Sleepy

One thing I recall very well from my years of competitive swimming is the fatigue and sleepiness.  I would come home from practice every night and if I closed my eyes for more than five seconds, I would most likely drift off.

Scientifically, your body works on a cycle.  If you wake up at eight A.M. every day, then your body gets used to doing so and you probably get tired enough to go to bed around twelve A.M. every night.  However, this is based on the fact that your body needs to recover spent energy and it does so by periodically shutting down.  So when you're tired at ten P.M., it really is your body saying "Hey, we're getting low on energy here.  I'm gonna' shut down for 8 hours and recoupe."  So really, we work on an energy cycle, not a sleep cycle (not completely accurate, but good enough for my purposes here today). 


Therefore, when I go to the gym and workout for 2+ hours and run my energy stores low, my body reacts like it's evening and asks me "Hey, can I shut down for a bit?"  Now, we all know you can push through it and you'll be fine; who ever pulled an all nighter at school before an exam, spent all night out at a party and decided just to stay up, or for any other reason spent a straight 24 hours awake?  We all have.  But when you take a nap in the middle of the day, your body is simply telling you it's low on energy.

I've been thinking a lot about that last bit lately.  I've been upping my workouts this week and in response, my body has been extremely tired and sluggish afterward; it gets low on energy.  I always make sure to eat fruits/vegetables after I workout and juices in an attempt to give my body a quick energy boost, but it doesn't seem to be enough.  After awhile I'm sure my body will adjust better to the energy output (meaning my muscles will get more efficient and I'll most likely be consuming more - oh gees!), but I need to take some time to look into ideas on how to re-energize my body after workouts.  If you have any ideas on post-workout energizing foods, I would be MORE than happy to hear about it.


Friday's Workout:
1.  2 min. walk at 4mph
2.  2.0 mile run at 8.0 - 9.0 mph
3.  2 min. walk at 4mph
4.  Tricep Vertical Dips (10 reps)
5.  Lat Pull Downs (10 reps with 70 lbs)
Repeat #4-5 for a total of three sets

6.  1.0 mile run at 8.5 - 9.0 mph

SWIMMING
1.  500 Warm up (free, back, breast)
2.  4 x 25 - strong / pace
3.  4 x 50 - pacing
4.  4 x 100 - IM
5.  100 Cool Down
TOTAL: 1300 yds (0.74 miles)

Saturday's Workout:
1.  2 min. at 4 mph
2.  2.0 miles at 8.0 - 8.5 mph (7:30 - 7:03/mile)
3.  2 min. at 4 mph
4.  0.7 miles at 10.0 mph (6:00/mile)
5.  Side Plank Twists (10 reps per side)
6.  Pushups (10 reps)
7.  Sit ups (10 reps)
8.  Crunches (10 reps)
9.  Russian Twists (20 reps)
10.  Stretching

SWIMMING
1.  500 Warm Up (free, back, breast)
2.  1 x 200 - maintain pacing
3.  1 x 100 IM - maintain pacing
4.  2 x 50 - strong pacing
5.  4 x 25 - sprint
6.  500 Cool Down
TOTAL: 1500 yds (0.85 miles)

Stay fit.  Stay healthy.