Adrenaline trumps sleep

As a parent of 5 year old twins, I rarely enjoy a full nights sleep without interruption. After awhile the lack of sleep builds up and I find myself going to bed at 7pm to “catch-up”. It’s sad to admit but often the last thought that goes through my head before I drift off to sleep is… please let me have 8 hours sleep tonight.

To make light of the desperate sleep deprived situation… I’ve come up with a new rendition of the popular children’s song “Monkeys in the Bed”… (imagine this song to the tune of C minor)… “There were 4 in the bed and the little one said… roll over… roll over… so they all rolled over and mommy fell out… so she got up and went for a run!” I’m still trying to figure out how to work that last line into the song.

Last night… at least a couple times (to be honest I lost count) the boys woke up and said they had a nightmare or wanted to cuddle. I’m sure Nanny 911 would have theories of how I could break the boys of this habit, but honestly at 2am I really don’t have the desire to climb out of bed and march them back to their room… so 90% of the time they end up crawling into bed next to me (which I then regret about 30 minutes later when I’m sleeping on the edge of the bed with about 3 inches allocated for me). I don’t mind them wanting to be close, heck for many years I did the same thing to my parents… but I really prefer when they sneak into bed like little ninjas, somehow climb over me without waking me… and I don’t even notice they are there until morning… but that rarely happens.

This morning when the alarm clock went off at 5:30am, I honestly had to talk myself through getting up to run. The conversation in my head went like this… “oh these bamboo cotton sheets are so soft… I love this duvet… this is the best pillow I’ve ever owned… this bed is so comfy and warm… I would love 30 minutes sleep… which twin is curled up against me? (it’s hard to tell them apart in the dark)!” but then the reality sets in and I tell myself… “you know a 30 minute run is going to energize for the entire day you over a couple more minutes of sleep… you know you’ll feel guilty all day if you choose sleep over a run… remember adrenaline trumps sleep!”… and so I got up and had a fabulous run… as soon as I turned on my iPod beats I knew I made the right decision!

Even though I get up at 5:30am every morning to run because most days I want to and I enjoy it… there are still mornings like today where I still need to talk myself through doing what I know is best for me… to keep myself in the routine of making my morning run part of my regular schedule just like going to work… it’s what keeps me on track… I’m just someone that can’t take a day off from running… as soon as I do… then I take 2 days off… then 3… and well I don’t want history repeating itself.