04/15/09
Getting Your Zzzzzzss
Think that late night doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things? Think again…..!
Category: Your Body
Posted by: ryan
Getting Your Zzzzzzss
Rest and recovery play a crucial role in keeping a triathlete training injury free. Whether you’re a top pro or an aspiring age group athlete, allowing your body the time it needs to refuel, repair and regenerate is absolutely critical. But this doesn’t just mean building a day of rest into your workout schedule once per week or once per cycle. And it doesn’t mean lazing around on the couch all afternoon watching golf on TV following your long run. What it does mean is paying attention to the one aspect of training that I find is most neglected by the age group athlete – sleep.
My general recommendation for athletes of any kind is to sleep for 7-9 hours per night…consistently. It takes 21 days to build a habit, and if you’re serious about excelling in the sport of triathlon, then you’ll need to build the habit of going to bed 8 hours before you have to wake up. A constant routine builds a pattern for your body to follow called a circadian rhythm and allows for hormones to be released in your body at specific times that maximize your recovery and promote an overall feeling of being well-rested.
The most important of these hormones is called Human Growth Hormone (HGH). You’ve probably heard about this one in the news or read about in any regular magazine about baseball. The point is that regular periods of 8 hours of rest will optimize your release of HGH, and with one of its main effects being regeneration of muscle and connective tissue, you’d be well advised to make sure you have plenty on board after every night as you head into any training plan. HGH allows you to recover from workouts faster, and therefore add more volume without breaking down to the point of injury. The best part about it though, is that our bodies can produce it naturally, as long as we get enough sleep.
How much is enough when it comes to sleep? The best way to answer this question for yourself is to put yourself into a simple test. On the next long weekend, maintain your training plan but don’t make plans for the early morning. Instead, go to sleep and DON’T set your alarm. Just let yourself wake up when you feel you are rested. After three nights of this routine, take the average “time slept” and you’ll have a pretty good indication for how much sleep is enough for your particular life situation. In times of high stress (emotionally, in the work place, family life, etc.) more sleep will be better, so take it if you can get it.
Ok, time for a quick bit of arithmetic (in case you were already nodding off after that last paragraph). Let’s say you’re getting 7 hours of sleep each night in a given week, but your competition is getting 8 hours of sleep each night in the same week. The result? By week’s end your competition will have slept 7 hours more than you – that’s a full night more than you had! That’s like training all week, and then pulling an all-nighter!! Would anyone even consider a training plan that incorporated such a scheme??
Of course, the example above wouldn’t actually be the same as pulling an all-nighter in the middle of every week, but I trust my point is clear. If you’re not getting the same amount of uninterrupted sleep that your competition is getting, then your training won’t be as effective and you’ll be at higher risk of injury.
If you’re tired before a workout, chances are you won’t push as hard on the intervals, you might give yourself an extra few seconds rest at the wall, or you may be tempted to cut the workout short because you just don’t feel all that great. Either way, your lack of sleep will be letting the competition pull further away from you in training, and that will most likely translate into you slipping further and further down on the results page.
That said, it’s not easy. Especially for the age group athlete trying to hold down a full time job and keep a family running smoothly. Being disciplined and consistent with a bed time or quiet time for everyone in the family can be very helpful. Once a habit is established, you’ll feel strange about breaking it, so if you can make it a habit to organize your life around getting to bed at a specific time every night, you’ll be much better off. When the whole family is on your side, there’s very little you can’t accomplish!
It’s all about planning and preparation. Ask yourself, “Why spend all the money on coaching, gear and supplements if I show up tired to every workout?” It’s like showing up to the Indy 500 in a station wagon and trying to keep up with the race cars – all the high octane fuel and mechanic help won’t make a difference.
I think Dave Scott said it best on his poster that I have framed in my clinic, “Eat right, get plenty of fluids, sleep lots, Go Like Hell!”
Rest and recovery play a crucial role in keeping a triathlete training injury free. Whether you’re a top pro or an aspiring age group athlete, allowing your body the time it needs to refuel, repair and regenerate is absolutely critical. But this doesn’t just mean building a day of rest into your workout schedule once per week or once per cycle. And it doesn’t mean lazing around on the couch all afternoon watching golf on TV following your long run. What it does mean is paying attention to the one aspect of training that I find is most neglected by the age group athlete – sleep.
My general recommendation for athletes of any kind is to sleep for 7-9 hours per night…consistently. It takes 21 days to build a habit, and if you’re serious about excelling in the sport of triathlon, then you’ll need to build the habit of going to bed 8 hours before you have to wake up. A constant routine builds a pattern for your body to follow called a circadian rhythm and allows for hormones to be released in your body at specific times that maximize your recovery and promote an overall feeling of being well-rested.
The most important of these hormones is called Human Growth Hormone (HGH). You’ve probably heard about this one in the news or read about in any regular magazine about baseball. The point is that regular periods of 8 hours of rest will optimize your release of HGH, and with one of its main effects being regeneration of muscle and connective tissue, you’d be well advised to make sure you have plenty on board after every night as you head into any training plan. HGH allows you to recover from workouts faster, and therefore add more volume without breaking down to the point of injury. The best part about it though, is that our bodies can produce it naturally, as long as we get enough sleep.
How much is enough when it comes to sleep? The best way to answer this question for yourself is to put yourself into a simple test. On the next long weekend, maintain your training plan but don’t make plans for the early morning. Instead, go to sleep and DON’T set your alarm. Just let yourself wake up when you feel you are rested. After three nights of this routine, take the average “time slept” and you’ll have a pretty good indication for how much sleep is enough for your particular life situation. In times of high stress (emotionally, in the work place, family life, etc.) more sleep will be better, so take it if you can get it.
Ok, time for a quick bit of arithmetic (in case you were already nodding off after that last paragraph). Let’s say you’re getting 7 hours of sleep each night in a given week, but your competition is getting 8 hours of sleep each night in the same week. The result? By week’s end your competition will have slept 7 hours more than you – that’s a full night more than you had! That’s like training all week, and then pulling an all-nighter!! Would anyone even consider a training plan that incorporated such a scheme??
Of course, the example above wouldn’t actually be the same as pulling an all-nighter in the middle of every week, but I trust my point is clear. If you’re not getting the same amount of uninterrupted sleep that your competition is getting, then your training won’t be as effective and you’ll be at higher risk of injury.
If you’re tired before a workout, chances are you won’t push as hard on the intervals, you might give yourself an extra few seconds rest at the wall, or you may be tempted to cut the workout short because you just don’t feel all that great. Either way, your lack of sleep will be letting the competition pull further away from you in training, and that will most likely translate into you slipping further and further down on the results page.
That said, it’s not easy. Especially for the age group athlete trying to hold down a full time job and keep a family running smoothly. Being disciplined and consistent with a bed time or quiet time for everyone in the family can be very helpful. Once a habit is established, you’ll feel strange about breaking it, so if you can make it a habit to organize your life around getting to bed at a specific time every night, you’ll be much better off. When the whole family is on your side, there’s very little you can’t accomplish!
It’s all about planning and preparation. Ask yourself, “Why spend all the money on coaching, gear and supplements if I show up tired to every workout?” It’s like showing up to the Indy 500 in a station wagon and trying to keep up with the race cars – all the high octane fuel and mechanic help won’t make a difference.
I think Dave Scott said it best on his poster that I have framed in my clinic, “Eat right, get plenty of fluids, sleep lots, Go Like Hell!”