Night with a nocturnal triathlete

It's my day off, so I slept in until 3pm. Yep, you read that right. I'm working nightshift for the entire month of May, which means I sleep during the day and work 12 hours each night. I get one or two days off a week. Also, I'm training for an Ironman triathlon in 10 weeks. Most people think I'm crazy, and some people are curious about what I do on my nights off. So here's a quick rundown of what a typical night off looks like.


3:00 pm - Alarm goes off after a full 8 hours of sleep. When I'm working 12-hour shifts, I usually only have time to sleep for 7-7.5 hours. So this is a luxury.

3:15 pm - Breakfast (coffee and cereal)

4:30 pm - Head out for my long run. Today I have two workouts (a 2-hour run and a 2-hour ride). I opted to do my run while it was still light out and save the ride for the trainer at home later.

So thankful for the running trails/roads and sunshine in SLO!

Today's long run included some up-tempo stuff, and a blurry photo. :-)
Also, I am in love with these running shorts. They make me so happy!

7:00 pm - Lunch (a meal out with my husband). When I'm on nightshift, I don't see my husband much, so it's really nice when we're able to spend a little time together.

8:30 pm - Watch a little TV at home. On the agenda tonight was Stage 1 of the Amgen Tour of California cycling race. Unfortunately, I'm going to miss watching the tour in person this year since I'll be sleeping when the race comes through Morro Bay this week.

9:30 pm - Laundry, baking cookies, and tidying up around the house are all on the agenda for tonight. I try to do stuff that keeps me moving. Watching too much TV is a recipe for wanting to go to sleep too early. Even though I'm pretty adjusted to my nightshift schedule at this point, it's still a little weird to be awake doing all kinds of normal things while most people are asleep.

Coffee at 10:46 pm? Yes, please!

Baking cookies at 1 am. In my tri shorts. Because I can. And because I'm getting ready for my second workout of the day.

2:00 am - Time for workout #2. This time it's 2 hours on the trainer with music and a movie. This workout may or may not have been fueled by one of the cookies shown above.

Trainer time at 2 am!

4:30 am - Have a snack, shower, and get ready for bed. I wouldn't get to bed until around 7 am on a work night, but a night off gives me the chance to get to bed a little earlier. That means more sleep and a little more time for workouts when I wake up in the afternoon. Win win!

See... that wasn't so bad now was it?