Date: 12/16/21
Training Day: 11
Miles: 13.6 (iFit indoor bike ride)

How It Felt: This was an endurance ride instead of an interval ride, but it felt good to pedal with a wee extra effort for a prolonged period of time. But the tendon that runs on top of the bendy part of my right foot was bothering me a little bit.

Commentary: Last fall when I first started my new job I got into their Virgin Pulse program. Basically, you track a bunch of stats like steps, sleep, etc., read tidbits of useful information to live a healthier life, and other miscellaneous things. You earn points, and with those points you either get money in your FSA, HSA or HRA.

I’m all about “free” money, and I’m all about being healthy. So, I downloaded an app to track my sleep (this was before I got my Fitbit or Garmin). This app informed me that I needed to fix my social jet lag. What is social jet lag, you might ask? In a nutshell, it’s the difference between the times you sleep during the week versus the weekend.

The larger the difference, the more adverse consequences. I won’t go into it all, but you can read more about what The Guardian has to say about it if you want to.

Anyway, I made a bet with the app, like a legit cash bet, that I could fix my social jet lag within a month. I didn’t want to lose my $3 bet, so I started trying to go to bed and waking up on the weekends around the same time as workdays.

Much to my surprise, I felt significantly less tired. And I love getting up early and starting my day, so I was also happier getting up early. During the summer I had a hard time sticking to this because I didn’t want to go to bed at 8:30pm when the sun was still blazing bright.

I have decided to get back to consistent bedtimes and wakeup times. Maybe I won’t be as tired. Maybe my sleep will get better as well. Who knows. But of course, I have a game night with friends this Friday, so I’ll be getting to bed late. However, I still plan to be up by 5am on Saturday, so perhaps I should take a nap tomorrow.

Blue light from our phones, tablets, etc. mess with our natural circadian rhythm. To further help my sleep cause, I have installed a blue light filter on my phone. Around sunset it starts to filter out the blue light, and around sunrise it starts to filter it back in. We’ll see how it works tonight!

Training Journal cross training exercise fitness ifit indoor cycling journal running sleep social jet lag strength trail running training