sprint

I ran some either yesterday or the day before, but forgot to put in a post...
now I forgot the data :(

Well, for today, I decided to try the jog with a couple 30 second sprints thrown in, which are suppose to be really good at taking off those last HARD TO LOSE bits of luv handle...

14:35:00 start
14:43:35 1st mile (8:35) - Did one 30sec sprint and one 20sec sprint
14:54:40 2nd mile (11:05) - walk/jog combo
15:04:25 3rd mile (9:45) - walk/jog combo, and one 30sec sprint

WeatherUnderground reports temp is 84F with 4% humidity. Pretty nice day.
MY gauge shows 46% humidity.

The sprints really took a lot out of me... the second one during the first mile was suppose to be 30sec also, but I couldn't seem to pull it off... then, I was so out of breath, I ended up walking quite a bit of the 2nd mile.. I suppose this will get better with time.

By the end of the 3rd mile I was REALLY beat ! wow...

I'm baaaack!

So, today I decided to see how close I was to where I left off before the injury...
Whoa! Seems like I'm back to normal (pretty much):

14:10:00 start
14:19:01 1st mile (9:01) - stage 1 and stage 2 breathing
14:28:02 2nd mile (9:01) - stage 2 and stage 3 breathing
14:39:02 3rd mile (11:00) - walk/jog combo (didn't wanna push it)

WeatherUnderground reports temp is 81.3F with 33% humidity. nice and cool...
MY gauge shows 49% humidity.

Less "cramps" today.. in fact, only light discomfort in the same area below my ribs that I had yesterday. Lungs/breathing seemed a bit tough nearing the end of the 2nd mile. I was more worried about my leg, and felt like it could give me problems at any step, but it turned out fine.

A friend at work gave me some advice for sprinting to help get rid of a little extra flab around my mid section, so I want to try it a couple days this week.

onward

Starting to push onward a little more.
Still a ways to go to catch up to where I left off, but I don't want to push too hard too soon.

14:57:00 start
15:07:28 1st mile (10:28) - walked first 2 minutes, jogged rest
15:18:45 2nd mile (11:17) - walk/jog combo
15:29:08 3rd mile (10:23) - walk/jog combo

WeatherUnderground reports temp is 94.2F with 5% humidity. Very hot...
MY guage shows 58% humidity which seems much more realistic.

I didn't have any problems with my leg today, but was not pushing hard
at all. I DID have some cramps right under my lower ribs. Maybe from
the heavy sit-ups I did two days ago? Anyway... gave me a little problem
during my jogging.

slow (re)start

I can hardly believe how long my leg muscle has been giving me trouble!
I didn't really feel I could run on it even today, but I NEED to keep getting out for some sun and exercise, so I decided to walk it as fast as possible. I ended up walking the first two miles, and then tried to jog the third mile...

14:07:00 start
14:20:24 1st mile (13:24) - fast walking only
14:33:30 2nd mile (13:06) - fast walking only
14:45:43 3rd mile (??:??) - talk / jog

WeatherUnderground reports temp is 85F with 43% humidity. Felt pretty good, nice breeze

I DID jog the entire last mile, but right after the 2nd mile, I stopped to talk to someone for a couple minutes, so not sure exactly how long I was talking and how long the last mile took. I will ALSO say that as I was finishing up that last mile, I was REALLY getting out of breath! I'm sure it has to do with all the time I've been down.. so it's very good I'm going to start getting back out there NOW.

I still don't feel my leg is fully healed... I did feel a LITTLE something over the last day or two. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

As for the vinegar.... I've been taking one "dose" on the average of every other day... not as faithfully as I have been wanting :(

OUCH!

Ooops... have not been updating on a daily basis.
I REALLY pulled a muscle bad, last week, and have not done any running at all this week.

Thursday (Aug 24th)
8:15:00 started
8:24:17 1st mile (9:17) - stage2 breathing
8:33:17 2nd mile (9:00) - stage3 breathing
8:43:15 3rd mile (9:58) - walk/jog (mostly jog)

I forget how the temp/humidity was, but was feeling a bit of soreness in my right leg... somewhere in the back.. not at high as my calf.

Friday (Aug 25th)
9:25:00 started
9:34:25 1st mile (9:25) - stage2 breathing
9:46:37 2nd mile (12:12) - REALLY pulled a muscle bad about half way through this mile and had to actually limp back home the last half mile.

In fact, it has been so bad that I had a bit of trouble just walking on it over the weekend, and even today (Wednesday) I can still feel it enough to know trying to jog would be pointless.

I've been downing quite a bit more of my protein powder lately... I have a strong suspicion that I've not been feeding my muscles enough.... certainly doesn't seem like I've been getting the 180 grams of protein I need each day.

I've been away from my jogging more days than I thought... I am starting to think I should really get in to something new... aerobic.... to keep my breathing going, since that seems to be SO important for the jogging.

muscles

Felt pretty good today.

9:25:00 start
9:33:40 1st mile (8:40 wow!) - stage2 breathing (stage1 first 2 minutes)
9:43:22 2nd mile (9:42) - stage3 and stage2 breathing
9:53:27 3rd mile (10:05) - walk/jog combo

WeatherUnderground reports temp is 85F with 71% humidity, and yes... i could feel it today!

I am having some problems with one of the muscles below my calf muscle in the back of my right leg. I could feel a bit of soreness (pain) yesterday evening.. just walking on it, and this morning also. I could feel it a bit, but as you can see I did pretty well with the run anyway. I think it might have to with just the small amount I've been eating recently. I'm not TRYING to eat light, but just have not been very hungry. Anyway, I think it could be a lack of protein intake needed to replenish/rebuild the muscles due to all this jogging. After each run I DO take a 24 grams of protein with some whey protein powder mix.

