Skip to content

Category: Thoughts

(Updated)Sleep Hygiene and Recovery for Running

I’ve made a huge effort to get the best sleep possible this season. I tried to eliminate coffee for several weeks but found it produced no change in sleep quality or score. I was still waking up multiple times a night. I had heard the popular 3-2-1 combo that’s been advertised by many and I’ve been using it for a few months, with some slight variations. I think I have found what produces the highest quality sleep for me and hopefully you! Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

My improvement since Dec was noticeable

Sleep hygiene all starts as soon as you wake up. How active are you throughout the day? How late are you drinking coffee? I’ve made an effort to stop drinking coffee by noon. I’ve also made sure that I am constantly moving. Even with a desk job I use a walking desk or take mini breaks and do some push-ups. You want to be tired when your head hits the pillow. Sleep is critical to training because it’s the only time that our body recovers from hard efforts. 

The ultimate routine to get the best sleep

3 – hours before bed – NO Hard workouts, eating, drinking, or alcohol.

This should be obvious, but you would be surprised how often you might drink too much water, or grab a little snack before bedtime. I noticed that if I ate or drank anything it affected my sleep quality. If you touch alcohol kiss your sleep score goodbye.

2 – hours before bedno screens, intense mental stimulation, or TV.

Blue light from screens affects our sleep because it can interfere with our circadian rhythm, which is our body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. The circadian rhythm is influenced by external cues, especially light, which helps to regulate the production of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep.

This is going to be tough for a lot of people, but I am in bed and normally asleep by 9:30. I focus more on the workout that’s going to happen the next day with my clothes laid out and ready to go. It will set the tone for the entire day. Reading a book starts to put me to sleep and winds down my mind.

1 – hour before bed – Find a dark room and practice EASY meditation.

The lights should be low, you should use the bathroom in the last hour, and you should try the EASY meditation to clear all the crazy thoughts going through your mind. This prepares the sympathetic nervous system to RELAX so it can stay asleep. I use the “E.A.S.Y.” method by Light Watkins, which is basically just sitting in a quiet, dark room for 20 minutes. You can look at the clock, but just close your eyes and try to relax. Let the thoughts come, acknowledge them, but don’t dwell on them, and just focus on breathing.

JUMP IN BED!  You should be tired, and hopefully, you get the best sleep of your life!

Try this routine for 22 days and let me know your results!  It’s made a huge difference in my sleep quality. I wake up refreshed, ready to work out, and feeling great. This is how you avoid injury and get in MORE miles to make you a better runner/ultrarunner. This is no replacement for great sleep and you need to realize what habits or routines you have that might no longer serve you.

**Update**

Since writing this post, I’ve added two things to my sleep protocol: mouth tape and Breathe Right: Nasal Strips. Why? Ask your partner and you might be a mouth breather. If you are then you will not get into as deep a sleep. The Breathe Right strip increases nasal air flow and makes the transition easier. You might not need it every night as I know these can be expensive.

**Update X2**

Avoid the bright lights!

It’s almost 2 years since this post, and things have changed. While the mouth tape I do think helped, it was too annoying long term. I now use a cheaper Breathe Right https://amzn.to/46McDax. The two key items I’ve found after 2 years are active ALL DAY, close to 15,000 steps is my sweet spot, not just a single workout. You have to stop fueling early, repair can’t happen when insulin is present, STOP EATING after 5PM! Food provides energy and why would you need it as you head to bed? The body can’t get the repair it needs if you are fueling. Staying away from bright lights like Gizmo from Gremlins. Artificial light sends the wrong signal. I can’t play games or watch TV late and expect good sleep. I’ve noticed the nights I toss and turn I was staring at a screen. I kept the meditation, that has helped me process the day, my actions, and do a review of the day. I also had better success when the routine starts at the same time. (This is the hardest part of sleep hygiene, so don’t expect a social life. I have young kids so this isn’t a problem.)

