Friday, March 20, 2009

It's kinda not fair

I complain in my head at times, but I actually try to keep it under wraps in daily life because I am a firm believer in trying to focus on positive thoughts, even when it is hard because it helps to pull me through times that are harder...but I can't right now. Lately I've encountered two things with training: 1) I'm hungry ALL the freakin time 2) I need more sleep, but I'm not getting it.

The food thing...its weird and annoying. I actually don't like thinking about planning food. It is the 4th discipline I know...and have actually been seeing a sports nutritionist for over the past year. I've learned to clean up my eating habits and have seen many positive results because of that, but I have also discovered I hate going to the grocery story and planning food and don't really enjoy cooking either. I can cook when I need to...but I don't enjoy it like many friends I have. One of my closest friend is a professional foodie, free lance food writer and used to be a personal chef. She invents new recipes and tests many for others too and to read what she has to say, I love the passion she has towards this topic, unfortunately I just don't get it. (and I kinda wish I did).

But the weird part lately about being hungry are all the odd cravings. (no... i'm not pregnant). My nutritionist and I had a discussion about it awhile ago. She just said: the body knows what it needs and will tell you. She encouraged me to keep a closer diary of the types of training I am doing and then when I get food cravings after I can see better what I might be lacking post-workout. I admit...since I find the food thing a little bit of a hassle anyway, i haven't done this...but i need to...and soon.

Past few days it's been salt craving. I am not much for potato chips but I had a few the other day and all I wanted to do was lick the salt off of the chips. The next day I had some pulled pork...again salty...yummy...could not stop myself from eating it if I had tried. Few weeks ago it was INTENSE carb cravings. Granted... I have a little bit of a sweet tooth, but over the past year that has been put at bay a little bit and I don't actually want candy all that much, but candy...potatoes...pasta. It actually was a little weird.

And then there is the meat craving...especially after weight lifting. Even in Nov-Dec when i was only moderately lifting the next day all I craved was protein and meat. Granted, I gained two pounds of lean body mass then too...and lost two pounds of body fat.

So the food thing, i'm not so impressed by it to be honest. I wake up hungry in the morning a lot and am finding that if I miss my mid morning snack all hell breaks lose. I even ate a half a bagel the other day when I was in a morning meeting because I was hungry. I hate bagels.

But the sleep thing...this is the unfair part that I'm sorta whinging about right now. It is 3:38AM. I am awake. And I have been since oh...midnight. Lately work has been hectic to a degree and two days a week I have 730 am conference calls. Many days i'll just get into work around 7 and then leave earlier to get whatever workout that needs to be done in. But the thing is if i'm getting to work around 7, I am getting up between 5 and 530. I should be going to bed around 9 at least. I haven't been. And I've been tired.

BUT yesterday i was excited...8 pm rolled around and i knew I could get to bed BEFORE 9pm. 845 I was IN bed and quickly fell asleep actually. Midnight rolled around...and I am WIDE awake. I tried to convince myself to fall back asleep for an hour and a half before I gave up. I've since been stalking people's blogs and drinking herbal tea in the hopes that my body and mind will quiet and I can slip back into bed.

I know the problem...i think too much. If you are one to subscribe to the 'Meyers-Briggs' personality type...it falls in line with my 'personality' description that I basically think too much. (INTP or here...but I'm not really as cold and uncaring a person as all those profiles try to make me out to be!) The sucky part is I think too much even when I am SLEEPING. Since moving to CA, I have had this brand of insomnia where I just WAKE myself up because my mind is running.

Lately work has been too stressful and I have worn that over-thinking part of my brain out so sleeping hasn't been a problem. But things have backed off, almost a little too much and now I can't shut it off. There is a sweet spot of busy-ness that I need with work and life lest I get really bored with what i'm doing and then my brain wanders. This week...my brain has been wandering a lot. This means a lot of random internet searches on whatever types of strange 'questions' that pop into my brain.

This week I did further investigation on my personality type...which I find rather ironic because it is within my personality type to actually DO that. Granted it shed a lot of light on my perspectives on training and where I was mentally limiting myself in some areas.

I also investigated aerodynamics on the bike. Specifically the physics of aerodynamics and the impact of clothing, aerobars, helmets, wheels, position and even shaved legs (no there is no advantage boys...but admittedly it is pretty hot). This is the only time I ever lament not still being in grad school. There are all these scientific journal articles that I want to read on the subject but have no access. Bummer.

And if you made it to the end of this post...wow. impressive. Crazy rants from the middle of the night :-) It's 4:30 am...i'm going to try to see if I can sleep...maybe just a little bit.

8 comments:

Kathleen @ ForgingAhead said...

I hear you. And feel your pain. In my world this kind of mind running is a symptom of some serious stress. The only I can deal with it is to keep paper and pen by the bed and write a list of what's on my mind. Then things tend to quiet down and I can get back to sleep. Sorry to hear you're going through this. Sleep deprivation is the absolute worst.

Bob Almighty said...

On the shaved leg thing: So I cut myself for nothing...dang.

On the sleep thing I too have been suffering from being up late having to be up early...It could just be stress...I've been noticing alot of my friends have been suffering the insomia too.

Hopefully this won't lead to fight clubs or project mayhem....sorry I just saw that movie a couple of days ago and it's stuck in my head.

Chris said...

Sorry to hear about the insomnia - hard training is supposed to put you out like a light! I've had the busy-mind insomnia before, it's the worst. You can't fix a thinking-related problem by thinking about it, drives me nuts.
And you are sooo wrong about the shaved leg thing. I am at least 5% faster when shaved, and 10% faster if it's a fresh shave! My theory is that you go a little bit harder because you don't want to look like a poseur for having shaved legs. Same idea applies to aero helmets. I actually took photo's of my last leg shaving fiasco, maybe I'll share those soon :)

Sunshine said...

Wish I knew what that waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing is. I've had it forever. (Not much comfort?!).
A couple of years ago I read the suggestion of eating a little protein whenever you eat... like a small handful of nuts, an ounce of cheese, etc. (Never eat without a little protein!)
I find that this seems to stablize appetite (fewer blood sugar spikes).

The Lazy Triathlete said...

I use to suffer from the mind-too busy type insomia too. I just learned over the years there are things I can control and things I can't control. I just don't stay up worrying about the things that I can not control.

When I suffer from this now it is usually the things I can control, but for whatever reason I opt not too.

katie b said...

well eating is fun and thinking is good for you (it lessens your chances of Alzheimer's i think) so eat and think on...but you may want to invest in some herbal sleep aides from my favorite place - Whole Foods. maybe some Valerian Root or something like that...?

Sarah said...

Really sorry to hear about your insomnia. :( Ugh, that sucks so much! Agreed with Katie...maybe look into some natural sleep aids? Sleep is such a big part of being an athlete and your body needs the rest (I know you know this) so whatever you can do to help it happen...:-/

As for eating...planning meals can be a pain...esp if you don't enjoy the cooking part of it. Maybe you can have your chef friend help ya out...?

MaineSport said...

I'm not in the same boat with insomnia, but it's cousin. I get thrilled with 6 hours of good sleep these days. The "wheels" just keep turning.
On the saving, you're missing the point. It has little to nothing to do with aero or hydro dynamics. It's about the neuromuscular system. Muscles fire better when they are shaved. It's a sensation best left for the big race. From experience, and not science, I would add that a shaved body sweats better- everything is cleaner.