Last night before I went to sleep, I had these great plans to start my Friday on an awesome note with a longer run first thing in the morning. Since I work from home today, I figured I could get out the door by 5:30 and easily get in six to eight miles before tackling my to-do list for the day.

Then I realized the weather might not support that plan since Andrea is currently dropping a bunch of rain on DC, but I had a great back-up plan in place. If I couldn't get my run in, I'd just hit up the 6 a.m. CrossFit class.

Either way, I was pumped to start my Friday with a great workout.

Then this happened:



Seven hours in bed, 30 percent sleep quality, wide-awake from about 3:15 to 4:30ish.

I tossed and turned for a while trying to fall back to sleep, but I couldn't turn off my brain. I kept thinking about all the things I had to do today and next week at work and how worried I was that I wasn't going to get them all done.

Also my stomach was growling like crazy.

Eventually I threw in the towel, got up, had a little something to eat and crawled back into bed with a magazine figuring I'd eventually nod back off.

First story I read...



Yea...the irony isn't lost on me.

I eventually did fall back to sleep, but when my alarm went off about an hour later for my workout, I knew it wasn't happening. I shut the alarm off, set a new one for 90 minutes later and went back to bed.

My plans of starting the day with an awesome workout went right to hell.

I have one small opportunity of open time today where I might be able to sneak in some quick intervals at the fitness center during lunch.



Otherwise, I guess I can just plan to do that longer run tomorrow morning.

Has a crappy night's sleep ever messed up your morning workout plans?

If you've been following along with my whole triathlon journey, you may have noticed that I have not been sleeping well throughout this training cycle because I've been having major freak outs and nightmares about the race.

First there was the dream where I parked my bike at my friend's apartment and when I got back all the parts where gone except for the seat and the handle bars. It was like my bike had been to the chop shop.

More recently, I dreamed that I got to the race late and my wave has already started or that the race has decided they aren't going to use timing chips or that I can't find the tent for body marking.

I have woken up from all of these dreams in a horrible cold sweat, and have had a hard time falling back to sleep.

So sleep lately, has not been my friend.

However, when I got the opportunity through FitFluential to partner with Technogel to test out one of their amazing pillows and host a giveaway for my readers, I jumped at the opportunity.


I know that a pillow isn't going to banish my anxiety dreams, but I figured that maybe if I had something comfortable to snuggle into after waking up from one of my dreams, I'd drift back to sleep easier.


Guys, in all seriousness, this is the best pillow I've ever slept on.

Technogel makes several different style pillows and I opted for the Classic, which is their thinnest pillow. I absolutely hate big, fluffy pillows, and tend to snag my pillows super cheap and super flat from the pillow bins at Ikea. Big, fluffy pillows are annoying and hurt my neck, but the Classic was the perfect height.


My favorite part though was the blue gel on the inside that feels slightly cool to the touch when you put your head on the pillow. I like sleeping in the cold and having that chill factor was awesome.

Sleeping on this pillow has been amazing. And lucky for me, this week the triathlon nightmares have stayed away. Sure, I know that is not a direct result of the pillow, but it's sure been a nice coincidence.


The best part of this whole thing is that I get to share the wealth! Technogel has offered to give away one of their amazing pillows to one of you. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment answering this question:

How do you deal with bad dreams, especially anxiety dreams about races?

I'll pick a winner on Friday morning.

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Lately I have been running myself into the ground.

• I've been training and working out hard.
• I've been going out and staying out late with friends.
• I've been busting my butt at work on some new projects.

I've been trying to do it all and to do it all well, but I've been majorly sacrificing my sleep through the whole thing.

Some of it is my fault, I stay up too late and wake up too early. But then some of it is just poor quality sleep thanks to some not so awesome anxiety dreams.

It was all bound to catch up to me eventually.

And last night it finally did.

I was in bed reading and the last time I remember looking at the clock was 8:30 or so.

Imagine my surprise when my phone beeped around 9:15, apparently waking me up, and I realized I had passed out on top of my book and my laptop with all the lights still on.

I got up, turned off the lights and crawled right back into bed.

Ten hours later I feel like a new person.

Getting enough sleep is a wonderful feeling.

Someone please tell me why I woke up at 2:30 wide awake the last two nights, but when my alarm went off at 6 a.m. I felt like I had been hit by a bus.

Maybe it's because I spent the hour from 2:30 to 3:30 trying to sort out all the million things that kept swimming around in my head and no matter what I just couldn't fall back to sleep.

Stress will do that to you I guess.

Curious what was keeping me up? Here's just a glimpse of my inner dialogue. Don't laugh too hard.

• My work trip to San Diego is in a week! Wheee!! So excited, but so much to do to get ready!


• Why do I have to fly to San Diego on Southwest? Flying stresses me out to the max in usual circumstances, but flying on an airline where I don't have a reserved seat and could potentially get stuck in a middle seat for a five and a half hour cross-country flight makes me hyperventilate a little bit. Don't panic, self, it's going to be fine. Deep breaths!


• I didn't blog yesterday and I felt like there was a small void in my life. That's sad.


• I'm the world's laziest person ever and I haven't worked out in like a week and now I feel like crap. The stupid heat just makes me so unmotivated and I can't stand the thought of another treadmill run. But if I would run, then I'd have something to blog about. Stop being such a lazy bum self!


• I have so many fun plans scheduled for this week! I am so freakin' excited, but I'm seriously overbooked. Oops. So much for finding time to fit in a run.


• Ugh doctor's appointment tomorrow. I really hope they don't need to draw blood.


