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Tip of the Week: Sleep! Posted on February 03, 2014

Monday Tip!

This winter will mark my 9^th year of distance running. Over my short tenure I have learned a lot about the sport from many different coaches, mentors, teammates, and fellow runners. The hardest part about running is sometimes finding your consistency and identity. Every week I will be putting together a different tip for any runner or walker. These tips are aimed for your casual to competitive runner/walker! Enjoy!

This week's tip is about the importance of the right amount of sleep during training!

Sleep: I by no means was the perfect example for a runner with the correct amount of sleep a night. For a very long time people always said to me, "sleep more!" Now that my training is getting more intense and I am trying to achieve bigger goals I understand what sleep really means for my training. It's suggested by most coaches and doctors that you get around 7-10 hours a night! A lot of injuries and sicknesses runners/walkers deal with can be linked back to the amount of sleep they get a night. Sleeping recovers your body after a hard workout and what will allow you to train healthy and stronger down the road!

What do we suggest? As my mother always said, "Nothing good happens after 10 o'clock!" If you are serious about properly recovering your body, try and make sleep a more important part of your life. Obviously it's sometimes hard to fit a 10 o'clock bed time into your lives.  You sometimes cannot control the amount of studying you have or other variables.  However if you can make it work, try to get to sleep before 11 most nights because it will help you out tremendously! Set a consistent sleep pattern for yourself. Waking up in the morning shouldn't feel foreign to you. When you are dissecting the things holding you back from achieving all your goals, understand sleep is a VERY monumental part of your training! It also will help out the quality of your life!

Mark's example: It's very hard to fit sleep into your schedule when you are juggling, class, practice, work, and other important things in your lives! I am fortunate enough to have a little more flexibility at night and in the morning! I try and get to bed before 10:30 each night and wake up anywhere from 6:00-7:30! I am human so I mess things up from time to time! If you goof your schedule a little bit once a week no big deal! Correct sleep patterns is like eating a healthy diet for me. The better I eat the stronger I feel. Same goes for sleeping! 

Please contact mark@moremilesmoresmiles.com or comment below with any questions you may have. Happy running!