m. bedtime would be better. That's what I'm going to shoot for the nights of this upcoming taper week.

The other habit I've had to break is caffeine. Caffeine, even as early in the day as 2 p.m., keeps me from falling asleep quickly. For a while I was drinking a skim latte in the morning and tons of iced black tea in the afternoon, especially when I was at work (which are days I won't get a nap). I've now mostly phased out the latte, and when I do drink it, it's decaf. As for the tea, I've switched to green, which has enough caffeine to make me feel perkier, but much less than black. I haven't felt that unpleasant buzz at night since making this switch.

Sleeping kids, early bedtime and minimal caffeine: These things are all a big part of why it's been so much easier for me this training cycle to get up at 5 a.m. and get my runs and spinning workouts done. For the first time since pregnancy, I feel like I'm getting not just the bare minimum of sleep to function, but sleep that--most nights anyway--is adequate. I feel awake when I'm supposed to be awake and sleep deeply when I'm supposed to be asleep.

Boulder Moment: Sighted at the playground today...Olympians Alan and Shayne Culpepper and their three sons. Our twins' first real outing was in February 2007, when we watched Alan win his third U.S. Cross Country title at Boulder's Flatirons Golf Course about a mile and a half from our house. Will and Ruth slept in the stroller the whole time. Dan and I felt like zombies among the vibrantly alive. Today, I did not ask the Culpeppers for an autograph. If their sons are anything like mine, they had their hands full.

Don't Forget: Enter my Justin's Nut Butter giveaway! Deadline is March 26!

Bad Sleep, Good Run

My daughter Ruthie woke up at 2:15 this morning, rousing both Dan and me from a deep sleep. After he got her settled--it wasn't even five minutes--I couldn't go back to sleep for an hour, and when I did, I had disturbing dreams involving me turning into Witch Mommy Who Locks Children Into Their Rooms for interrupting her nap and me getting into fights with other women over treadmills crammed into impossibly small gym locker rooms.

You can imagine that when the alarm went off at 5:15 I wasn't happy about it. But I haven't missed a single run in this training cycle. So I heaved myself out of our seriously comfortable new bed and assessed the bags under my eyes in the bathroom mirror while my Nuun tablet dissolved.

"Well, Terzah," I thought. "Remember that DLF is greater than DNF is greater than DNS."

This sentiment--which stands for Dead Last Finish is greater than Did Not Finish is greater than Did Not Start--was quoted by a fellow reader of the Run Like a Mother blog. She said she saw it on a T-shirt. And after my rough night, it was just the thing to get me out the door. Yes, I was supposed to do 5 miles at a mid-range tempo pace (8:24/mile), but I decided I would just run, keep it going for five miles and if I felt slow or ill (in other words, the training run equivalent of dead last), well, at least I got out there.

Those of you who have been running for a while will probably guess what happened. I ended up feeling great on this run. It started as soon as I stepped into the cool morning breeze. By then it was 5:41, and the late winter sun was already turning the eastern sky a deep shade of gold. The Flatirons, striated with snow, hulked to the west. This was to be my first tempo run outside in several weeks.

The first mile I still felt slightly creaky and slightly sleepy, but it dissipated quickly. At mile two, it was light enough that I felt comfortable turning on my iPod. As soon as I found the tempo of the first song ("Fadeaway" by the BoDeans) I knew I was going to enjoy this and run it reasonably fast. And by the end, I was sorry it was only five miles and not six. Waking children and work (I have a night shift on Thursdays and it's always a long day) no longer seemed stressful.

Unless the weather gets seriously awful again, I plan to do my tempo runs outside from here on out. My head needs the fresh air. My legs need to get used to road running again (the backroads and the treadmill are both lower impact than that canyon in Utah is going to be).

A few days ago, with the weather about to turn nice again, a runner I follow on Twitter mentioned a beautiful run he had that morning around Davidson Mesa: "Boulder runners, get back outside!" he exhorted.

Yes, yes. It's time.