Some
parents get up really early to get in a workout before the kids (or the rest of
the world for that matter) wake up for the day. That is something I did not foresee myself doing. Baya had been pretty good about trying
to sleep through the night since she was about 2 months old, through about 4
months of age anyway. There were
still nights where she wouldn’t make it and got up once, though that was
becoming less frequent. We had
many days that started at 5 or 6am though, and I was not having a workout
completed by that time of day!
Plus, when she sleeps at night, that is my only chance for sleep. I have yet to take a nap since she was
born, not for lack of trying, but just for lack of being able to fall asleep.
That was working for a short
stretch anyway, until she was about 4 months old. She got a cold, though the only evidence was a runny nose (I
can handle that for a first cold!)
For over a week straight she got up during the night, and suddenly I
could no longer handle getting up early anymore then. I needed any sleep she would give me (and she often still
got up early as well). On top of
it, this was happening during my build period, when my training load was at its
biggest. My body was exhausted for
sure and craved the recovery that is found during sleep.
Sometimes we underestimate the
importance of sleep. I keep
reading about how it is an essential part of recovery, in order for our bodies
to absorb the work load and fully reap the benefits. Drats. Sleep
has always been important to me (just ask my husband), but the more stress we
put on our bodies with an increased training load makes it even more
important. For those that can
easily take naps, you have a great tool to take advantage of. Meanwhile, I sleep when I can at night
and keep hammering on during the day.
Take what you get and make the most of it I guess.
Things have continued to become
more challenging. Our family has
been in the midst of some big changes.
My husband got a new job; we sold our house and was looking for a new
one. Unable to find a home we were
certain about, we ended up renting for the time being. After my husband moved to start his new
job, Baya and I stayed behind for two weeks while I finished with my job. We camped in our house for the first
week (empty of all furniture and things), and stayed with friends for the
second week. During this time (the
final weeks of my build period), Baya then starting getting up TWICE a
night. Are you kidding me?! How are we going backwards with
this?!? Since our reunion with my
husband, she still continues to wake up twice during the night. Thankfully, he has been taking one of
the shifts, now that we are all back together. Press onward, fellow mothers.
A good thing about having gotten
into the routine of waking up early though is that I feel it better prepares me
for waking up early on race day. A
5am wake-up time just isn’t nearly as depressing as it used to be, and I can
fall asleep easier at an earlier time at night as well. I’ve learned to function quite well at
early times of the day. Four days
until the biggest race of my life thus far. I was once warned before having Baya, “Overall you may need
to brace yourself for some frustration with logistics and just claw and scratch
your way to your first HIM, remembering along the way that it is a worthy
accomplishment, and that it will set the stage for a new life of parenthood
balanced with endurance multi-sport training. Both long term projects.” I have greatly exceeded my expectations
of how much training (and even the level of training) that I’ve been able to do
in preparation for this new distance, but sometimes I also think that “claw and
scratch” may be right on. Well,
here we go!
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