I’ve added a night time tea that’s enjoyable to drink, and while it has zero calories, its just calming. Yes, it does make me get up and pee, but if I have it early enough I normally use the bathroom and I’m good through the night. Compared to my first graph, I have a higher average sleep score than 2 years ago. CRAZY! There’s also more research coming out on being in a fasted state promotes healing for the body. I am trying to stretch that every day, except on the days I work out over 2 hours. Sleep is still the key factor in body repair needed after workouts, and a stressful day. If you don’t have excellent sleep everything suffers, even insulin resistance is affected after the following day after one night of poor sleep. The graph speaks for itself, but I’ve seen and felt the improvements. Do I have a social life? Hell no! It normally revolves around meeting people on the trail at 5AM, but that’s the phase of life I am in right now, and I’m OK with that! 😆😆😆

I’ve raised my sleep score, and highest avg sleep score though a consistent practice. This was no accident.

Breakneck Trail Runs Race Report – A Nobel Quest

I was listening to a podcast that talked about the need to determine your “noble quest” in life. At the end of my life, I don’t want to have just accumulated a bunch of stuff. I want to gather experiences and enjoy moments of completing hard things. When I look back, I want to be shocked by the risks I took in pursuit of my “noble quest.” I want my mind to be filled with these things before I go, because I like to think that when we die, the experiences in our minds might be the only things we take with us. If that doesn’t happen, maybe your life flashes before your eyes. If it does, and my life flashes before my eyes as I lay on my deathbed, I want to know I went hard, had fun, and laughed a lot.

This race checks all of those boxes. Ultras are my “noble quest” in life, and I think everybody should have one. Your “noble quest” becomes your guiding light for how to structure your days, and it becomes the “why” that gets you out of bed. How can you complete your quest if you don’t put in the training? It’s the driving story you center your life around—what’s most important. For me, it’s my family and my noble quest. I want to spend more on experiences rather than things.

That said, I did just get a new 360 camera to film with 😊. I consider the camera more of a tool than a toy. It helps me document my quest and gives me the ability to reflect on the hard things I’ve done on those days when insecurity fills my head and negative thoughts tell me I can’t do hard things. I have proof that I can.

So below is my race report and a list of what went right, what went wrong, and what I would have done differently.

Shared a lot of miles with Colson Zucker

What went right:

Training:

What I did half worked. My peak total training time was about 40–50 hours per week, which was fine, but the main issue was that I couldn’t get anywhere near the amount of climbing this race required. My primary target had been the 3,500 ft trail marathon in Philadelphia, not this 9,000 ft race. So, I knew I was going into the race undertrained for the vertical gain, which was NOT a good strategy. But if you’re racing constantly, you can’t focus equally on multiple races. I decided to set this as a B race, not my A, so it was more of a side quest to see if I liked the event and the course. I had no expectations on finish time or place.

Gear:

My new racing shorts that I’ve been using this year worked GREAT! I was even at the start line with some other people using the same shorts and sponsored T8 athlete:

Those are not love handles, its SIS gels I swear

These shorts allowed me to hold 9 Oreos, 15 SIS gels, and a phone. You can NEVER have enough pockets, especially for food. I downed SO many SIS gels and never felt any GI distress. Because of this, I didn’t need to be weighed down by a vest—which I’m not a huge fan of, as they tend to hold in heat and bounce around. I also carried a waist Ultimate Direction Unisex Ultra Belt that held my filming equipment: a hat camera, a self centered stick, and a 360 camera.

Miscellaneous:

For the first half of the race, I wore a pair of gloves. While they were helpful for the rock climbing section, I would have ditched them if it had been any hotter—they mostly just made my hands sweat. I think the change in the course this year meant there were slightly fewer scrambles, so it was less vertical gain than the advertised 9,000 ft.

