Tag Archives: sleep

Still recovering.

27 Oct

Last week was quite possibly the longest week of my life. From Sunday to Sunday, I worked 115 hours. Isn’t that ridiculous? I did nothing except eat, sleep and work. And as my last blog post described, I was really looking forward to a break this week.

No such luck.

We are announcing our 2011 race calendar on November 1st and I am supposed to have all of the race logos designed and ready for posting by then – in addition to answering all of the post-race emails from athletes and vendors, creating the 2011 marketing strategy, designing all of the t-shirts and medals, and contracting new timing clients. And that’s just work. I was also greeted by a kitchen piled high with dishes, a laundry basket overflowing with 5 loads of laundry, an empty fridge and a dog needing a trip to the vet.

After getting a good 12 hours of sleep Sunday night, I got up on Monday at 9:30. I spent some time trying to pray but just found myself getting frustrated at the full day I had ahead, instead of the relaxing day I had hoped for. Then I worked for a bit, took Katy to the vet, worked a bit more, and volunteered at the church. Travis called me and said he was coming home from hunting a day early so we ate dinner together and watched a movie.

Tuesday, I jumped out of bed with the ambition to get the house in order. I can only take messiness for so long (and it’s not even really that long). So I gathered all of the laundry and started a load, put away all the other stuff from my suitcase, did the dishes, ate breakfast, cleaned up my office, and answered some emails. Around 12:00 noon, I called it quits and went on my first run in 2 1/2 weeks. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I can indeed still run 5 miles. I’m hoping I can run quite a bit more, considering the half marathon in Malibu is just 2 1/2 weeks away. After my run, I showered and went to the church to volunteer. When I got home, I had a phone date with my friend Brittany, then Travis made dinner, we watched a couple episodes of The Office, and he went to a hockey game while I talked to my mom on the phone. Finally, it was time for bed.

This morning, I spent some time in the Word and then edited the New Members class content I have been working on for the church. I answered some more emails (they just keep coming!), then went to my last physical therapy appointment. In the car on the way there, after feeling frazzled, rushed and stressed ever since getting home, I realized that I just needed a break. I just need to catch up on all the housework and take a breather. Then I can dive in tomorrow.

So I did. I took the afternoon off. After my appointment, I went grocery shopping, finished the laundry, and then read a magazine and watched some Desperate Housewives. I would be taking a nap right now except I am not really physically tired – just emotionally tired. And I wanted to read the blogs I follow, as well as post on mine. In 10 minutes, I’m going to go on a nice little 3-mile run, then shower and go to Care Group for dinner and discussion. I can’t say that I feel quite recharged yet – that will probably take a few weeks. But this afternoon definitely helped.

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Time for a break.

20 Oct

I am in serious need of a break. So far this week, I have worked over 45 hours – and it’s only Wednesday!

I knew that this week would be this way so at least I wasn’t surprised. I had planned that I would do nothing except work and sleep. No exercise. No reading. No fun. (Well, I at least had to squeeze in a blog post).

That’s the way my job is – race week is completely nuts. This one even more so, since I took Friday and Saturday off last weekend to go up to elk camp with Travis and his family, days I would normally be working in preparation for this week.

Instead of getting into how much these weeks make me question why I have the job I do, I’m going to talk about all the things I excited to do next week – when I have pretty much the whole week off.

First, I’m going to sleep in as long as I can, linger over the Word with a cup of coffee, read a book as long as it takes me to fall asleep into a nap, cuddle with Katy my dog, and watch movies.

Second, I’m going to get a massage, manicure, and pedicure to rescue my body, feet and hands from all of this crazy manual labor! I’m sure my back is just one big giant ball of tension. I know my right leg has been demanding I quit using it so much since the beginning of August (my IT band and hamstring are ridiculously tight).

Then, I’m going to update my resume, volunteer at the church, write and mail a letter to my Compassion child, roll over my 401(k), finish sewing a coat and swimsuit coverup (not making, just mending!), run at least 4 times (the half marathon is in less than a month!) including an 8-miler, and paint and decorate wooden letters for my office (haven’t decided what word they’ll spell yet). I’m sure there’s more – I’ve been making a list of all the things that pop into my head followed by, “I need to remember to do that.”

