I Need More Sleep and A Run Through The Cemetery

The elite Kenyan runners sometimes spend 16 hours in bed during their peak training season, my research tells me.

I can commiserate. The more I run, the more I need time to heal and recover. I mentioned that while recovering from my Saturday 16-mile attempt, I slept 12 hours. That's probably a record for me.

But the thing is that I'm a reporter. I'm often forced to be mentally on my toes and stimulated late into the evening. It's not too uncommon for me to not get home until 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. When you're trying to get to bed early, it can be pretty hard to wind down.

Around 11:30 p.m. I was fidgeting in bed last night, trying to fall asleep, but suffering from an overactive mind. Sometimes meditation works, but not if I'm too agitated.

I ended up getting up, reading for an hour or so, and then finally going to sleep. I woke up the next morning at 7:30 when the light started creeping under the shades.

By 8:30 a.m. I was on the road, pounding the pavement, creating even more of a backlog of sleep needs.

Right now I'm feeling a bit tired. I can never sleep while I can see light, so napping doesn't really work.

Some people would say drink caffeine, but that's just robbing Peter to pay Paul. It doesn't solve the underlying needs of my mind and my body.

Such is life, I guess. I'll try to get to bed earlier tonight.

The Run:

Tonight I took a zigzag course around the city, eventually headed through Walnut Grove Cemetery. I don't really understand cemeteries. I would be annoyed to know that my corpse was permanently squatting on a good piece of land. Walnut Grove is beautiful, despite the tombs and gravestones. It could be a park.

But then I suppose it could also be a housing development. At least the place affords me a pleasant, shaded place to run as it is.

Future Posts:
1) Last night I worked with some the friendly folks at Omni Physical Therapy, who volunteered to take a look at my running and give me some tips. I'll be writing an article for the paper about that experience soon

2) The Economics of Fruit

3) The Mental Side of Running