In need of sleep. Where are you, sleep?

I have been very very busy this week because my job requires me to actually show up and teach students now that the holidays are over.  This means I have had little time for the blogging, which I have missed terribly, so I'm sneaking in a quick post today to fill the blogging void in my life.

I have been spending some late nights this week grading, getting massaged, and teaching night classes to other teachers.  This means I have been dragging my ass out of bed later than normal because my body is stupid in that it requires more than 5 hours of sleep and wants to keep sleeping.  Therefore I have been unfortunately shortcutting some of my workouts during this first week of marathon training--I had to skip an easy 5 mile run entirely on Wednesday because I wouldn't have been able to make it to work on time (so I did the first three tabatas on Cathe's Tabatacise DVD.  Very sweat-inducing and thigh-frying).  Tuesday morning, however, was filled with some short speed work on the treadmill (5 x 1000 m) at my 5K pace, which made me realize that what I thought was my 5K pace is no longer my 5K pace because I haven't run at that pace in over a month.  It also reminded me what a big baby I am on the treadmill, breaking down in a mental puddle over the fact that 1000 meters is SOOO LONG I'LL NEVER MAKE IT PLEASE MAKE IT STOP even though if I run that same distance outside at that pace I never want to sit down and cry even once.

This morning I woke up late again, but I was determined not to skip another run.  On the agenda for today was a 6.5 mile tempo run, which included a 1.5 mile warm-up and a mile cool down in that number--but with my tight time schedule I decided to reduce the warm-up to a mile and the cool down to half a mile.  So off I went scampering into the morning darkness, dressed like this:

Doesn't everyone have possessed dogs and construction materials in their dining room?

Scamper, scamper, scamper, run run run I went, trying to keep roughly a 9 minute pace.  Because all of the blood in my body is in my legs when I run, my brain wasn't getting enough oxygen to realize I should have made my turn around back towards the house sooner than I actually did.  Instead, my brain kept thinking,"6 mile run 6 mile run hope that car doesn't hit me 6 mile run 6 mile is that poop on the road i wonder from what animal run must turn around at usual 6 mile run turnaround spot," forcing me to run an extra half a mile and thus forcing me to hightail it through the rest of my morning routine lest I be late for work (FYI, all body parts were thoroughly cleaned--the shower was not skimped upon).

Lack of sleep combined with the fact that I ran way too fast of a tempo made me one tired teacher today.  In fact, the idea of crawling into one of my cabinets in my classroom and taking a nap sounded like an absolutely fabulous one around noon, until one of my colleagues pointed out that I don't get paid anymore if they fire me.  Reality always deals the deepest cuts.

Tomorrow is a rest day.  I think I'll get up in enough time to do that without fearing I will be tardy to work.