It’s amazing how busy I’ve been this summer. I don’t really realize it until I think about all the things I haven’t had time or energy to do. When I read about my friends’ weekend adventures online, I am reminded of how long it’s been since Travis and I just hung out for the heck of it. Heck, how long it’s been since Travis and I hung out period. And then I see the long list of things I need and want to do and I just know – it’s time for a break.

What I’m trying to figure out is how long of a break I need from this job. But that’s better left for another blog post.

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Midnight thoughts

6 Mar

Ok, so it technically isn’t midnight. But I tried to go to bed with Travis and was just laying there, wide awake. I didn’t want to go to bed. But then, I didn’t want to read, watch TV, or be on the computer either. So I tried to go to bed, though I wasn’t that tired. Usually I just can lay there long enough to fall asleep. If my eyelids start feeling heavy when I try opening my eyes, I know that I’ll be falling asleep soon enough. But tonight, nada.

And then I started thinking about stuff I could blog about. So what better time to write said blog than right when I’m thinking about it?

The 3 things I was thinking about were:

1) I’ve been toying with the idea of training for a sprint triathalon. I haven’t quite found the energy to  commit to another running race of any substancial distance (or any race at all, for that matter) and one of my co-workers, D, is training for a triathalon. She’s planning on doing like 6 different ones this summer. Um, one sounds good to me.

I finally looked up training programs this week and realized that Holy Cow! If I’m really going to do a triathalon this summer, I need to start training like, 2 months ago. Because even though I’m a decent runner, I am not in biking shape (I can do a leisurely 7 miles…) and I don’t know the first thing about swimming. The triathalon I want to do is July 18th (3 days after my 26th b-day!), so that leaves me just about 19 weeks from tomorrow to train. Gulp.

First order of business is getting the equipment. I need a swimsuit (as I don’t own a one-piece), I need to get my bike fixed and to buy a helmet, and in an ideal world, I would also buy new sports bras (for the running part, though it’s just a 5K so I’m not too worried about it).

Second order of business is mustering up the courage to go to the swimming pool. For some reason, the pool intimidates me to no end. If there was some way I could get around having to go to a public pool (where there are probably rules I don’t know about and people who will gawk and point at this poor little girl who only knows how to doggie paddle–ok, so I do know some real strokes), I totally would do it. But I don’t think there is. At least, not an economical way.

Man, I can just see myself putting this off and putting this off. But once I buy a swimsuit (hopefully tomorrow), I will have no excuse!

In the meantime, I will be trading the elliptical for the bike at the gym in hopes of getting ready for a 10.5-mile bike ride. I will also be raising money for Life Choices Pregnancy Center, since the triathalon I want to do is the Tri For Your Cause. So if you all want to support me, I totally encourage it! (But I would wait until I have a better idea if this whole doing-a-triathalon-this-summer idea is realistic).

2) As I mentioned in my earlier post, I went out for Chinese food tonight with Travis and Debb (my boss) and her husband, Rick. It was lot of fun. Driving home, I realized what a blessing it is to have older Christians in our lives who we can learn from and bond with. I have never been friends with people so much older than me before but I like it!

Anyway, I ordered the Sweet N Sour Chicken. I had debated about ordering tofu and veggies but settled on the chicken. It was a disappointing meal. The chicken was really tough and it just wasn’t that fantastic. (Chinese food is one of those take-it-or-leave-it foods for me. I’m not that huge of a fan…although I do love tofu.) A disappointing meal turned into a regrettful meal once I discovered (no surprise) that the fried chicken gave me acid reflux.

A condition I didn’t realize I had until it landed me in the ER one day with horrible chest pains, acid reflux (for me) is just a nuisance. Instead of being painful, it usually just makes me feel incredibly nauseated. When I overate on fried food at a friend’s birthday party, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I had just ridden on a merry-go-round for 24 hours straight. I couldn’t throw up so I went back to bed in writhing pain, only to realize that I had acid reflux, not an upset stomach (at least not the kind that makes you puke). So I took some meds, propped myself up on 4 giant pillows, and fell back asleep. The next morning, though, I seriously felt like I had been throwing back tequila shooters all night. A literal food hangover. Yuck.