As for the vinegar.... found a recipe for some cleansing thing that is suppose to help (maybe) with love handles, so I'll see what that does for me. 2 tbps apple cider vinegar, 2 tbps lemon juice, as much cayenne as you (I) can stand. Drank it in two gulps. "YUM"

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Today was indeed pretty good!
I got up a bit early, and got right to my run:

9:15:00 start
9:24:22 1st mile (9:22) - stage2 breathing
9:33:25 2nd mile (9:03) - stage2/3 breathing
9:43:18 3rd mile (9:53) - walk/jog (mostly jog)

I managed to get a handle on my breathing during that second mile a bit more. After the first 1/4 mile (uphill) I was able to slow my breathing back down to stage2 for 1/2 mile.. before the final 1/4 mile uphill again. I am starting to get the feeling that it my breathing needs to be in check before I will be able to run the entire third mile.

The temperature at this time of day was 85F... I didn't check the humidity, but it didn't seem too bad, which probably helped a bit also.

As a side note (for now), I've done a LOT of reading about the health benifits of apple cider vinegar (AVG) and am going to start trying to get about 1/4 - 1/2 cup a day (taken with water, salads, juice, etc). I'd suggest reading: Home Remedies To Lose Weight. It's mostly about weight loss, which I don't think I need, exept for these love handles I STILL have not shrunk after 2 months of running. Many other health benifits are listed too, and seems like something ELSE I should experiment with. :)

Anyway, it's suppse to work FAST, so if I see such results I might break the vinegar experiment off in to it's own topic.... we'll see.

progress

Well, even though I DID wake up a bit earlier today, I still didn't get out to jog until 10:50. I think tomorrow I'll make it a point to get out before 8:30.

10:50:00 start
10:59:02 1st mile = 9:02 (all stage2 breathing)
11:08:03 2nd mile = 9:01 (all stage3 breathing)
11:18:35 3rd mile = 10:32 (walk/jog combo)

Looks like I finally made some good progress on the total time for all 3 miles! Legs didn't give me any trouble... it's that stupid out-of-breath thing. I'm gonna have to see if the time of day/temperature has something more to do with that.

The temp was about 97F during the time of my run, with 40% humidity (according to Weatherunderground - I think I should check my own reader).

short week

This has been a light week. Only ran one other day... Monday, I think... and forgot to post about it. Several personal things happened this week, and took my attention... strange how we can be so easily sidetracked! The hardest part is being sure to keep with it.. hop back in the saddle and GO.

Anyway, let's get to the details of today:
10:36 start
10:45 first mile (9 min) - stage 2 breathing (L-R-L in / R-L-R out)
10:54 second mile (9 min) - stage 3 breathing (L-R in / L-R out)
11:06 third mile (12 min) - walk/jog combo (total = 3 miles and 30 minutes)

The temps have been over 100F most days for this week.
I think the main reason for mostly walking the 3rd mile is due to the heat, and possibly my small meals. I don't mean to "make excuses", but feel it's important to document possible causes. Ultimately I need to move past this 3-mile limit and start doing 4, 5, then 6 miles. It was really my breathing that was bothering me so much... not my legs... just couldn't catch my breath enough, and stopping for a bit seemed to take over.

Maybe this next week I should try doing my run a bit earlier... 7am.. I wonder how that would affect things. I also want to work on a 4-mile route, so I'm ready... maybe just force myself to take the next step.

We'll see more, next week!

late night run

Been a very busy boy lately. Up late, both waking and sleeping. Didn't get my run in until just after 9pm tonight, but let's see how it compares to the day time runs.

21:05:00 - start run
21:14:00 - first mile (9:00)
21:13:00 - second mile (9:00)
21:23:00 - third mile (10:00) - walk/jog combo (mostly jog)

As you can see, the pace for the first two miles was a bit faster. Actually, it FELT like I was doing the first mile even faster than that, but I guess the clock doesn't lie. I kept a "stage 2" breathing rhythm the entire first mile... if you remember, that is inhale on (Left-Right-Left) and exhale on (R-L-R).

The second mile was "stage 3" breathing (L-R-in and L-R-out) the whole mile. Even though it was a night time run, it seemed more draining than the night run I did several weeks ago.

The third mile was mostly running, but I did take 2 short breaks to help catch (slow down) my breathing. Muscles were a bit sore from yesterday's run too.

All in all it was a good 3 miles... in 28 minutes total. Pretty soon I'm going to have to come up with a good 4-mile course.

Rhythm

WOW! August the 9th already?

Yes, I've still been running... just about every weekday as normal. It's just that after my run I do a little more exercise, then shower, and then forget to blog about it. :(

Anyway, I DID start marking the time at the proper distances for each mile. This last week has been rather consistent. I don't remember all my exact times, but yesterday's were:

• 10:22:00 started jog
• 10:31:30 first mile (9:30)
• 10:41:00 second mile (9:30)
• 10:52:00 third mile (11:00) (walk/jog combo)

Today was almost the same...

• 10:32:00 started jog
• 10:41:00 first mile (9:00)
• 10:50:30 second mile (9:30)
• 11:02:00 third mile (11:30) (walk/jog combo)

I thought I'd post a little about my "rhythm" today. Our heart beats at a natural rhythm, and our breathing takes on a natural rhythm also, so it's not surprising that when we run our stride would take a natural pattern that fits our breathing.

My breathing has become very controlled over the last month, and so I'm going to refer to how I breathe in 3 different stages:

Stage 1 is when I first start out. The in-out of my breathing matches up with the exact time my left foot hits the pavement and is 4 steps in duration. So, when my left foot hits the road I start breathing in. I continue the "in" breath while the right, then left, then right foot hit. Then, with the next LEFT foot hit, I start the exhale, which continues for right-left-right again.

Stage 2 is little faster... and it is breathing in during LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT, then breathing out for RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT.

Stage 3 is as fast as I breathe during the tough uphill climbs, and it is breathing in for LEFT-RIGHT, then breathing out for LEFT-RIGHT.

Well, just one more interesting thing to keep note of. :)

right route?

Skipped Friday's run. (lazy me)

Got out today at 10:35am. WeatherUnderground says it's 95F and 3% humidity, but I don't know how that is possible!! Seemed very humid out there to ME! And my humidity reader says 57%.

Again, I did the first 2 miles at right on 9:30 each. I did the walk/jog thing again for the last mile, but still managed to get it done in.... 9:45 !? Something doesn't seem right... hmm.. I think I know what it is.. lemme re-check the route info !

