Running Tired...Join the Crowd!

Before I blab away, let me update my latest week of training.  Weekly mileage was slightly lower, 40 miles, since I ditched the long run for a 10K this weekend.  I fully intended to wake up early on Wednesday to run longer but, as usual, that didn't happen. 

So sleep, or lack thereof, is the topic of tonight's post.  It feels like I'm always tired.  Most of that is brought on by myself (heck, I should be sleeping as I type this).  But seems like there's always something that "gets in the way" of training.

Like last night.  My wife knew I had a 10K race in the morning and that I wanted a decent night's sleep.  So at 8 p.m. she informs me that her friends from out of town are staying the night at our house.  Oh, and let's let them sleep in OUR bed as they need a good night's sleep and they have to wake up at 4:30 AM to make their flight out of John Wayne Airport in Orange County.

What the??  I really like her dear friend so what am I gonna say.

So I get to bed around 11:30 p.m  on the COUCH in the family room, underneath MY master bedroom. My wife slept on the couch in the living room.  I tossed and turned a bit but finally fell asleep. Then around 4 a.m. my 3 year old decides to accompany me on the couch. My wife helped retrieve him and 20 minutes later I hear movement upstairs as our guests are preparing to leave. They leave and I doze off for another hour and its now time to wake up.  Got maybe 4 to 5 hours of sleep.

Such is life.  I'm so used to interruptions that I've baked in a semi-zombie state into my race expectations.  There's no way I can run 100% off of 5 hours sleep.  So I've learned to just go with it and feel good doing the best I can. 

There were roughly 500 people in the 10K today but my main competitor was me. I ran a 38:30 10K and while that time is several minutes slower than my times 5 years ago, I was pleased.  For motivational purposes you can compete with others in these local races, but the reality is that you are doing this for YOU, not anyone else.

Most of us will NEVER feel we have adequate sleep, sufficient training, proper diet, enough mileage, etc. and thus we will always have built-in excuses for not running our best.  Let's face it...nobody really cares what your excuses are.  We are out there to have fun, to do the best we can and enjoy the camaraderie.

So I stopped myself this morning.  Instead of boring my friends with "excuses" that they could care less about, I savored the moment.  Met some new people.  It was a great morning.

The fact that you are out of bed, out of the house and physically exerting yourself on a Sunday morning wins you some major brownie points in this game called LIFE!

On that note, I want to congratulate the organizers of the 2009 Senior Concerns 5K/10K Love Run in Westlake Village.  The event was well organized and there appeared to be a record number of entrants.