But tonight, I just feel a little nauseated. Which isn’t fun when I have a cold and sore throat to begin with. Ah, but such is life.

Which brings me to my conclusion:

KATHY’S STOMACH: “Kathy, you don’t like fried food. You don’t like greasy food.”

KATHY’S TASTE BUDS: “I know, I know. It just all sounds so good on the menu. But then I order it and it really doesn’t live up to the hype. I usually end up wishing I had ordering some grilled chicken on a salad. Or a sandwich. Like the Panera breakfast sandwich that I’m going to eat tomorrow morning. Or a Tasty Turkey sandwich from Einstein Bros. Bagels. Mmmm…turkey.”

STOMACH: “So why do you still eat fried and greasy foods when you don’t like them and you know they give you acid reflux?”

TASTE BUDS: “Um, I don’t know.”

STOMACH: “Well, will you cut it out already? I’m dying down here.”

That’s what you get from me at 11:48 PM. (Hey, it’s late for me!)

3) I have a wonderful little day planned out tomorrow. Travis is getting up at 6 AM to go ice fishing so that means I have the morning and early afternoon all to my lonesome.

If I can get to sleep sometime this week, I’ll be getting up early-ish (who knows what time since my sleep schedule is all out of whack now–usually I get up around 7:00) and going to the Rec for some much-needed exercise. (Note: I will be doing the bike in prep for the tri…and probably some elliptical too, we’ll see how I feel). Then I will shower and head to Panera for a delicious breakfast sandwich (every morning I hear their commercial, my mouth starts to water…their sandwiches that good). While at Panera, I will get in the Word and probably do a crossword. Then I might go to the library. The book I had wanted to check out (Good Calories, Bad Calories) sounds a lot more scientific and intense than I can handle…but maybe I’ll find another book I want to check out.

I also need to clean the house and chip away some more of my article to translate, AND I need to buy a swimsuit for the tri, but other than that, my day is wide open.

So there you have it, 3 midnight thoughts to snack on. Toodles.

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I suck.

19 Sep

This is my 101st post! But that isn’t why I suck.

I suck because I made it one day (and that by cheating) without sweets. But it’s only partly my fault. You see, the day after my last post (where I had “committed” to not eating sweets until at least the end of Sept, with the exception of Sundays) I decided to bake peanut butter cookies for Travis and the guys in his Bible study. And my Bible study was the next night at our house so I figured I’d have treats for the ladies too.

I did really good while baking them–I didn’t eat any of the dough, even when it was sticking to my fingers from making the little balls. Instead of licking it off my fingers, I just washed it off, down the drain. Good, delicious dough, wasted. But I had made a commitment.

Then Travis came home and ate one of the cookies. After his first bite, he said, “Mmmmm…” which made me curious if they were good. So I asked for a small bite. He gave it to me, to my surprise (I was expecting him to say “But Bub, you weren’t having sweets until Sunday, remember?”) I felt a little cheater-ish but I didn’t have a whole cookie!

But then the next day at work, one of my co-workers had baked bars to thank me and Travis for helping them move some donated office furniture. I put them in my locker immediately with the plan of bringing them straight home for Trav. After lunch, though, I heard one of my co-workers, Mandy, say that she wanted something sweet to eat so I offered her one of the bars. (At least I can share my sweets, even if I can’t stop eating them!) I gave one to Carol Ann and Jen too and then…I ate one myself.

And I ate another one for lunch today.

And I had a cookie last night at our women’s group.

And like 4 slices of tomato basil bread from Panera today.

Whoops.

I suck.

Add to that, when I got home after work today, I read Newsweek for a while and then took a nap. I just did not have energy or motivation to do anything else. Yesterday, though, I did go grocery shopping after work and then on a run before making dinner. So I’m not a complete bum. Just a little one.

I hope that this funk I’m in ends soon. Or else I’ll run out of excuses.

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In a funk

16 Sep

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in a funk. I just feel icky–not like I’m getting sick but I am just exhausted and lethargic a lot. When we first moved into our house, I feel like I didn’t take any rest–I was just go, go, go because there were so many things I wanted/had to do. But now, man, I get home, lie down on the couch, and I’m out.

