Monday was harder than many of the others have been. I think this is still the alcohol leaving my body. I felt pretty normal at work though and was able to nap very well at 9am. This nap is still my favorite time to sleep, and I look forward to it more than I do my core sleep at night. I went to the gym doing the workout outlined in my plan. My energy levels are pretty much normal. Most people wouldn't know that I am sleeping differently. I was not very able to sleep other than that first nap, the next two were just ok because it was really hot out and I had a lot of trouble sleeping.
Tuesday when I woke up I felt the same as I had the previous week on Tuesday. Pretty sore but nothing I wouldn't have expected. I am a little sleepier the days after a workout but nothing crazy. Mauy Thai was extremely hard today. We trained for upwards of two hours in 35 degree C with high humidity felt like 42. I do not do well with heat though and felt sick with a headache through a good portion of this training. My shoulders were extremely fatigued from working them out on Monday. I found it hard to even hold pads let alone hit them. I crashed hard after this and ended up taking my core pretty early in the night.
Wednesday I was pretty exhausted, I was finding it hard to stay awake at work but after my first couple of naps that got better. My muscles felt much more tired than the previous week. When I went to the gym my whole body felt sore. I started to get shin splints in my left leg and my shoulders felt tired almost instantly when skipping. I feel like my body is not able to recover when I only have the 2.5 hour core and 4-5 naps. So now I am going to transition to a 4 hour core with 2-3 naps.
Overall it didn't feel that bad to be on the 2.5 hour with 4-5 as long as I kept it to just working out or Mauy Thai. If I am doing both though there just feels like there is not enough recovery time. I won't lie I feel I didn't give this sleep pattern as much of a chance as I could have. If I kept pushing through my body might have become accustomed to this training but it really felt like I was just breaking down more and more.
4 hours at night should be alright because it still will let me stay up late and work and get up in the morning. I am glad that I only will be taking 2-3 naps during the day as this means I can avoid the super hot sun car naps. These were actually terrible and many times I walked back into work soaking wet with sweat. It always amused me to think about what other people thought if they saw me sleeping in my car in the parking lot in like 35 degree weather with no shirt (I started taking it off to sleep because it was getting too sweaty) and a pillow.
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Monday, 23 July 2012
Day 19-21 The Dangers of Alcohol
So it was on this weekend that I decided to re-introduce myself to that mystical liquid we all know, love and hate. ALCOHOL. Well to start myself and a friend were driving to Calgary to hang out with a buddy for the first night of stampede. I was able to trade off driving with this friend so I was able to take naps on the way there. I forgot my earplugs though which are now a necessity I keep on me almost 24 hours of the day, as you never know when the opportunity for a good nap will strike. This meant that most of my naps were filled with me coming in and out of sleep. Once we arrived we did a quick arms circuit with some weights and chairs and other things around the apartment (so nothing intense). We planned to head to a bar that night maybe stampede grounds if it so intrigued us.
I was planning not to really drink, I thought I would try just having a couple but to quote a great man "Once it hits your lips its just so good". I ended up finishing a 26 of vodka and a six pack before leaving the apartment. Also spent $140 dollars at the bar. Went black-ops all night no idea where I was and my friends had no idea either. I apparently walked into the bar and vanished like my memory. Either way they found me much later that night in another part of Calgary with the help of a friendly Canadian Bagel employee who after finding me drove us all home. I know you will probably never see this but thank-you very much my bagel angel or bangel.
The hangover was no where near what I thought it would be. I have no idea how long I slept that night. When I woke I definitely didn't feel refreshed from a longer than usual sleep. I took some naps on the drive from Calgary to Edmonton but I still was having trouble falling asleep. I did not have sore muscles from exercise though my entire body kind of felt sore/abused. I was not overly tired at any point this day even though I only had a couple of less than adequate naps. I feel that I am partially just becoming very good at functioning in a sleep deprived state.
When we made it to the BBQ I had a couple of beers over the course of the day but nothing serious, mostly just chilled with buddies. Well that was until it got dark and we decided to have roman candle fights!! How this worked was each person got a roman candle and a garbage can lid for a shield. The fireworks were lit at the same time and then both fighters ran away from each other until their first shot went off when they could turn and start firing on the other. Great time, a couple minor injuries and only 1 face shot. After all this I was worried about being tempted to oversleep as I did not have much to do. So I just stayed up the latest around the fire and woke up as soon as I heard people. This again was longer than I should be sleeping but really not by that much.