Yup! I was right. I have been thinking each of the first two miles were actually longer than they really are, so have really been doing them a little faster than 9:30, but not by enough to matter much. STILL... it might be enough to be part of the reason the last mile has seemed faster... because I've been taking maybe 60 seconds from that last mile and including it in the first 2 miles. Probably not a big deal. I have been correct about the total 3 mile distance, but I will try to be correct for the first two miles starting tomorrow.

Anyway... breathing was pretty controlled and steady the entire run, although a bit quicker during the uphill climb right after the first mile. Legs didn't feel too bad, but there were a couple times I just felt like taking a break...

Returning

Where have I been??

Well... had been a bit of a secret.
I spent last week in Peru, so no jogging or updates.

THIS week has been a little interesting because of the time off while in Peru.

I was eating quite a bit more down there than I had been eating while here at home. And not really getting any exercise at all.... hmm.. it was only a week, but still.. how would that affect my run?

Monday, I woke up around 9 or so, and started my jog about 10:20. WOW! It seemed very hot and humid compared to the weather I was starting to get use to in Lima, Peru. I was breathing very heavy and legs aching a bit... I ran most all the first two miles, except part of the last uphill stretch. It was about all I could take, so decided to stop there, and not even walk the last 3rd mile. Even though I did walk the last bit, I noticed my total time was still just about a 10 minute mile.

Tuesday, I did a bit of house work, and so didn't get out for my run until 9:46 PM! The air was quite a bit cooler, and it was dark, of course. I was really amazed to find out my legs felt really good. Also, my breathing was very controlled and not too heavy the entire run! Even during the uphill parts. I completed the first two miles "easy", and felt so good, I continued on running... and ended up not walking ANY of the 3 mile route! Looking at my watch I saw I was 2 full minutes ahead of a 10 minute mile pace as well! I have a feeling MOST of this had to do with the fact I was running at night.

Wednesday (today), I got off to a late start. It was fully overcast, so no hot sun beating down on me, but... it had only been a little more than 12 hours since my last run.... but the biggest factor today is probably STILL the high heat and humidity! I ended up running the first 2 miles without too much difficulty.... and about 1 minute ahead of normal pace. A bit of more heavy breathing at the last uphill stretch. Then did a walk/jog combination for the last 3rd mile. Even still, the total time was 28:30, putting me at a 9:30 minute/mile average, which seems a little fast for the amount of time I did walk that last mile. I will have to double check the distance for that last mile.

route map !

Started my run at 10:26am
Got to my 2 mile mark at 10:46am, right on time again.
Continued the last mile with a combination of walk/jog and
finished at 10:57:58 !
So, I did shave off a few seconds time from yesterday.
The high temp for today was suppose to get up to 97F,
guess I should start checking what it is the exact time of my run.
I sure was sweatin' like a pig for about 45 min after.

Here is a cool map link for my jogging route:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=276763
jogging route

WOW! I just noticed that my mile markers are a little
different (longer) than that route site shows. I guess I've
been just a little faster than I thought, but only by 30-90
seconds, so I'm just going to ignore that and stay on the
conservative side of my estimates.

I'd be MUCH happier doing the race a little faster than
expected, than to not meet my projected goal.

Jogging

Been a little more distracted from blogging than I had wanted, but not a WHOLE lot to tell in the last couple days.

• Tuesday: ran first 2 miles, walked .25, ran .25, walked .5
• Wednesday: ran first 2 miles, walked .25, ran .25, walked .5
• Thursday: ran first 2 miles, walked .25, ran between .25 and .5, and walked the rest.

Because it seems like I'm not being very accurate in the distances, I thought I'd also start making a note of the time I get back home.

Each day I've been right on target with a 10-minute-mile for the first two miles. This last day, started at 10:00am. 2 mile mark at 10:20am. Finished last mile at 10:32:27.

More On Exercise

I'm not sure how much of an "experiment" this is. But, I do think there is some interesting data here to collect, and so I thought I'd add it to my blog.

About a month ago I started getting back outside for some jogging.
A couple of years ago I had been jogging about 3 miles a day, 5 days a week.
Like many things... I got side tracked and slipped out of it.

It was only 6 months ago that I was still doing a very occational 1-2 miles.
But WOW! When i got out the first time again I was only able to run about
.5 miles, then walk .75 miles, run another .25 miles, and walk the final .5
miles of my 2 mile route! How pathetic !

Over the next 2 weeks I commited myself to not push TOO hard, because I
did not want to over do it so much that I could not keep going out each day.
But, I did add anywhere from a couple hundred feet to 1/4 mile of jogging
each day.

This is when I thought about first adding the info to my blog. I am starting
to prepare for one of the city-wide 10k races early next year (2007), and so
thought.... how long, and what will be my regular progression from .75 miles
of jogging the first day, to a full 6 miles of jogging needed for the race?

I WAS happy to see that my speed/pace still seems to be just at a 10 minute mile.
The same as 2 years ago, so I'm very happy about THAT!

This last week has really had a couple days that I've been so busy working
on my house that I've not been able to run every day, so I decided to get
in a little on the weekends, during lunch breaks.

Today is the start of a new week, and so I hit the pavement around noon time
(yes... in Austin it is 91 degrees and lovely humidity -- I have decided to
kill two birds with one stone and run during the high sun, to work on my tan
at the same time... and one reason I might be slower at ramping up my distance)

I was able to jog just about the first full 2 miles, but the last stretch is
up a fairly steep hill, so walked it. But decided to extend the route to my
3-mile path and ran another .5 miles of it.

From this point I'll keep up with the blog daily.

The goal is 6.2 miles (10km) in 65 minutes by February 2007.

Fell off the face of the planet

Well, if anyone was keeping up...
As you can see.. I disappeared for a bit.

Actually, I tried it for a bit longer, but
got bored with posting the same stuff each time,
so thought I'd post less often. However, I only
worked at this for another 2-3 days and then
decided to quit.

