July 27, 2008
Mari

I did the 56 mile Summit to Surf Tour de Cure in Portland yesterday, July 26, and while I was riding the long, long uphill in the Pacific Northwest beauty, I contemplated the role of sleep in triathlon. Rick Crawford, who himself was an incredible triathlete in the 1980's and who now coaches Team Type 1's Race Across America's team and who coaches those of us who attend Diabetes Training Camp (www.diabetestrainingcamp.com) talks extensively about the importance of sleep for any endurance sport athletes. Here's a study I found: "Results showed that after four hours of sleep per night (the sleep deprivation period), they metabolized glucose least efficiently. Levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) were also higher during sleep deprivation periods, which has been linked to memory impairment, age-related insulin resistance, and impaired recovery in athletes."

And Nicole Freedman, one of our DS Tri coaches who was an Olympic cyclist and pro-cyclist, she waxes poetic about the virtues of sleep. Bottom line, we need to sleep. And for me, that means at least 8 or 9 hours a night. And some days, I need to fit in a nap in addition. It's as important as training and eating well and managing my blood sugars.

Here's the thing, I have a hard time getting enough sleep. I often have a hard time falling asleep and I have a challenging time staying asleep longer than about 5 or 6 hours. And that just isn't enough. So I end up spending lots of time thinking about sleep and sometimes I even get a bit panicked about whether or not I will get enough sleep in any 24 hour period. In fact, I could say I'm obsessed. Here's my plan, and it's why I'm writing about sleep… to prepare for this triathlon, I'm going to have a sleep plan, just like I have a workout plan and an eating plan and a diabetes management plan. My goal is to get as close to 9 hours a night of restful, laying down time so that I can sleep at least 8 of those 9 hours. Many of us are making pledges as we go into the DS Tri Team year, mine is about sleep. I have a feeling it will be one of my greatest performance enhancers!

On that note, I'm going to go take a nap!