• Why does my credit card statement not reflect that fact that I paid the bill already like weeks ago? Why was customer service not at all helpful when I called in a tizzy? Yes, I know paying off the bill in full every month is good for my credit score, that's why I do it, but I just wanted to know if my payment went through.


• Why do I talk so much in situations where I'm nervous?

And I'm sure there was much, much more.

You know what would probably help clear my head a bit? A good run. I really need to find the time to make that happen, even if it means sucking it up and using the treadmill. I also need to learn to get my inner dialogue under control.

When you're stressed to the max about a million different things, how do you handle it? I'd really love to be able to sleep through the night like a normal person again.

Did you all enjoy the extra hour of sleep this weekend? I know I sure did.

(Source)

Although, while the extra sleep is nice, changing the clocks always puts my body into a bit of a funk until I completely adjust.

I get hungry way too early and end up staying up later than I should because the clock says it's only 10, even though it feels like 11.

To help myself adjust more quickly, I follow these steps:

Go to sleep when I'm tired. 
It doesn't matter what the clock says, I go to sleep when my body says I should and wake up when my alarm goes off at 6 a.m. I know eventually my body will get used to the new time and start to naturally adjust.

Eat meals at normal times and avoid excess snacking.
I always get hungry for lunch at 11 a.m. after the clocks fall back, but I wait to eat lunch until the clock says it's noon. Again I know my body will sync eventually and sticking to a schedule in the beginning helps. Excess snacking just throws everything off, so I try to stick to regular meals the first few days after the change.

Exercise.
Besides the obvious physical benefits for working out, exercise just makes me feel more awake in the morning and gives me more energy during the day. Plus if I exercise during the day, I know I'll sleep more soundly at night. As an added bonus, exercise releases serotonin, a brain chemical, which is reported to help our bodies better adjust to time changes.

By the end of the week, I should be full adjusted to the new times and back into a happy rhythm.

Do you have a hard time adjusting to time changes? What do you to do make it easier?

We all know that getting enough sleep is pretty crucial to being able to get up early in the morning to run. This weekend that definitely didn't happy, but I wasn't too worried about it. A missed run isn't the end of the world.

I figured I'd get back in the swing of things Monday morning, but, then I remembered another critical factor in the sleep/run equation.

It's not just getting enough sleep that matters. Keeping a fairly regular sleep schedule is really important too.

And that's what led to my epic running fail this morning.

Alarm goes off at 5 a.m. I turn it off and go back to sleep. My body was pretty sure it was 3 a.m. and I had at least another couple hours of sleep.

See the past few nights my sleep schedule looked like this:

Friday night in bed at 12:30ish
Saturday morning wake up 7:15 a.m.
Saturday night asleep....ummm 3 a.m.
Sunday wake up: 10:30 a.m.
Sunday during the day: Two short naps in the car ride home from Virginia.

So even though I went to bed at a normal time on Sunday night, my body was all kinds of messed up from my weird weekend schedule. I know it's going to take my body a few more days to readjust to a normal pattern, but I'm fairly confident I'll be able to get up to run tomorrow.

I'm pretty bummed I didn't get a run in this morning, but I'm trying not to beat myself up about it. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not the end of the world.

What are your tips for getting back on a normal sleep schedule? Anyway I can jump start the process of getting my body back to normal?

As part of Back on Track Month I wanted to really work on getting at least eight hours of sleep each night. This week I have failed miserably.

First I got sucked into a really good book and was up until 11:30 or midnight two nights in a row reading it.

Then I went to the BF's volleyball game, which is kind of far from where I leave, and I got back really late.

And then last night I had a splitting headache when I got home from the soccer game. I'm sure it was just a tension headache from being a little too worked up about the game. (We won 2-1, but the other team had some close chances at the end). Anyway, said headache persisted when I woke up this morning.

So yes, my sleep schedule...totally messed up. Complete sleep fail.

And you know that happens when I sleep weird...apparently I start dreaming about you guys. No kidding, one of you popped up in my dream the other night as a co-worker in my office. It was weiiiiird especially considering the fact that I've never met any of you (except Lindsay and it wasn't her).

I woke up and I was like ummm did that just really happen. But yea I guess it did.

So now I'm even more determined to get my sleep scheduled worked out. I can't be having you guys all pop up in my dreams.

This weekend was so much fun what with my trip down the shore and two parties with friends, but it took a serious toll on my sleep schedule.

The BF and I left for Sea Isle City after work Thursday night. We got in around 10:30 and were able to head out with my friends for a quick drink. We hit the hay around 1 a.m. but because of some unfortunately rude house guests got approximately two hours of sleep the rest of the night. No good.

I spent much of my time Friday napping on the beach.

Saturday night wasn't much better. We got home from shore and about 20 minutes later were out the door heading to the first of two parties. It was a long night and we probably didn't get to bed until 2ish.

I spent much of Sunday napping.

Sunday I went to bed by 11. Later than I would have liked but nothing ridiculous.

I spent much of Monday napping. (It was my day off work.) Unfortunately my nap was from like 3:30 to 8:30. Not so good for wanting to get to sleep early Monday night. I stopped reading and attempted to sleep around 10:30. Tossed and turned for forever. Dozed and woke up a ton of times. Hit snooze twice and then accidentally slept an extra 20 minutes waking up at the time I usually am finished getting ready to leave for work. Fabulous. Still made it to work on time because I am that awesome.

As you can see though, my sleep schedule is seriously messed up. Not cool at all.

I have to teach my yoga class tonight, which I'm pretty much dreading, because I'd rather go for a run (assuming I'd have energy to run) and then tuck into bed early. I'm still going to go for the get to bed early thing. I've got to get my sleep schedule to something that looks more normal!