A few factors came in to play.
1) I realized that even though my time is very
flexible working from home mostly, that I
really did LIKE the flexibility. Which meant
that having to work around so many naps was
a bit of a chore. And then several spontaneous
plans/invites came up, which were hard to work
around.
2) I don't get sick very often at all, but every
couple of years when I do... I'm told to take
lots of vitamin C and get plenty of sleep.
That type of sleep needed is not REM, but rather
the "other" types that obviously have a lot to
do with healing and recovery and our immune system.
Since little long term research has been done on
how cutting out those other phases of sleep are
going to affect us over the long term, I started
to think this might not be such a great idea.
3) Even though I had not gotten to many days of this
under my belt, I was not seeing some of the MAIN
advantages I wanted to see... the remembering of
my dreams, and lucid dreaming.

When added all up.. I was starting to come up with a
lot of negatives, and not seeing any of the positives.
I've decided to try something else that was suggested
which is to set my alarm for 5 hours from whenever
I go to sleep for the night.

I also might consider making an adjustment so that I
take a single nap somewhere around 2-4pm... Many other
countries call this a "siesta" and is part of their
regular daily cycle.... fitting it properly in to
their normal workday.

Day 5 (cycle #0025 - #????)

01:00 - Start cycle #0025 (lay down for nap)
01:20 - Wake up with phone alarm.
Food: juice/water


03:00 - Start cycle #0026 (down for nap)
03:20 - Wake up with phone alarm.
Food: potato, water/juice, grapes

05:00 - Start cycle #0027 (down for nap)
05:20 - Don't think I fell asleep, so wanted to try again
05:45 - Didn't fall asleep again! - let's try again
06:10 - Just didn't get out of bed. Hmm
08:07 - Got up on my own
Food: cucumber, water/juice

10:00 - Start cycle #0028 (nap)
10:25 - Wake up (phone alarm)
Food: vitamins, juice, cottage cheese/protien/banana

cycle #0025 (Day 4- 23:00)

Sleep/Wake: 20 min nap went just fine. had dream.

I think I'm going to start putting all cycles for a day in a single post now that I'm doing them so often. I seem to be writing less about it.

cycle #0024 (Day 4- 18:00)

Sleep/Wake: set alarm for 20 min again as I laid down. I might have drifted off.. it's hard to tell if I really fall asleep or not. However, I feel fairly tired right now... good thing I'm gonna get another nap in 2 hours

Activities:

shelves

Email/networking

Pandora.com

cycle #0023 (Day 4- 16:00)

Sleep/Wake: I might have dozed off during this cycle's nap.

Activities:

cleaning off living room shelves

cycle #0022 (Day 4- 14:00)

Sleep/Wake: don't think I fell asleep in the 20 min alloted time, but do feel rested.

Activities:

Finished watching "Dracula"

Chatting/Email friends

Handled some biz email, prepare/sent invoice, etc

cycle #0021 (Day 4- 11:00)

Sleep/Wake: think I made it to sleep near the end of my 20 min allotment.

Food: 3 soft tacos (ground beef, cheese, potato, onion, beans, sour cream, lettuce) yum!

Activities:

Off to lunch at Granddads with Father and Sister

cycle #0020 (Day 4- 09:00)

Sleep/Wake: Hmmm.. no good! I remember waking up at 4:30, but not making myself get out of bed... of course, you know the rest. :( Woke up on my own a bit after 9am. That's a pretty long sleep period. At dinner last night Wayne made the comment a doctor had told him to set his alarm for 5 hours from when he went to bed. Actually, I'd PREFER to spend 5 hours asleep at one time, than to spend 3 hours asleep spread out over 6 times a day. Maybe I'll try that if I can't get my body through this adjustment. I think I'm going to try to give my body even MORE chances to get it's required REM in quick naps... this means temporarily trying 2 hour cycles all day until it locks in.

Food:

Activities:

Watch more "Dracula"

Adding music to my Pandora playlist (this IS included in my regular sites), email with friends

cycle #0019 (Day 4- 02:00)

Sleep/Wake: not much problem getting up, but felt tired. Don't remember anything about my dream.

Activities:

Started watching "Dracula"

UPDATE (03:50): Going to make this another 2hr cycle. g'night

cycle #0018 (Day 4- 00:00)

Sleep/Wake: phone alarm woke me up. I don't remember what I dreamt.

Food: juice, prunes

Activities:

Chatting w/friends, caught up on past email that required extra attention, regular sites, etc

cycle #0017 (Day 3- 22:00)

Sleep/Wake: woke up via phone alarm. Not sure about dreams, but I feel fairly well rested

Food: finished the salad I threw together from earlier.

Activities:

Chatted with friends, read news, socializing, regular sites.

Creativity: One thing I've heard from others is a heightend creative ability. While I admit I have not tried any of my creative hobbies, I don't feel any special abilities at this time. of course, I'm still in day 3!

UPDATE (23:50) Well, think I'll take an early nap since it's been 2 hours. I think the is the minimum time I'd want to allow between naps, but hopefully this will help to make sure I'm getting a bit more REM more often during this phase.

cycle #0016 (Day 3- 16:00)

Sleep/Wake: woke up a few min early on my own. had dream, but don't remeber it.

Food: (17:30) a bunch of various things from Ryan's Buffet. various veggies, meatloaf, turkey, etc.

Activities:

Wayne is picking me up for a Ruby on Rails meeting. Must shower, more typing soon.. this will be very interesting, since we are going to try to do dinner first, and the meeting starts at 7pm (which is my next nap time), so I'll be pretty late for it... maybe I'll try to nap from 6:40-7, and turn the blessings of polynaps short sleep requirements in to my advantage rather than disadvantage :)

UPDATE (21:29) Didn't end up napping around 7pm, so going to do it now. Don't feel too overly tired, but could use sleep.
back at 22:00

cycle #0015 (Day 3- 13:00)

Wake/Sleep: Took at least 15 min to get to sleep; probably due to the extended sleep I had earlier. Started using phone alarm as my first alarm, to see if that will be able to do it when/if I'm away from home; had no problem. I know I dreamt, but don't remember it.

Food: couple spoonfuls of kidney beans, BIG salad (spinach, mixed nuts, celery, carrots, cucumber, a few bites of left over steak and sauted onions. YUM!