Like Sunday, after church we helped some friends move some paving stones to their house. When we got home, I ate some cheesy bread and then proceeded to take a 2-hour nap. It was one of those naps when you wake up from time to time, half of your brain telling you to get off the couch and do something productive, while the other half of your brain is dead to the world. The feeling of your body being one with the couch, like you couldn’t even move off the couch if you wanted to. That’s how the nap felt. Then, when you do get up an absurd number of hours later, you feel groggy and lazy for the rest of the day.

Today, I left work a little early because I’ve been working some overtime out of necessity (things are C-R-A-Z-Y at work right now) and trying to make it up, since I don’t get paid for it (oh, the luxuries of working for a non-profit). I came home and read the new Newsweek for about half an hour, at which point I started to nod off. I had been planning on reading a little and then going on a run before Travis got home. But obviously, my love for naps defeated my current apathy of running. I slept for a good hour and a half. While I absolutely love the feeling of a nap, I hate the ensuing feeling of being a bum and having nothing productive to show for a good chunk of my day.

That is one of many reasons why I feel like I’ve been in a funk. I know that I’m not getting enough sleep at night. I should really be in bed by 8:30, falling asleep at 9:00, so that I can wake up at 5:30 with a good 8.5 hours of sleep (the amount I really need). But I find myself getting in bed around 10:00, 10:30. Way too late!

Another reason is that I’ve been watching House like it’s my job. It was the season premiere tonight. I thought it would be on at 6:00 here because it was 8/7c. But I guess not…because it came on at 7:00 here too. Travis made a good point about 7:00 being prime time. We also have Season 1 Disc 3 right now…only 13 more to go until we’re all caught up!

Yet another reason is that I haven’t wanted to run lately. It has felt like pulling teeth. I feel like I should still want to run, like not running would be wrong. But I don’t entertain the thought of running in the morning at all and I have a hard time motivating myself to run after work. I have found, though, that the prospect of going to the gym and doing the elliptical or aerobics classes is appealing. So I am going to join the Wheat Ridge Rec Center. It’s cheaper than the Y and a decent gym. The Y is nicer but it is $24 more a month. Bush League!

So needless to say, my exercise schedule hasn’t been followed to a tee. I have been doing Pilates/Yoga about 3 times a week so I’m not a complete bum, but the cardio has definitely been lacking. After such long, stressful days at work, I’d rather curl up with a bowl of ice cream and watch some TV, rather than go pound the pavement–which is, needless to say, what I have been doing.

Which leads to yet another reason why I’m in a funk–my eating habits since we’ve moved to our new house have been horrible. I was doing really well for a while but I tend to get pretty lax when I feel good–it’s counter-intuitive I know but somehow when I feel good because I’ve been exercising and eating right, I then feel like I can eat 4 slices of pizza and a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough and skip that day (or 3) of running and not gain weight–like I’m immune to the calories now or something. But the worst part about is that once I start eating poorly, it’s so hard to get back to eating right–so as you can guess, I haven’t. I haven’t gained much weight (maybe 1 or 2 pounds but I prefer to think that the scale is just wrong every morning for weeks in a row), which is a good thing. I just feel like a fat blob.

And the hardest part about it is that I know what makes me feel that way–eating ice cream everyday on top of little candy bars at work and light frapps from Starbucks. I have tried numerous times over the past several months to stop eating so many sweets. Most of the time, I don’t even make it a day before caving.

This is what I wrote about me and sweets a few months ago:

“There’s only so long that you can sit in front of chocolate, hearing it call your name and resist. Willpower has a time limit. I’m a ticking timebomb in front of sweets. As soon as the timer gets to zero (willpower), I explode and devour everything in sight.”

But tonight at the gym, I decided that I’m sick of feeling gross and flubbery. I am going to cut out sweets–except for Sundays. (I may be ambitious but I am still realistic!) No chocolate (ouch), no candy (oooo), no ice cream (uuuuhhhh). It’s gonna hurt but it will be worth it!!

So here’s to no sweets. I did it for Lent; I can do it again. And I am going to do this until at least Sept 30th–21 days from now because that is how long experts say it takes to form a habit. Hopefully I can kick my chocolate-tootsie roll-ice cream-gooey goodness addiction for at least that long. Wish me luck!

