sleep!

Perhaps I forgot to mention that last week, with the no-doze rule in place, I slept soundly and felt well-rested despite the reduced amount of sleep.  I kept waiting for a crash but it didn't happen.  That's what fuels my self-resolve more than anything: wanting to see how long I can keep this up.

The no-doze rule is still in effect (although it was relaxed a bit on Sunday morning), and I'm still feeling more energetic and less irritable.  And, thanks to the earplugs that Gaz and D sent me, my naps have been wonderful.  Admittedly, I sometimes wake up in the middle of them, but rule #2 is that, if I don't immediately fall back asleep--basically, if I have time to notice that I haven't immediately fallen back asleep--then I get out of bed.

Today, my nap was a solid 2.5 hrs!  And, yes, I had time for that because my night sleep was only 3.5, which seems like an odd duration, but 2.5 hrs is odd too considering that the average time of a sleep cycle is supposedly 1.5 hrs.  I suspect that my dog may have woken me up because there was a parcel on the porch, but I honestly felt like I'd woken up naturally of my own accord.

Unfortunately, I really like having a 2 am bedtime.  It's taken me a while to realize the true culprit: the world's best bike ride home.  It's less than a mile, the streets are wide and empty, it's relatively cool, and it's mostly downhill.  I've figured out that I bike 0.86 of a mile, and don't really pedal for 0.65 of that or so; the last bit is uphill.  I definitely touch the brakes more than the pedal because the drop gets me going a bit faster than I would like and I like to peer up and down cross streets a bit before crossing them even though they have stop signs and my road has the right of way.  There's so much space here, even in an older, pre-car developed town, that drivers can be sloppier than they should be.

But the short bike ride after work is bliss.  And rejuvenating.  However tired I am at the end of work, I come home feeling ten years younger and nowhere close to bedtime.

The bike ride over is another story.  It's close to the hottest part of the day and I have to get up that big hill.  Yesterday, it was so hot (38 C) that I decided, heck, just walk up the hill.  I sat on the bike and coasted down and then walked up.  The sidewalk is shady and it's really much better.  I'll probably end up doing this shamefully often.

Oh, and running!  So, I got up around 5:30 am, and the dog was sleeping, so I ran on the TM for just over an hour.  5 miles.  LOL  It was uncomfortable at first but eventually things loosened up momentarily, here and there.  IT was kind of an annoying run because I could not maintain good form for more than a half minute or so at a time.  My hamstrings are still a little tight from the deadlifts, which means I should be doing them more often, but not today.   I did some rows and clamshells instead.