Activities:

socializing (online)

took care of some biz stuff

UPDATE (15:55) Gonna try 25 min nap and see what that does. I hope it doesn't take to long to fall asleep.. hmm

cycle #0014 (Day 3- 10:00)

Sleep/Wake: You might notice the extra time jump from last cycle. I let my body catch up on sleep and wake up normally. Some people regularly implement a few hours of "Core Sleep" in their plan. I have not done that up until now, and would prefer not to, but I'm not totally opposed to the idea if it turns out there are sleep benifits or it's just something my body is going to require. However, I think I'd like to limit them to about 90 minutes if possible and see if it means I can cut out some of the daily naps. I'm going to continue to try and do without. We'll see.

Exercise: My calves are getting a little sore from doing 100 jumping jacks every 4 hours. Not something I'm use to, and possibly not getting enough protien. Maybe I'll try to limit exercise to night time cycles since it DOES help in getting/keeping me awake.

Food: (10:30) half container cottage cheese with added protien power.

Activities:

Biz email, invoices, follow-ups, etc

Personal/social email, regular sites, etc.

cycle #0013 (Day 3- 04:00)

intro: Yes. I'm here, but sitting to write anything would be bad right now - more soon.

UPDATE (10:02): Well, as you might be able to tell with the LONG pause in writing, "something happened". I woke up at 04:30 as planned and stayed up for an hour. During which time I constantly stayed moving.... walking around the house. I was SO tired I'd stagger slightly, perhaps bump in to a wall every now and then. My eyes were trying to shut so badly that it was almost impossible for me to keep them open even while walking! I tried playing Frozen Bubble to get my mind occupied with something else, but after a few minutes I found myself trying to doze off again. I found myself trying to justify and rationalize various reasons to go to sleep. Finally, I decided it had been an hour, and so if my body wanted sleep THAT bad, then perhaps I should give it a 30 minute chance to get REM, so I did (05:30-06:00). The alarm went off, but I was still dead tired, so I "let's let the body catch up with what it needs and continue from there". This lead to sleeping until 08:57, but I laid in bed a few minutes trying to plan things out, which led to another doze off and waking up at 09:55.

I don't really see this as a set back. The way I look at it, is that because I had originally (Saturday night / Sunday morning) only gotten 3 hours sleep, which was suppose to be my last full night (and didn't get it), then I started off at a deficit, and so Sunday's / Monday's naps were trying to catch up on lost REM rather than "get ahead". NOW, after sleeping until my body feels fully rested and woke up on it's own, I'm going to assume it's where it should be, and so today's naps will be extra REM... hopefully to stockpile and be ahead of tonight's requirements.

cycle #0012 (Day 3- 01:00)

Sleep/Wake: Ugh.. tough to get myself out of bed. Alarm woke me up without problems, except my thought was to hit the snooze. I ended up laying in bed another 5 minutes which was dangerous. There's no reason for this. Just GET UP! I know I dreamt, but don't remember anything about it.

Exercise: I knew I NEEDED this quick to get my heart rate up and get me out of that "want more sleep" state... finally got up and did it.

Food: I knew I also needed THIS quick... to give my stomach something to do, and give me an energy boost. (01:45) juice, grapes, mixed nuts, 12 grain bread, Optimum Zen cereal (dry)

Activities:

organizing living room shelves (I need something active.. not sitting)

UPDATE (03:50): I feel very tired, the last hour has not been very productive and I found myself moving slower and spending a lot of time just looking around not being sure where I wanted to put stuff. I am pretty sure the next cycle (4am) is going to be even worse -- getting up and being drawn back to bed.

cycle #0011 (Day 2- 22:00)

Sleep/Wake: alarm woke me up, no problems. I do remember I had a dream, but don't remember enough about it to describe it. This is a bummer, since remembering my dreams and lucid dreams were two things I was really looking forward to with this! Once 1 or 2 days go by I think I'm going to adjust the sleep time and see if that helps.

Exercise: same as normal

Food: (23:00) juice, a couple grapes, baby carrots, prunes

Activities:

Socializing with friends

Too much lounging around, listening to Coast To Coast, being lazy... this is only making me more tired :( STOP IT!

cycle #0010 (Day 2- 19:00)

Sleep/Wake: alarm woke me up. Don't remember any dreams, maybe just that I remember "something" ? Maybe I should shorten the nap length? I feel rested, but still could use more sleep.

Exercise: as usual

Food: (19:40) half can of black beans, juice. (21:15) baked potato with jalapenos! =)

Activities:

More cleaning (you might get the idea the place was a mess)

took/posted some pictures

baked some potatoes :)~

UPDATE (21:45): I expect the night time to be harder on me, so I'm going to do 3 hour cycles in hopes to get a bit more REM, since I'm still in the adjustment phase. See you at 22:30 !

cycle #0009 (Day 2- 15:00)

Sleep/Wake: Alarm woke me up, no problems. Don't remember any dreams, but think I probably did. I feel pretty refreshed. The eyes are feeling a little less tired, but I can tell my body still would prefer more sleep.

Exercise: same as usual.

Food: (15:55) fruit juice, half can of kidney beans, small slice of left over quesadilla from the weekend, a few baby carrots and a couple grapes. -- Later some mixed nuts, grapes, carrots, juice

Activities:

Hanging new fabric over shelves in living room.

Email, visit regular sites

UPDATE (17:31): Been keeping rather busy/active hanging this fabric, and still feel pretty good, so gonna push out another hour before the nap. (18:40) Started to get pretty tired the last part of this hour. Look forward to the nap.

cycle #0008 (Day 2- 12:00)

Sleep/Wake: Phone rang 3 minutes in to my time for sleep. I was just falling to sleep. I was amazed when I saw it was only 3 minutes in to it. It seemed like I was around 6+ minutes in to it. I didn't take the call, but it still messed me up from getting settled back in for at least 15 more minutes. Can't remember a dream this time, but who knows. I feel pretty much as I did last cycle.

Exercise: same as before

Food: grapes, celery, olives, grapefruit juice. This is certainly not my normal diet, but I haven't felt like cooking anything yet. Perhaps tonight.

