Desperately Seeking Sleep

This morning I overslept, yet again, and failed to meet my long-run training group at 7 a.m. here. I feel terrible about it, especially since I told Coach that I would be there, as well as two of my friends.

I tried to get to bed early. I really did. But I had to pick up E., traveling from a conference in NYC, at 11:30 p.m. from the bus station. So I tried to catnap and set my alarm. That didn't work, as I was afraid I'd sleep through the alarm. So I stayed awake, albeit blearily.

He called me at 11 p.m. and said he got off the bus a few stops early so he could catch the Metro, and would walk the 2/3 mile to our house from the station. Which made me worried. It was late, after all. I told him I'd pick him up, but he wouldn't hear of it. So I stayed awake in case I had to send out a search party for him.

He arrived at 12:45 a.m. Worrying made me really hungry (although I am always hungry). We shared a late dinner of Thai noodles. Then I finally went to bed around 1:30 a.m. But I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned. Finally fell asleep around 2:30 a.m.

Then my cell phone rang at 3:21 a.m. I woke up cursing. I looked at my phone: "Unknown caller." I cursed some more and turned it off.

Is it any wonder that I slept through my alarm at 5:30 a.m.?!

By 9 am, when I was finally awake enough to read the Sunday paper, it was too hot to run. I resolved to run at dusk. But with 14 miles to log, I knew that I had start sooner. All day a cloud of guilt hung over me.

But I DID run: At 4:45 p.m., I couldn't take the guilt anymore. But it was still 90 degrees and humid, and the sun blazed down with impunity. So I said "Uncle," and drove to the gym. And logged 13 miles on a treadmill in air-conditioned bliss.

It took me exactly 2 hours to run 13 miles (avg 9:13/mile pace), and I was all set to complete 14. But the gym employees kicked me out. It was closing time, and looking up from my near -Zen state (Look, Ma, no humidity and no bugs!), I saw that I was the very last person there. They were nice enough, though, not say anything about my Bogarting a treadmill.

I brought my MP3 player, but I didn't use it. Nor did I watch TV. There was plenty of entertainment to be had just by watching the people around me exercise. The women who trot on the treadmill for 20 minutes, do a few half-hearted sit-ups, then call it a day. The men who run all-out for 3 minutes, then shuffle the other 17, utterly spent.

But was it as good as running outside?: I ran at 9:20/mile pace for 10-11 miles, then cranked it to 8:34/mile for the last 2-3 miles. While the long run felt good, it didn't feel as hard as running outside, even though I raised the incline to 1.0 and 1.5. Must be the air-conditioning.