What went wrong

Camping:

I was still hesitant to camp out, fearing I wouldn’t get a good night’s sleep. In hindsight, I should have camped, because I ended up making a poor hotel choice with a host of issues (which I won’t get into, since they had nothing to do with the race itself). It was a cheap motel about 15 minutes away, and it just wasn’t a great place to stay. If you plan to check out this race, I recommend bringing a tent. Check out my video for a look at the camping situation. There’s also a large parking lot for campers right at the start, spots for trailers on the side, and tents are right at the starting line.

Shoe Choice:

Carbon fiber shoes can roll your ankles. After speaking with another runner, I learned how using carbon in a shoe can be a bad idea for a technical trail run. I rolled my ankle badly during my first half marathon trail race this season—it was extremely painful, and the injury happened two more times with the new shoes. This isn’t an issue on flat gravel, but if you’re running off-camber, rocky terrain, you’re much more likely to roll an ankle. That led to injury and caused me to miss a few training runs as I recovered.

Poles in Wet Conditions ONLY:

The race recommended no poles for the scrambles, but I disagree if it’s a wet day. Poles would have been helpful for the first half, and I could have ditched them for the second half.

Cramping:

My training wasn’t at the level it needed to be for this much climbing per mile (300–350 ft/mile). I knew I was undertrained when I took the risk—and I paid for it with horrible cramping during the race. It wasn’t a nutrition issue; my muscles simply weren’t adapted for the demands of race day. Pushing on more difficult terrain than your body is ready for just causes muscle damage, so my body was trying to protect itself.

Hydration:

My hydration was borderline (medium to low). I wish there had been a few more aid stations, or that I had carried slightly more water. On a hot day, this could be a major issue. If you’re able to filter water on course, though, there are enough stream crossings to make up for it. I might just carry one bottle that can filter for next year.

Bugs:

Bugs! The gnats were relentless in some sections—I had them in my eyes more than twice. A bug net definitely would have helped, and bug spray might have made a difference too. There are small, packable bug nets you can carry. The bugs were not an issue the entire race, it seemed like only the first half.

AMAZING views in this race

What I Would Do Differently:

Next time, I would make this my A race, train with a lot more climbing, and definitely camp onsite. That’s my plan for next year. The views and climbs in this race are hard to match, especially if you’re used to the PA trail running scene. I’d also bring a bit more hydration, given the distance between aid stations, and I’d make sure to go to the top of that fire tower I saw to enjoy the view. I regret not doing that—adventures like this don’t come around very often for me.

I would also bring poles. When I started cramping, I really wished I’d had them. I saw one guy absolutely fly down a rocky section with poles—it was incredible. No one without poles could have done that. Poles are great, as long as you have a way to store them during the rockier sections.

Final Thoughts:

I loved the race, the views, the food, and the overall vibe from start to finish. This was such a well-run event—credit goes to the race director, and his crew that have run this race for 11 years. You can tell it’s a mature event that’s worked out most, if not all issues.

In life, you have to make space for something new to come in. After 21 years of running a flat, road race down Broad Street, I think I’ve found a great event to make a new yearly tradition. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt are baked into running ultras; they’re uncomfortable by design. Most will choose a life of comfort and avoid obstacles, but what happens if you always take the easy path? If you choose hard things, life becomes easier. I decided not to choose Broad Street this year because I didn’t want comfort—at least, not the kind I was used to. Comfortable is relative: ten miles on Broad Street used to be uncomfortable for me, but life keeps changing, and so should your challenges. When life gets hard beyond your control, it just doesn’t stress you out as much when you know how to push yourself. It’s still tough, don’t get me wrong, just not as bad.

Shavasana

One final thought I had was about trail running itself. The nature of your happiness lies in your relationships: to people, to places, to your community, and to your family—and in a race, in your relationship to your own body and to nature. So take care of your body, control your thoughts, and talk to the people next to you in a race because they’re going through the same thing you are. We’re all interconnected, especially with nature. So when you think you’re “alone” out there, you’re really not. You’re always connected to the world around you—and that’s a big part of why I love trail running so much.

I shot this race in a new style with my 360 camera. Let me know how you thought it came out in the comments. Thanks for reading! If you found this interesting or helpful please let me know.