Activities:

Going shopping for house stuff. I should be fine for driving.. at least until 14:00.

UPDATE (14:45): Just got back from shopping. Driving was not a problem at all. I seem perfectly fine except it feels like I'm up past my bed time, and time for sleep. Again this feeling really only kicked in the last hour. I think being out and about made it easier... I could probably go another hour if I wanted to push it, but I'm sticking to my goal of trying to quickly give my body many chances to learn to get to REM in 30 min... not deprive myself of sleep. night night.

cycle #0007 (Day 2- 09:00)

Sleep/Wake: I think goal has been achieved. Fell asleep fairly quickly, probably in less than 6 min. and started dreaming right away. There was some weird noise coming from the speaker which woke me up 13 minutes in to my sleep, but I was already dreaming. It took me a couple minutes to figure out what that sound was and stop it. I got back in bed, but don't think I was able to actually get any more sleep. However, it doesn't seem to matter. I feel a little better than I did waking last cycle. It's probably due mostly to the fact it's daylight now, we'll see.

Exercise: 5 min of jumping jacks, pushups, situps (really seems to help get the heart rate up which fully wakes me up)

Food: (09:35) a few grapes, a couple handfuls of dry cereal (Optimum Zen), and grapefruit juice. (10:30) Had my oatmeal and vitamins.

Activities:

More house cleaning

Visiting regular websites

UPDATE (11:50): Even though the cycle started off better than any other, I still found myself pretty tired this last hour. Hopefully I'll catch up on my REM soon.

cycle #0006

Sleep/Wake: ALRIGHT! I had a dream - AND remember it! Woke up automatically after 18min. Tried to get in a little more REM since I still had 12 more min, but actually with the shorter "sleep" mp3 I didn't adjust for the time, and so the alarm went off 6 min early. No biggie. At least I got one dream in. :) Eyes still feel tired, but I don't feel so drawn back to bed like the last cycle.

Exercise: (06:30) Feel good enough to kick right in to some jumping jacks and push-ups and sit-ups... just 5 min to get the blood pumping... ah.. and SO much more awake after that too.

Food: (06:40) Start off cycle with slice of 12 grain bread, some grapes, baby carrots, and grapefruit juice

Activities:

Blog (see "Extra notes" below)

Clean house (some)

Fixed the alarm timer

Took care of some biz email

UPDATE (08:45): Seems to be a common thing that after I wake up, the first 1.5 hours goes pretty well, but that last hour is just a downward spiral. I can function adequately, but it's like being up 3 hours past your normal bedtime. Gonna take another nap here at 09:00, and then see if I can do 4 hours apart during the day. See you in a few.


Extra notes:

Since I feel pretty good right now let me give a little more data on the experiment. For the last several cycles I've been doing here at home, I'm sleeping in my bed with the light on. I've read having the light might help in waking up, and also with Lucid Dreams - both which are very good. :) During this adjustment phase I don't mind taking naps every 3 hours instead of every 4. The idea is to give my body another chance to try and get to REM in 30 minutes. Besides, even if I DID continue it... that means I'd be sleeping 4 hours a day, rather than my normal 9, so STILL a huge improvement!

I currently have three alarms set up (1) Laptop which plays a soft, phased white noise sound for 6 min.. kinda sounds like shoreline waves... hopefully helps me fall asleep faster. Then silence for 24 minutes, then a very annoying series of sounds. being pumped through a guitar/bass amp with an 18" speaker cone, so lots of power if i need it, but I've had no problem waking up with it set to output level 3. (2) A minute after that my cell phone alarm goes off, this should catch me in case the power goes out (doubtful), and also is good for away-from-home situations. (3) A nightstand digital clock/alarm goes off a minute after that, but I'm nt sure I'd wake up for that if I sleep through the first two. But could be good in case the laptop volume gets turned down for some reason, and the cell phone fails as well. Over-sleeping seems to be the big spoiler, so hopefully I have it well taken care of.

cycle #0005

Sleep/Wake: Almost positive I went to sleep. Not sure I got to REM.. certainly don't remember a dream, but I normally don't anyway. When the alarm went off I had the urge to hit the snooze, but made the decision to get out of bed.

Mental: It's been about 30min total, and I'm still not happy about waking up. In fact, I looked at the clock a few min ago and consciously thought "Why am I doing this? No one else is up at this hour. I'm setting myself up to be an outcast. This is silly. Go back to bed." It's hard to concentrate, and obviously I'm thinking along more "survival" lines and less on personal desires. I want to make excuses to get back in bed. I'm glad I made some firm plans before hand.... I MUST wait until at least 6am before my next nap, but perhaps just waiting 2 hours between naps would work as well. I really don't feel like DOING anything.

Activities:

uh..

(04:35) Did a few jumping jacks and now feel a bit better. Eyes still feel better closed than open, but not as HEAVY draw to bed. I WAS thinking I might try another nap (I NEED to get to that REM sleep) here at 05:00, but now think I can put it off until 06:00

Add songs to my Pandora.com play lists

Food: Started the cycle off (03:35) with grapefruit juice and half an apple. I'm feeling to tired to prepare food. (04:45) celery stick, grapes

UPDATE (05:55) Well, I finished my new "Sleep" mp3... much more soothing. We'll try it out this time. I'm fairly tired, but could probably do jumping jacks to stay awake longer if needed. Right now I feel it's more about getting my body able to start REM within 20min rather than to see how long I can stay awake. See you at 06:30

cycle #0004

Sleep/Wake: Well, again, I don't think I actually got to sleep. I know I was awake the first 24 minutes for sure. I feel I was just about to drift off there at the very end. Maybe next time. My eyes feel a bit tired, but I don't feel sleepy like I did before I laid down.

Activities:

Think I will replace the music with a soft, phased white noise sound for 15 min... then silence for 15 min before the annoying wake-up part.

Listened to Art Bell on the radio, visited a few regular websites

Food: I started off the cycle with a slice of 12 grain bread and half an apple.

