Sleep Deprived

I ripped this picture off the Sporting Life website. You can kind of see about a third of my head, highlighted by the red circle. It was a great race as always with over 12,000 participants. I ran surprisingly fast, a PB for me, considering I haven’t been doing much speed work lately as I’ve been training for the Mississauga Marathon in May.

 I stayed up until1amwatching GSP fight in TOs first UFC ever and had to get up at6amfor the early race start. GSP didn’t have his best performance ever, not a PB for him, but he did manage to win the decision. On top of that, I spent the night tossing and turning dreaming about UFC fighting and thinking STOP the FIGHT, I was getting pummeled in my dreams. I know what you’re thinking. You only got 5 hrs sleep before your race, not very responsible. I know, but the prevailing thought is that it is your sleep 2 nights before that is most important and I slept about 9-10 hrs on Friday night. I guess my PB today is some anecdotal evidence for that theory.

Often we can’t sleep the night before a big race, because we are wound up or haven’t changed are sleeping habits to allow us to get to sleep early enough to get a good night’s sleep for the early race start. Don’t worry just focus on getting good sleep the night before and you should be ready to set a PB on race day. Of course, if you can get adequate sleep the night before I’m sure it won’t hurt and it will make the post race part of your day more enjoyable. I’m exhausted now and will be heading to bed soon.

Good night.

Mike M.

Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

What happens to the body that endures 6-8 hours of hard training for 8 days straight…in the heat? Apparently it gets pretty inflamed. Things felt pretty puffy. I’ve heard that about ultra running but have never experienced it …but then I’ve never trained like I did in Kona before.

In 8 days we did 950kms or riding in the heat, up monster climbs, 75 km of running, and 25km of swimming…we capped it off with a 40km Time Trial race (to which we rode 30km there and back), which happened also to be the Hawaiian State Championships. Coach Norton is now the 1^st woman in the state—she killed that ride. I am now 5^th in the state. That was fun, but painful having just ridden 850 km…

The most epic climb my trusty Speed Concept and I endured was up the 10000 PLUS foot Mauna Kea volcano. This was at the very end of 123kms hilly, hard, grueling ride. The 17% grade over some sections was certainly enough to make me feel like I was about to fall right over, but…we made it. Looking down at the clouds from the top was just a little mind blowing…I couldn’t believe we’d made it that high…as Coach T said when we were struggling to breathe, “we are headed to the top of the world” and it sure as hell felt like it!!

There were numerous moments where I felt like I was having a black night of the soul…a confrontation with the ugliest thoughts in the most beautiful and spectacular setting. And yet, a moment later, from the intensity of the cotton-thick heat came a salt filled breeze off the ocean—an instant reminder of the elements that have our backs, an opening into some as yet undiscovered reserve…and I realize I kept finding those on the Big Island. We all did, and we learned a little more about how to access them on demand. It was truly exceptional.

On the last day before heading into my 12 hour flight, Tara, Etienne and I went for a short swim on part of the  IM course and were engulfed by a pod a 40 or more dolphins. NOW THAT WAS MAGICAL!!!