It is a hot one out there

One would say to just go to bed earlier to make up the difference. That would work for your average person perhaps. I am not normal when it comes to sleep. To sum it up, I just so not sleep like a normal person. I am typically okay functioning on very little sleep but if it consistently mess with that low level in either direction it really throws off my sleep cycle and I won’t sleep at all. Naps are a no go for me unless my body demands them – I fall asleep because again they throw off the sleep cycle. They essentially reset my sleep clock and my body thinks it is time to go again. It will go for several hours not just until bedtime. 

The fact remains that my body still needs sleep, it just does not get it in very big chunks at a time. I am okay with that as long as I am awake and alert during the day. Today, that was not the case. Yesterday I crashed about 5:30pm. My body could not push through anything else. It was tired and had been stressed out over the afternoon driving situation. Not good for restful sleep. After an hour of fitful napping I was recharged but groggy. 

It was cereal or sandwiches for dinner. I ran to the store to get things for lunches and more milk as we were completely out.

I have to confess to just not being used to this any more. I used to not stress about it. I just got out there and went. I used to look forward to the morning and afternoon bike rides to and from the schools, but after taking so long off of it I will admit that it is hard and I do not necessarily look forward to it – at all.

Today was especially hard because I was so tired. I am completely worn out. I am just physically exhausted. We all know that you can only ask the body to give so much and then it will not give anything else. I do not know why why I am having such a hard time adjusting this week because technically I am in better shape now than I was two years ago when we started this. I should be just fine. Oh how quickly and easily our bodies forget.

Then I have to remind myself that sometimes it is okay to just take it easy on that body. I do have health conditions that are sensitive to certain things. I checked the weather before I left for my ride this afternoon. Normally I do not. I just get out there and ride. I have to go pick up Lance regardless and unless it is pouring down rain, it is easier to ride than it is to load the bike into the back of the minivan.

Today, however, I checked. Let me just say that sometimes you do not want to know what the weather is like before you ride because it might just run back inside and hide in the safety of that nicely air conditioned house. This afternoon at 2:54PM was no exception with a temperature of 97˚F and a heat index or “feels like” temperature of 106˚F. It was hot! Let me tell you that it felt every bit of those 106˚F and then possibly more. It was miserable.

The problem for me however is that in the picture there is a little red warning sign that indicates that there is more going on. This afternoon there were all sorts of ozone warnings. This means that for me and people like me who have asthma and other respiratory issues it is going to be hard to breathe. I tend to be sensitive to these things. I can usually tell and I was going outside in this and I was going to ride about 4 miles where I was going to not only make my body work harder by my lungs also. Needless to say that I was having a wee bit hard time breathing by the time I got home. I literally got home and had to lay down I was so light headed and dizzy. It was not funny. I was hot, sticky, and unable to breathe.

The good news is that once I cooled down a little I could breathe just fine. The not so great news is that I was more tired than ever. I was exhausted. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.