UPDATE (02:50) Again, I was doing great for the first 2 hours. This last hour I've been fading slowly. I think I'll take a nap at 03:00... see ya soon.

cycle #0003

Sleep/Wake: even though I was tired, when I got in bed my brain was too active. I kept thinking of things I wanted to post about, or do. A time or two I could tell I was on the verge of sleep, but then pulled back. It felt very much like I might feel if my feet were half way off a sharp drop off.... suddenly had the sensation of about to fall off, but then catching yourself, using your arms to rebalance. When I tried to think of music or play a movie in my head that seemed to help. Finally I looked at the clock and it was 20:15... ack! only 15 min left! .. I decided to put on some soft music (Gorecki - "Lamb") to help pull my thoughts away from reasoning thought, but no luck. Alarm went off and I certainly got no sleep at all. I hopped right up, with the attitude, "okay brain... if you're not gonna use it.. you lose it". Actually I DO feel a bit more refreshed, but I expect this will soon pass. I'll make sure I'm up for another 2 hours, maybe 3 before giving my body another chance to get the picture that SPEED is of the essence. :)

Activities:

First, set up my 18" guitar amp, and create a very annoying MP3 as a backup alarm.

Next, get groceries (more raw fruits, veggies and juices)

Food: Started the cycle off with a few prunes and then some mixed stir-fry veggies. Later had some grapefruit juice and a stick of celery.

UPDATE (23:45): Even though I had been sleepy before the last time I laid down (and didn't get any sleep), I felt amazing good from 20:30-22:45?! But since 22:45 I've been going down fast. I'll take a nap at midnight... I have a feeling I WILL sleep. All 3 alarms set :)

see you at 00:30

cycle #0002

Ugh! So, I don't have my countdown timer yet... was planning on buying it after work today, since I REALLY wasn't even planning on starting naps today in the first place! Anyway, I told Darrell to give me a call if I'm not back inside by 15:30. He said he called and it rang 4 times, but my phone has no record of the call (didn't ring). Blasted technology! Anyway, he finally came out and woke me up after 15 minutes, assuming I slept through the ring.

Dreams: The GOOD news is, I DID sleep! -- and probably had a dream as well, but I don't remember it. I hope this provides me that much needed REM and eases my transition. Not sure exactly how long I was awake first, but probably 10-15 min.

Lessons Learned: Have a backup plan (or two) for getting woken up. I can see how living WITH a supportive person would be helpful.

Mentally: I woke up immediately, completely alert. I wouldn't say I feel better or worse mentally than last cycle. Perhaps very slightly refreshed? Perhaps my imagination.

Activities:

I just finished reading Sergiy Korobkov's blog which I really enjoyed. Short, clean, to the point. In a way I'd like to do something like that too, but did not contain the level of data I'm really wanting to post. He's just finished 4 weeks. Seems pretty successful, except a few oversleeps and habits of taking another nap right after another. And he plans on doing series of core sleep periods. One day he had posted 10 nap times! But, I've been considering an extra nap time or two, and now I feel very strongly that the purpose of the transition phase is NOT to deprive ourselves of sleep, but rather to get our bodies to realize it's only got 20-30 min to get that REM sleep in, so it needs to start ASAP! Since that IS the goal, then why should we only give our bodies 6 chances a day to get in that habit? I think providing more nap time opportunities for our brains to adjust would be a good thing... however, if the brain doesn't get to REM during a nap time, then the answer is NOT to immediately provide another opportunity! ... but rather wait at least two hours (maybe 3)... providing a little "slap on the wrist"... such as "Hey Brain.... you missed out on that chance now deal with it". Perhaps next time it will learn to do better. If I just immediately take another nap, then my brain might learn "I don't need to jump right in to REM, because if I miss it, then David will take another nap right away". Once my brain IS conditioned to jump right in to REM, then I can back off to 6 or 7 short naps per 24 hours, and that should give me enough total REM per day. The 20-30 min time limit is EXTREMELY important for conditioning... the number of initial naps per day to get on track is not (but they DO have to be well spaced apart)... my new personal opinion.

Started reading Sean's blog, seems very good so far.

UPDATE (19:50): I started to get really tired the over the last hour. I'm sure it has more to do with only getting 3 hours sleep last night than anything else. A bit hungry too. I decided to have a SMALL snack (drank some grapefruit juice, ate 4 olives).. and take a nap from 20:00-20:30. Setting phone alarm and normal night stand alarm. See you soon.

cycle #0001

So it begins.

It's 10:30 and I'm just back from my first attempt at a 30min nap.

With the lack of sleep last night I felt myself start to doze off 3 times, but I don't think I actually got to sleep. I don't particularly feel any more rested than before the nap, but I felt good before, so I'm happy.

Dreams: I played some images in my mind, hoping this would lead to dreaming. The 3 doze-off times MIGHT have started as dreams before I twitched and realized I was awake.... I'm not going to offically call it sleep or dreams.

I haven't had much of anything to eat today, and being a bit hungry could have helped keep me from sleep. I think I'll have my normal oatmeal (with cinnamon, sugar and water) now. I also take a generic multivitamin daily... and I'm going to be adding and extra vitamin C during the adjustment phase, since I hear sleep deprivation causes a weakened immune system.

Next naps will be at 15:00 (3pm), then 18:00 (6pm), then 22:00 (10pm).

UPDATE (13:00): ACK! I had forgotten my dad invited me to lunch with him and granddad. Normally I don't eat much steak, but he cooked.... so had half a steak, half pototato and some salad. Starting to eat smaller portions, which I've generally been trying to do anyway for the last year, but now will start making a stronger effort.

14:50 - Just finished reading Tynan's entire blog. He has friends posting their polynaps on there too, so it was a bit confusing to follow sometimes. I have to commend them on their CONTINUAL efforts, but in all honesty I was disappointed to see how often they overslept. I'm sure they don't mean to, and I will soon see how difficult it is for myself! -- but I'm planning to attack this with a lot more consistency. Going to focus more on Steve's blog as a guide.

Welp. I want to nap at 3pm, so see you soon

Polyphasic Sleep: pre-day: -1 becomes "cycle #0001"

Since I only got 3.5 hours sleep last night (I have not started my PolySleep yet) my first 45 min of the day started off fairly groggy, but right now (09:45) I feel pretty good.

