Calling you night shift workers
I just finished my career-version of an ironman - 1 full week of emergency room call, which basically means every hospital within 50 miles of my house can call me 24 hours a day (x6) with their questions and concerns or to ask me to come in to help them, etc. That sounds worse than it is most of the time, looking at my pager I was called around 30 times over the week, mostly during the day, but I average 2 calls per night. Thanks to my trusty 920xt and my iPhone, I know that I slept on average 5 hours per night during this test, not terrible, but not good. As I sit here at 1130am, I know trying to nap will likely fail, but I will try. I might nail an hour of sleep. Regardless I know I will feel this malaise for the next 3 days when my sleep per night will go to 8 hours or so. So the 75 min 2x20 at z4 followed by a red mist sounds absurd. All I really want to do is drink a beer and drool at the window.
This cycle however occurs with regularity, maybe 6 times per year, and it is dawning on me that it represents a major drag on doing anything else, not the least of which is training. I know I am no pro, this is a hobby, not a paycheck, and all that jazz. No confusion there. My question for anybody with a similar career set up: is it better to just cancel the wkos or do lame z1-fests? Better to aqua bike and cut out run? Better to walk?
DS
Comments
Doug
As an OBGYN I live with that schedule weekly. In my case, one weekend a month and one night a week. In my younger years, I would train as long as I got at least 3 hours of sleep. Now in my mid 40's, I can not handle that training load. To be honest I reassess everyday I am on call. Take today for example, Almost 4 hours of sleep. I could not make the call for the 2 x 20 this morning. However, I have been looking forward to tonight's swim and if I still have some energy may add a modified 20 min all out bike. I really take these day on an individual basis. It has been hard to let go, but I feel much better in the end. Hope that helps.
Todd
office is busy during week but with paper work as toxicology consultant so I can swim at lunch most days and run or bike early in the AM Monday through Wednesday. of course when deadlines come up for the toxicology cases, (bad pun) I can't get to the swim.... I don't like when that happens... of course duties with family de temps en temp...
- short ones: 20'-30' sleep in a 50' window (10' to calm down and fall asleep, 10' to wake-up)
-long naps: a multile of (1h30-1h45' of sleep in roughly a 2h window)
after 16 years of dealing with nighshifts and jetlag, naps are a powerful tool to my arsenal that help with my training+ the discipline of waking-up at the end of a sleep cycle (and not look at your watch and say: "oh, I can still squeeze 45' of sleep". Nothing worse than waking up in the midde of deep sleep. You'll feel tired the hole day and "All u'll really want to do is drink a beer and drool at the window".