In the morning I felt much better and mentally reinforced that I was going to stick with the sleeping pattern even after this weekend of mistakes. I still had trouble napping during the drive but was able to get a couple naps in once I had returned home. I felt that my muscles had recovered reasonably well from the previous week of exercise and I was going to add Muay Thai as well now.
I was planning not to really drink, I thought I would try just having a couple but to quote a great man "Once it hits your lips its just so good". I ended up finishing a 26 of vodka and a six pack before leaving the apartment. Also spent $140 dollars at the bar. Went black-ops all night no idea where I was and my friends had no idea either. I apparently walked into the bar and vanished like my memory. Either way they found me much later that night in another part of Calgary with the help of a friendly Canadian Bagel employee who after finding me drove us all home. I know you will probably never see this but thank-you very much my bagel angel or bangel.
The hangover was no where near what I thought it would be. I have no idea how long I slept that night. When I woke I definitely didn't feel refreshed from a longer than usual sleep. I took some naps on the drive from Calgary to Edmonton but I still was having trouble falling asleep. I did not have sore muscles from exercise though my entire body kind of felt sore/abused. I was not overly tired at any point this day even though I only had a couple of less than adequate naps. I feel that I am partially just becoming very good at functioning in a sleep deprived state.
When we made it to the BBQ I had a couple of beers over the course of the day but nothing serious, mostly just chilled with buddies. Well that was until it got dark and we decided to have roman candle fights!! How this worked was each person got a roman candle and a garbage can lid for a shield. The fireworks were lit at the same time and then both fighters ran away from each other until their first shot went off when they could turn and start firing on the other. Great time, a couple minor injuries and only 1 face shot. After all this I was worried about being tempted to oversleep as I did not have much to do. So I just stayed up the latest around the fire and woke up as soon as I heard people. This again was longer than I should be sleeping but really not by that much.
In the morning I felt much better and mentally reinforced that I was going to stick with the sleeping pattern even after this weekend of mistakes. I still had trouble napping during the drive but was able to get a couple naps in once I had returned home. I felt that my muscles had recovered reasonably well from the previous week of exercise and I was going to add Muay Thai as well now.
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Day 16 - 18 Back to the GYM!!!!
I usually went to the gym at 6:00am before I would head to work but I thought that might leave me overly energized for my 9am nap. Instead I went at 5:30 after taking a nap at 5. During the work day I felt more sleepy than usual. I think this is because of the amount of oversleeping I did on the weekend. I am going to need a bit of time to get used to a different schedule again. My workout went alright, I was using the same or very similar weights to before I started. The largest difference I have found is that my muscles seem to fatigue more quickly. This could also be due to the fact that I am no longer taking a pre-workout mix which let me power through this. Other than the muscle fatigue the rest of the workout felt very normal. Afterward I didn't feel as good as I usually do. I am not sure if this is because my body is not releasing endorphins like it usually does from exercise or if its again because I am not taking the pre-workout (which is a really strong stimulant, my honest guess is its not taking the pre-workout).
I am writing this in retrospect from notes that I made along the way. I realize now that at night I was becoming extremely inefficient. First off during this week I watched 3 movies and spent a of my time reading interesting though unimportant articles around the interweb. I was very unmotivated. I am not sure if this was due to the sleeping pattern or some other source. I was not overly tired during the week but I did find that I was procrastinating super badly.
Mauy Thai was cancelled this week so my body got a bit of a break. Though on tues and wed I still did the workouts that I outlined in one of my initial posts. I headed to Calgary on friday and did a kinda of arms workout there. Over this whole time I did not feel that I was not recovering and had muscle soreness around what I would have expected from taking a couple of days off from the gym.
Over this time I had a couple oversleeps but they were nothing serious maybe a half hour was the longest. I enjoy having the one long core nap because it gives you that time to lay in a bed which feels soooooooo good, especially after depriving myself of it so much. I would take the 20 minute naps in less of a structured fashion as well. I would generally try to spread them out evenly but if it didn't work out I did not have to worry.