I decided to find/read more blogs from other people to get a better idea of what I'm going to be up against, the major problems other people faced, and how they overcame the challenges.

I ran across Tynan's blog. He seems to be doing pretty well (45+ days). However, I had to laugh out loud when I read this post from Dec 16th, in which he talks about his crazy setup to make sure he doesn't over sleep! I would have never thought it would be required to put an air compressor horn 2 feet from your face!? I'll have to set up my laptop to pump some deathly annoying mp3 through my 18" bass amp, set near my head.

I have just decided to make LAST NIGHT my last night of full (although short) sleep.... no sense in sleeping a full night tonight since nothing is planned for tomorrow. I'll take my first nap from 10:00-10:30 and call this "cycle #0001" (yes, I'm THAT geeky).

Food: The only thing I've had to eat so far today are my few normal prunes and 100% grapefruit juice.

Dreams: don't remember any dreams from last night.

It's 5-til .... off to the van for my nap.

Polyphasic Sleep: pre-day: -2

It's Saturday... Jan 14th, 2006. I just found Steve Pavlina's blog on Polyphasic Sleep today, and have decided to try it out myself starting this Monday!

I'm going to try a few things slightly different:
1) I'm going to make a blog entry once per cycle (4 hours), not once every day (24 hours).
2) I'm going to include very specific things like activities and food eaten, as well as just how I "feel" over all.
3) I'm not a vegan (further away from animal products than a vegetarian)... In fact, I love my daily does of meat, and this is something (diet) Steve seemed to comment on a lot.. and how that was a major factor.... we'll see.
4) I'm going to start off with a less rigid, more workable "nap" schedule, and try to include moderate exercise right from the start.

There are a few other things I might mix in as well too, but will talk about those more as I do them.

Some background...

Like Steve, my current schedule is VERY flexible as far as my time goes. I think this will be a KEY factor in success. I do various contract work which (currently) allows most of my weekdays totally free, and my weekends are taken up by 12 hours "shifts" on Sat/Sun.... but my time there is very flexible also, and so I'll be able to take a break for 2 or 3 naps. The 2nd and 3rd days are suppose to be the toughest, so since I'm starting on Monday, that gives me 5 days to "adjust" before needing to be alert for work on Saturday.

Although I'm not a vegan, nor vegetarian, I do try to eat fairly well... kinda. I tend to eat a lot of salads, stay away from soda and caffeine almost totally, lots of raw fruits and veggies, nuts, juices etc. However, I probably take in a fair amount of sugar, and do enjoy mostly chicken, sometimes fish, and occationally a nice and tasty slice of juicy cooked cow. ;) Because Steve made so many comments about diet, and I DO want to give myself the best possible chance of success, I am planning on increasing my raw fruits and veggies most.. especially for the first week during the adjustment phase, but don't plan to cut out all the meat.

I'm single, and so don't have to worry about waking other family members during the night, and since I live alone and tend to be much of a hermit anyway, my time at home wont seem much different during the normal day light or night time hours, so this might be a good thing, since it's one less "reminder" that I'm out-of-sync with most of humanity... perhaps if more of us see the advantages and switch to polyphasic sleep then WE will be in the "normal" group again! :)

I very very rarely remember any of my dreams. As it is now, I might remember one or two every couple of weeks to a month. Because of this, sleeping seems like a big waste of time to me... something only done because it's needed to survive. Of course, I feel the same way about eating. I can get so wrapped up in projects that suddenly my stomach is growling... I look at my watch and .. duh.. it's been 12 hours since I last ate! And at that time it's a hassle to break from what I'm doing to have to feed my body. However, when I DO remember my dreams, I almost always seem to have some kind of control in them. I wasn't aware this had a name.... and I thought everyone's sleep had this ability, but apparently not. Anyway, I have always been jealous that others can so often remember their cool dreams, so I'm hoping this will be one big benefit I see.. as well as requiring less "hibernation" time.


So, today, I ate my normal oatmeal and a few prunes for breakfast. Had the 2nd half of a VERY large burrito for lunch... and since I'm now going to start trying to do a LITTLE better for the adjust period, I had some prunes and half an apple for a bit of a snack near dinner time. I'm going out for a friends bday party tonight, so we'll see if I have anything else... not hungry now.

VERY excited about getting started with this!
I'm going to buy a countdown timer tomorrow to make sure I get no more than 30 minutes per nap. Also, going to the store to stock up on more fruits and veggies.

Wish me luck!

UPDATE: it's 3am! Just got back from Lisa's Bday party, and then grabbing a bite to eat with Lori... I ate 2 (rather large) breakfast-type tacos (potato, egg, jalapenos, bacon). I was thinking I should not be eating so much so late, but... ate them anyway... off to bed -- up at 06:30 for work! (tomorrow will be my last 'normal' day)

Polyphasic Sleep: discovered

SO!

I was keeping up with daily news on Shoutwire and just found and read ALL of Steve Pavlina's blog entries on his polyphasic sleep experiment, found here: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/ (and a wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep)

TOTALLY amazing! And I am more than pumped up to try it myself than I can fully convey here in text.

Basically it's the life style change of sleeping 20-30 minutes at a time for 6-7 times spaced out over the normal 24 hour day. Steve has now been doing it himself for almost 90 days with so much good to say about it, that it sounds like he's never going back to "popular" sleep habits.

I would HIGHLY recommend reading Steve's "Day 19-20" entry if no others.

It seems that many people who have tried it in the past have had varying degrees of success, and mostly failure due to things like oversleeping (during the adjustment phase), poor self-discipline, and lack of flexibility in their normal daily schedule.

After reading all his blog entries, I seem to have many things in common with Steve, and I expect that will contribute to my success (already thinking positively.. heh)

Let's get started! =)

Blog Purpose

This new blog of mine is intended as a place to write about all the crazy little experiments I try over time.

I'll add more detail to THIS post soon, but right now I'm eager to get started posting about my latest experiment with Polyphasic Sleep ! =)