How little sleep is it possible to survive on? That's the question of the week for my #2 son Josh. Josh is less than 3 weeks from finishing his degree in electrical engineering and it's just now that he's realised that he might have been a little relaxed in keeping on top of his assignments this semester. So far this week he's spent 3 full nights at university trying to complete his work. My friend Jenny, who's a uni lecturer, has assured me that most kids do it but the work that seemed brilliant at 2:00 am may not actually be that great. Personally I don't care what grades he gets as long as he passes and can graduate.
He did come home this morning briefly so I could see that he was still alive ... and to eat and have a shower. Poor Josh has been away so much this week that he didn't know that we're in the process of changing over our hot water system from the I-don't-know-how-old-but-it's-been-at-the-house-longer-than-we-have electrical system to a new solar system. They started the installation on Wednesday but ran out of day, came back on Thursday but were stopped by a huge electrical storm and are finishing today. Unfortunately they disconnected our old system yesterday afternoon which meant cold showers this morning. On the plus side I'm sure that gave Josh a bit of a wake-up. I'm just grateful that it's nice and warm at the moment.
While I'm in recovery, I've decided to try and be a bit more diligent about strength training. I'm particularly working on core strength because I know it's such an important area for runners. Sam has written me a program and I'm trying to do it 3 times a week. Lots of planks, crunches, bicycle crunches and stuff I don't even know the names of. And I've rekindled my love affair with push-ups. I must have the weakest upper body in the history of womankind. I can manage 10 push-ups from my toes but, let's face it, when you're hardly bending your elbows at all. My theory is that I'm weak because my arms are so long - it's to do with physics and lever length to power ratios. But if I'm diligent maybe one day I'll be able to almost touch my nose to the floor in a controlled manner (ie not just do a big face-plant)
Ten relaxed kilometers for me in the morning followed by a HOT shower. Have a good weekend everybody.
Here's to no face plants!
ReplyDeleteI'm the last one to ask about sleep deprevation, cuz I sleep horribly!!! I wish one could nap at work - ha. Awesome job with the core work - keep it up, it'll make you superwoman!! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, college years. I remember them so well. Sleep? We did not need that then.
ReplyDeleteNow, if I don't get my 8 hours I am miserable. If I sleep less than 5 I am unable to function.
Cold showers are good for the body - sleepy or not. :)
Strange how we left assignments till the end and today they still do the same. I do upper body and core exercises 3 times per week. It works wonders for the longer runs. Have a good weekend.
ReplyDeleteAh yes the end of term rush :)
ReplyDeleteSmart doing some core work...I've been slacking a bit lately!
Core work - You will notice a difference in your runs.
ReplyDeleteElectrical Engineering - Doors went flying open when I got mine. Give up a few nights now, and later, will pay big dividends in the near future.
Sounds like he has the makings for an ultra runner - Long hours with no sleep.