Worst Workout Partners Ever.

Meet Linden (light) and Tosio (dark).*

My little kitties recently turned 8 years old. As they get older, they're settling down. Their idea of activity is running to the food dish, eating three bits of kibble and then running back to sit beside me on the sofa while I type. Save for the occasional lap around the apartment while playing tag, they're very lazy cats.

Except for last Thursday night.

I went to bed later than I intended (thank you, Phil Plait) but was still on track for roughly six and a half hours of sleep... until the above innocent-looking-schadenfreude decided to play tag for twenty minutes at 4:00am. And this was no ordinary tag, this was hissing tag. They even hissed at me when I got out of bed to try and calm them down!

By the time they wrapped up the game at close to 4:30, I was wide awake and never did get back to sleep. I crawled out the door to work as the two little devils darlings decided to forgo their usual follow-the-food-lady-to-the-door routine and just sleep on my bed. I swear they were taunting me.

I texted my running partner and cancelled Friday's run. With only four hours of sleep, I was doubting my ability to walk home never mind going for a run. We did end up going for our run on Saturday morning, but Friday night was given over to sitting in a movie theatre instead. (I saw Super 8. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it but I don't know if it deserved all the rave reviews everyone was heaping on it.)

The only problem is that it's three days later and I still haven't really caught up on the sleep due to a busy weekend. Here's hoping I catch up tonight so I'm ready for tomorrow's run. If they wake me, I'm going to duct tape them to the wall.*

*They're named after hockey players. I almost named them Merry and Pippin. In hindsight, that would have been a better choice given their complete inability to comprehend what's going on around them.

**I'm not really going to do that.***

***I may, however, do something like wash their blanket because I know how much that pisses them off.

I Counted Sheep So Many Times, I Knew Them By Name

It has been a really bad week for healthy choices and workouts. It all stems from the fact that I did something to my sleep pattern last weekend and it messed me up all week! Bah! I was finally forced to take a sleep-aid (*ahem* a hot toddy, to be exact) to get myself back into my normal pattern.

My internal clock is really good at resetting itself. I attribute this to all the travel to Ireland I did growing up, but it causes problems for me now because if I stay up too late for two nights in a row, I'm hooped. My body will think that's my new bedtime. Last weekend, I was up past midnight on Friday and Saturday so despite being in bed at 10:00pm every night this week, I'd toss and turn until 1:00am. Morning yoga got skipped in favour of more sleep, after work workouts became internal struggles over doing more and flopping on the ground in a dramatic fashion, and dinners had to be ready in less than 10 minutes because I couldn't be bothered to stand up for any longer than that.

I don't like sleep aids if I'm not actually sick because I have a fear of becoming dependent on them. For me, this fear is pretty irrational (like my fear of moving scarecrows) because I can honestly count the number of times I've used them on one hand. (When I'm sick, however, I will down NeoCitran like I think it's water.) A Hot Toddy on Thursday night was my compromise. I'm pretty sure that after I finished the Hot Toddy, I could have slept anywhere. Sort of like this guy:

Heyna sleeping in mud puddle, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

I really wish I had done it earlier in the week because Friday was the first day I did not feel lethargic and grumpy. Friday night's workout was the only one where I really felt like I kicked butt too. Coincidence? HELLS NO! I'm looking forward to being back on the sleep train this week and seeing how much better my choices are because of it.

How do you react to a lack of sleep?