Napless, sleepy, sluggish

Monday, I had an awesome treadmill run followed by a solid weight-lifting session. Even though I was sore from Sunday's bike-ride, I felt very motivated. (I still took my nap Monday). Yesterday, I struggled to avoid my 5 p.m. nap. I was exhausted. I haven't been sleeping all that well, and this has been confounded by waking up early as well. I can't believe I've been waking up earlier. Unfortunately, I need to wake up early, and avoid the afternoon naps. Hmmm.

I downed a large cup of coffee and had a peanut butter sandwich. After appropriately digesting, I finally felt awake enough and refreshed enough to try for a nice, slow, quiet workout in the pool. I'm very behind on my swimming so it felt SO good to finally jump in the water. Plus, it was very well heated, which was a nice combination with the cool evening air.

I began my warm-up, feeling very sluggish. My arms moved like molasses, and I had a hard time going straight. That was okay. Obviously I haven't been swimming enough so I accepted that I had lost swimming fitness and plodded on. I decided to work on my form and do some drills. This should have been calming and relaxing but it had the opposite effect. I felt worse and worse. After swimming for a total of 30 minutes, I rested for a bit on the end of the lane. My head was spinning, and I felt very naseous. I took my goggles off, forgetting that they were prescription. Looking around with blurred vision did not help asuage my dizziness. I steadied myself, and got out of the pool. My workout was over (unless I wanted to revisit my lunch and introduce to my neighbor swimmers).

After a long slow shower, I picked up Jason and had him drive me home. I was so naseous and dizzy by this point, I believed I was coming down with the flu. After resting at home, I finally became hungry...had a nice, light spaghetti dinner (thanks to Jason)...and was then exhausted. I slept like a baby.

This morning, I feel great. I slept in because I felt I needed the sleep. I have felt very energized all day. Could my crappy workout and onset of flu-like symptoms been due to exhaustion? Perhaps. I hope so because that's pretty easy to fix. I didn't even feel the need to nap this evening!!! I can't believe how hard it is to a) repress the need to take a nap, b) go to bed early, c) wake up early. They are all linked. You mess up one, and everything comes crumbling down. Not only that, these three things seem so simple. Why even care so much about them? The thing is, when I can do those three things, everything I have to do on a daily basis gets done with ease because I actually feel good.

This afternoon, I went for an awesome 4 mile run from lab. It was gorgeous. It's hard not to gawk at the ocean. I felt like a kid on a playground. I ran so fast, I gave myself a whopping stitch from my shoulder blad down to my side. Ouch. It felt good though (the run, not the stitch). I feel like my workouts are becoming a little more solid, a little more consistent. Whoever thought being selfish and rewarding yourself with working out could take so much discipline?