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.

Life Gets Busy Sometimes

About a month ago I got a promotion at work. I'm now a digital services librarian, working both reference (answering questions from library users) and digital services (helping our awesome Web developer, Lisa, with the employee intranet, working on the library's social media presences and learning more about products the library subscribes to online with my fabulous co-worker Gina, who just might be the smartest person in the world).

Of course I'm happy about this change. I get to work both sides of my brain at work now and use some of the technical skills and "figuring stuff out" skills that were my favorite part of library school.

But it also means there's a lot less room in my brain for blogging when I get home and on the down days I spend with my kids. Hopefully I'll get my balance back soon. But it's been hard to get posts up when all I want to do is collapse at night with a novel. Reading and commenting on other people's posts is easier!

At least my running hasn't slacked off. Tomorrow I have a one-hour-fifteen-minute run with five five-minute intervals at half-marathon pace scheduled. I feel like I'm getting faster, so I'm not really sure if I should run these intervals at the pace prescribed by my Bolder Boulder pace or if I should push it a bit. I think I'll push it a bit.

On my 6.5-miler run on the 4th, I did the following 10 1-minute fartlek intervals (I chose a hilly route, as McMillan wants me to do this type of run on varying terrain):
1. 7:34 pace (uphill)
2. 7:19 pace (flat)
3. 7:08 pace (flat)
4. 6:54 pace (downhill)
5. 6:44 pace (even more downhill)
6. 6:49 (flat)
7. 7:42 (uphill)
8. 7:15 (uphill)
9. 7:05 (flat)
10. 6:41 (flat to uphill! my fastest!)

Yeah, they were only 1-minuters, but I still feel pretty good about them. I wonder what I could do a 5K at right now.....

I'll get a good hard look at my fitness on July 17 following the ZOOMA Women's Half in Colorado Springs. It should be a good weekend. I'm going down on Friday night to be up early the next morning for a 2-mile easy shakeout run and then am working packet pickup all day. On race morning, Kathy's coming down to run and hang out. The elevation profile of the course shows a mostly flat course with a hill between miles 10 and 11.5. Seems like it will be easier than the Spring Half was, though heat could throw me off in a serious way (wish the race started at 6 a.m. stedda 7 a.m.!).

I'm off to bed. But if you have a minute and some spare dollars, please remember my effort to raise money for the Houston Food Bank as part of my Houston Marathon build-up. You can donate by going here. Thanks in advance!

I'm No Fastinista (or Fashionista)

Throwing down the gauntlet here: I think this outfit is hideous.

It reminds me of some of the bad movie theaters they built in the late 90s and early 2000s--lots of eye-jarring, garish patterns and colors thrown together that will look dated in about, oh, five minutes.

It also reminds me of the outfits my four-year-old daughter emerges from her room wearing when she dresses herself. When she puts an ill-matched clown-like creation together, I commend it, because, well, she's four and she did it herself.

One of Ruthie's creations....I think she's cuter than the cover model, but I'm biased!

And what looks super-cute on a four-year-old--four-year-olds can even pull off Crocs--is VERY different, to my conservative Midwestern mind, than what looks good on an adult woman (especially adult women who are ordinary-bodied specimens like yours truly, unlike the RW cover model, who, yes, IS in fact a model, though I don't think even she can pull off the horror of the ensemble she's wearing on the cover).

Now you do have to keep in mind that my "fashion sense" is nothing of the kind. No one ever called me fashion-forward. In both running and real life, I avoid patterns, wearing only one of them at a time if I wear them at all. Black is still my favorite color, a holdover from my years in New York City. For running, I favor shorts and capris (black ones, of course) over running skirts. I will wear shirts with fun statements on them, as long as the design is simple and classy (I own and wear the Run Like a Mother shirt that asks "Are my kids still chasing me?").

But I won't wear anything that attempts to make me look or sound more badass than I actually am (who would I be fooling anyway? certainly not myself!). And I won't be a slave to ugly trends, especially not in running. I run partly to be free of the kinds of attitudes that the fashion industry feeds into. I'm not saying I don't (unfortunately) share some of these attitudes. I'd love to have the body of the RW cover model. But I recognize that this is shallow and pointless, and I hope someday to evolve to the point where I no longer care in the least what anyone thinks of my appearance, aside from whether I look and am clean and healthy. Since running and my races are important to me, and make memories I want to cherish, I'd rather have the emphasis in race photos of me be on what I'm doing than what I'm wearing.

My relative lack of emphasis on fashion is, I know, a matter of opinion. For those of you who do set more store in fashion than I, I'd say, "Beware." Wouldn't you rather look classic, whether running or eating out with your partner, than clownish? Wouldn't you rather be Audrey Hepburn than Madonna circa 1983?

Where do you come down on the "fastinista" trend? It certainly made for an interesting read! I do enjoy that magazine.

June Recap

Summertime....

And the running is easy...

Feet are jumping; the endorphins are high....

The track's not pitched,

Down the backstretch you're booking....

So rush, little baby: fly, fly, fly.

Two more weeks until the ZOOMA Women's Half Marathon! I'm really enjoying my training. Despite increased mileage, my body is holding up fairly well. I need to sleep more, though. Going to bed early is still hard to do. My in-laws, whom I love, are staying with us for a month, and it's so tempting to stay up and hang out with them rather than put myself to bed at a runner's hour. And I've paid for it this week in particular, having to drag myself out of bed for the last couple of days' workouts.

The workouts themselves aren't suffering yet. Once I wake up, I feel good. But I know getting overtired is only a matter of time if I keep this up. So my resolution for July is to sleep well and lots, even if it means foregoing a good social life.

Meanwhile, here are June's facts and figures:

--I started my McMillan training plan! I can't believe I'm already four weeks into it. So far my favorite of his workouts is a speedy mid-week run that combines tempo-type sections (5 intervals of 5 minutes at half-marathon pace) with slower distance. Variations on this type of thing have really ramped up my mid-week miles.

--I ran 124 miles! To some of you miles addicts out there, that's nothing, but I'm pretty sure it's the most I've run in any month since I trained for NYC back in 2005.

--I attended two 45-minute spin classes (both at the Longmont Recreation Center in my new town). This class isn't as intense as Tammy's down in Boulder, but that's OK with me as I want to be careful while increasing my running mileage. When fall rolls around and Tammy's class restarts, I will hopefully be ready to intensify my cross-training again ahead of Houston. I'm sure I'll need some new tunes by then, and there's no better source than Tammy.

--Speaking of tunes, just for the heck of it, here are some I've recently added to my long-run mix: three by the Decemberists ("Down By the Water," "Rox in the Box," and "This is Why We Fight"), Florence + the Machine's "Dog Days are Over" and Lucinda Williams' "Can't Let Go."

--I made it to six one-hour weight training classes and hiked several times with Christine.

--I got into January's Houston Marathon (thank you lottery!) and signed up to raise $500 for the Houston Food Bank. This has been awesome--what wonderful friends I have! But I still need a few more people to give to meet my goal. So I'd humbly request you go to my fundraising page and give whatever works for you. You'll be helping people get a decent meal and ensuring that this race will be a success for me no matter what my time ends up being.

Alright then! July is here! Let's do it!