This week marks my second week running with a group of marathoners-something I’m really excited about (because it means that I have people to train with). However, I had to force myself to back out of a track workout at the last minute today due to my recent problems with sleep and lack of it.
It’s not uncommon to come across athletes who push themselves beyond their limits all because they feel that they cannot afford to miss a day of training. This is especially true if you’ve found yourself in a situation where you haven’t been sleeping well but still want to train. I often find myself pondering as to whether or not I should just push through the exhaustion and get a “good workout” in for fear of being perceived as lazy or the unreasonable thought of somehow getting out of shape.
Get the sleep.
This is a hard pill for many of us to swallow. For someone who always tries to keep busy, having to slow down and sleep is not only frustrating; it feels like a waste of time. In the long run, however, getting sufficient sleep will help you because it’s a great preventative measure against injuries-not to mention that it assists us in maintaining a healthy weight and overall better mental clarity.
I find that I often need to remind myself of the importance that sufficient sleep plays in my life. After all, I wouldn’t have much of one without it!
The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late. ~Charles Caleb Colton