I am still eating alright though I am much more tempted by unhealthy foods now. This seems to come and go a bit.
I know this was sparse in its explanation and details. If you have any specific questions I would be more than happy to answer them.
I am writing this in retrospect from notes that I made along the way. I realize now that at night I was becoming extremely inefficient. First off during this week I watched 3 movies and spent a of my time reading interesting though unimportant articles around the interweb. I was very unmotivated. I am not sure if this was due to the sleeping pattern or some other source. I was not overly tired during the week but I did find that I was procrastinating super badly.
Mauy Thai was cancelled this week so my body got a bit of a break. Though on tues and wed I still did the workouts that I outlined in one of my initial posts. I headed to Calgary on friday and did a kinda of arms workout there. Over this whole time I did not feel that I was not recovering and had muscle soreness around what I would have expected from taking a couple of days off from the gym.
Over this time I had a couple oversleeps but they were nothing serious maybe a half hour was the longest. I enjoy having the one long core nap because it gives you that time to lay in a bed which feels soooooooo good, especially after depriving myself of it so much. I would take the 20 minute naps in less of a structured fashion as well. I would generally try to spread them out evenly but if it didn't work out I did not have to worry.
I am still eating alright though I am much more tempted by unhealthy foods now. This seems to come and go a bit.
I know this was sparse in its explanation and details. If you have any specific questions I would be more than happy to answer them.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Day 13 - 15: The Undoing
Day 13:
Once I got up to Meadow I didn't find it too hard to take naps during the day. My buddy was very supportive which made it super easy. I was napping in the back of a boat sometimes, back of a car, or in a cabin. The first night was tough though, from all the sun I really was drained of energy. I crashed and ended up oversleeping again about 3 and a half hours. I did not have any muscle soreness however like I thought I would from Muay Thai.
Day 14:
This was pretty discouraging and the next day I had another long day in the sun. During the day I was not overly tired. When it came to the night my phone was dead so I couldn't set my alarm and so was my buddies so I ended up just hoping that I would be able to self regulate in some way. I woke up and was up three times that night but I think i probably spent 75% of the night sleeping. I felt myself turning back around and was afraid how all of this over sleeping was going to affect me in the long run.
Day 15:
I am having trouble falling asleep at my regular naps during the day. I think my body is transitioning into a monophasic pattern again. I started craving sugar again which is yet another sign I am losing my polyphasicness. At night I slept from 1-6 am. My alarms just didn't wake me up. I feel I have transitioned back to a monophasic state completely now. Starting tomorrow I am going to force myself into the everyman schedule with a 2 hour 45 minute core with four twenty minute naps. I choose this time because it was around how long I overslept once and woke up feeling really refreshed so it might be a good length. If not I will adjust it. As well I am doing full gyming this week and Muay Thai.
Once I got up to Meadow I didn't find it too hard to take naps during the day. My buddy was very supportive which made it super easy. I was napping in the back of a boat sometimes, back of a car, or in a cabin. The first night was tough though, from all the sun I really was drained of energy. I crashed and ended up oversleeping again about 3 and a half hours. I did not have any muscle soreness however like I thought I would from Muay Thai.
Day 14:
This was pretty discouraging and the next day I had another long day in the sun. During the day I was not overly tired. When it came to the night my phone was dead so I couldn't set my alarm and so was my buddies so I ended up just hoping that I would be able to self regulate in some way. I woke up and was up three times that night but I think i probably spent 75% of the night sleeping. I felt myself turning back around and was afraid how all of this over sleeping was going to affect me in the long run.
Day 15:
I am having trouble falling asleep at my regular naps during the day. I think my body is transitioning into a monophasic pattern again. I started craving sugar again which is yet another sign I am losing my polyphasicness. At night I slept from 1-6 am. My alarms just didn't wake me up. I feel I have transitioned back to a monophasic state completely now. Starting tomorrow I am going to force myself into the everyman schedule with a 2 hour 45 minute core with four twenty minute naps. I choose this time because it was around how long I overslept once and woke up feeling really refreshed so it might be a good length. If not I will adjust it. As well I am doing full gyming this week and Muay Thai.
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