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Catching up

2 Jul

Today was another long day at work. There’s not a whole lot to do, it’s a 4-day week, we leave for vacation next week, and I’m tired as all get-out. Needless to say, I wasn’t the most productive worker bee today. I even jet out 20 minutes early because I couldn’t take anymore. I’ll just work a little longer tomorrow. It is a blessing to have such a flexible job!

So now to update my blog with everything I’ve been up to. Mark and Sarah Norman were out here to visit us this past week. They got in the night of Tuesday 6/24 and left the morning of Tuesday 7/1. It was SO much fun having them out here! We did a lot of talking and had a lot of late nights and early mornings…but it was so worth it.

Wednesday night, Travis and I had care group and the Normans went up to Rocky Mountain National Park but they came back that night and stayed at our apartment. (It’s very cozy with 4 people in it!!) Thursday night, we grilled out in the park near our apartment and got to see the Happy Thursday parade of drunken people decked out in pink tutus and knee-high, black, patent leather boots. We also went and watched Trav’s hockey game (that started at 10:15!).

Friday, Trav and I got off work around 1:00 and we all headed up to Guenella Pass near Georgetown, where we were going to camp for the weekend. I took a nap on Friday while the boys gathered and chopped up firewood. We ate brats and baked beans and sat by the fire for a while and then went to bed. Saturday, I slept in to about 8 (everyone else got up around 9, which gave me a chance to get in the Word), we ate some pancakes for breakfast, and set off for the trail. We climbed Square Top Mountain, which is almost a 14er at 13,900 ft. We got going a little later than we had planned (not good with the changing weather up there) and the hike was a lot harder than we had planned (see pictures of it here) so we only made it to about 13,500 but the view was still gorgeous (and it was still a crazy good workout!)

After our hike, we drove around and ended up at a country store on another highway, where we bought ice cream. I had a good ole classic ice cream sandwich. Yum! It tasted really good after our hike. We drove back to camp, played some Catch Phrase, ate ravioli and corn on the cob, and sat around the campfire some more. Then we went to bed around 10:00.

Sunday night/morning, I could barely sleep because I was so cold. And I had to pee really bad. So around 5:30 AM, I forced myself out of my sleeping bag to the bathroom (an outhouse at our campground). As I was walking back to our campsite, I noticed that the sun was coming up. Not being that tired and really not wanting to go back to bed to freeze my ars off some more, I decided to stay up and watch the sunrise. I poked Travis and asked if he wanted to come. All he groaned was “I’m so tired…” So I went all by myself. I took the Pathfinder up to the trailhead where I knew I’d have a good view and watched the sun rise as I spent time in the Word. After reading a little longer, I started getting sleepy again and it was only 7:00 AM so I drove back to the campground and got back in my sleeping bag for some not-so-restful barely-asleep sleep.

Finally, around 8:30, it was time to get up. Yay! We drank some coffee, ate some oatmeal, packed up camp, loaded our car, and drove up to the Silver Dollar Lake trailhead. It was a very enjoyable hike, albeit a little more challenging that I had remembered. I guess I was so concerned with all the snow last time that I didn’t realize it was mostly uphill to the lake. This time, we actually climbed past Silver Dollar Lake to one farther up the mountain. On the way back down, we slid down the snow again on our shoes–very fun. Makes the hike totally worth it in and of itself.

Our hike made us all completely famished so we stopped at Beau Jo’s in Idaho Springs on the way back for some Colorado cooking. We gorged ourselves on some heavy-duty nachos and a 3-lb Mountain Pie with Italian sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil pesto sauce. Delish. The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry and taking it easy.

Monday night, we ate out at Jackson’s Sports Grill in downtown Denver and then went to a Rockies baseball game, which is always fun. Then Tuesday morning, it was time for Mark and Sarah to leave. I got up at 4:00 AM so that I would have time to get ready and wouldn’t be in the bathroom when everyone else wanted to use it. Needless to say, I took a 2-hour nap after work yesterday. And I’m just about to go to bed right now… Yes, it’s 6:40 PM. But I forced myself to work out the minute I got home (even though I was yawning like crazy while lifting weights!) so that I could relax and fall asleep reading later on…like right now. Adios muchacho.

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