I have always been a night owl. Staying up until 2am on a weekend is pretty much my default setting. And honestly, I have been perfectly happy with this situation. It has been working for me since my university days and I have never had a real reason to reconsider things.
Unfortunately, I am starting to see how my current sleep schedule might not be the best match to my ultra marathon training plan… go figure.
The Predicament
My intention is to treat weekend runs (especially the long run) as non-negotiable. I believe those will be the most important for increasing mileage and just improving endurance overall. Miss too many and I could find myself completely off track.
So, I find myself in a bit of a pickle. Although these long runs are no more than an hour now, they will ramp up sooner or later and start taking up a significant chunk of the day. If I do not allocate my time well, I could end up dedicating all my waking hours to fitting in those runs and end up missing out on many other fun experiences to be had in the coming months.
Or on the flip side, those fun times could begin taking precedent and I won’t “have time” for my runs. Either situation will not work for my goal.
Changing It Up
I recently found myself trudging to the gym for a run at 9pm on a Sunday night. Shockingly I did not love it. However, the experience did make me realize that time management was something I needed to work on.
In order to stick to my schedule and still have fun experiences, I am going to start ditching the ultra late nights (yes pun intended) in favor of medium late nights. I do not think that I can bring myself to hit the hay at 9pm on a Friday, but I can definitely do better than 2am!
Wish me luck.. and sweet dreams! zzzz
