The Old Regret of Sleeping In

I need to tell you something important.  I think it is fact.  I'm going to center it and make it big and bold because that is how true I think it is.

You will always regret cancelling your morning run. 

Always.*

Despite how I know this to be fact, I still occasionally do it.  More so now that I'm pregnant and not training for anything. But the truth is, whether I'm pregnant or not, I never wake up at that later hour and feel any more rested than I did when I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and decided not to go.  I always get in the shower with regret because all I'm washing off is sleep (and sleep is a lot harder to get off than sweat).  I know in my heart of hearts that I would feel more awake and refreshed had I pushed through the early morning sleepies and gone for my run. Always always always. 

And yet, I did not push through this morning.  I woke up at 3:00a.m. again, but this time I made myself stay in bed (after using the facilities, of course) and go back to sleep.  Eventually, I did.  So when the alarm went off at 5:00, I felt heavy with sleep again.  I hit snooze and was out.  Ten minutes later it went off again.  I still had time to get dressed and meet my sister, but I didn't want to go.  I texted that I had woken up at 3 again and wouldn't make it.  Then I curled back up and...picked up my phone really fast to say yes I was coming, to wait! (See, I already suspected it was the wrong choice.) But I didn't text and I eventually went back to sleep.

I woke up at 7:00 in a fog.  A sleepy, heavy fog.  I stumbled to the back door to let Chance out and stumbled to the shower, feeling all those regrets about not going.  I shouldn't have backed out on my sister.  I was really looking forward to her tough, hilly route and some good conversation.  I knew I would have enjoyed myself once I was there, even if I was a little sleepy at the beginning.  But alas, the decision had been made and what I knew to be true about cancelling a morning run was still true. Bad choice.  Every time.

To end this post on a positive note, however, I can go this afternoon.  I have a client to see and plenty of daylight, and I will be good and awake by then (in theory). This day will not pass without a little exercise, but I know I still missed out by not going this morning. 

So there you have it.  My bit of advice.  Don't cancel your run when your alarm goes off.  It won't be worth it.

*There are of course outside factors besides sleepiness that don't apply here such as injury or bad weather.  But it is still fact.  You'll still be mad when you get in the shower and you didn't go, no matter what the circumstances.

P.S.  To follow up on yesterday's post, I was really tired all day long.  I did rest for 30 minutes on the floor of my office during lunch, but by the end of the day I was a zombie.  That (in my small defense) was what I was trying to avoid this morning.