After Saturday's "triumph!! --

[Bazza1234]

this morning, my first DNF for a LONG time. I had an easy-ish 6K run on Sunday with my newly found running club -- but frankly my heart wasn't really into that either. Today it was cold-ish (12C) - and I was only doing a run/walk , testing out a suitable ratio for my coming half - marathon. But once again - my heart wasn't there!!

I have probably been doing a little too much over the past few weeks - and I am not sleeping well at all.

I'll do ( attempt) a slow long run (18K) on Thursday - then I think nothing until next week which is already planned to be a quiet low mileage rest week.

Anybody here running -- whose sleeping seems to be getting worse rather than better with exercise???

[gary_bart]

Hmm.. I'm finding I have too much energy late at night, and then I wake up with the sun in the morning, try as I do to fall back asleep for just a bit longer. That would add up to bad sleep patterns, but I don't notice the ill effects, somehow.

It could help that I now jam my bed in between the door and the built in cupboard, so that if someone arrives to smash it down, I have enough time to make the phone call that reduces the incident to a limited amount of time. That might sound paranoid, but our next door neighbour died of knife wounds just a few months ago, the neighbours at the back appear to have simply abandoned their house, and our maid was robbed at knifepoint on her way to work this morning (so will have to be picked up at the bus stop from now on, which introduces something of a hijacking risk, just to add to how horrible it is that she's so vulnerable out there). Relevance? Up until the idea of jamming the bed in the gap to win some time if things go wrong, I didn't sleep at all well at night. I went to bed earlier, but would wake up at least a few times every night, and too often ready to fight to the death. Not healthy.

I think once I'm actually passed out, I'm now sleeping better Quality sleep than I have for the last 3 years or so. I don't get in the hours, but I've started dreaming again. So there you go. One yes-and-no to add to the sleep quality report.

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to gary_bart]

Gary - that sounds dreadful!!!!

[gary_bart in reply to Bazza1234]

Strange to say, but you almost get used to it. When I was a kid I don't think we even closed the front door when we went out. I suppose we probably locked it at night, but in the daytime if you went to visit a friend, you just walked there, and walked in. I have friends who emigrated to Australia, whose kids are now growing up the same way.

Mind you, the cost of that safety and security of my childhood is the price we're paying today. They swept crime problems under the carpet by utterly neglecting the townships, and that's where the serpents were hatched. It's just a pity nothing has been done about it in the last few years where there was the golden opportunity to start doing things right instead of messing everything up in brand new ways. Anyway, our problem. We just have to wait until enough people realise that this is the number one obstacle to this place having the future it could have.

[Ullyrunner Graduate in reply to gary_bart]

Gary, how awful. We live in a very quiet and law abiding rural village but surprised a burglar attempting to break in after our car keys 3 years ago. It took me a long time not to wake at every small sound for months after. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have to fear for your life. Stay safe.

[gary_bart in reply to Ullyrunner]

Thanks. As I said to Bazza, above, you almost get used to it if the problem is constant enough. Unfortunately what happens is you even get jaded. Today an alarm went off loud enough to be nearby, and I really had to force myself to go and look to see if anyone was in trouble/ anyone was running or hiding within view.

The worst we've had here is standing by in the kitchen with big sticks, watching a probably drugged teenager throwing himself at our kitchen door. He'd tried to force the locks, broke the steel gate's lock, but failed to do the same with the lock of the wooden door. The alarm was going, we were standing ready to hit him on the head if he got in, anyway (since a teenager can stab you to death as well as an adult can), the cops were on their way, and there he was, still attacking the door. It was almost like something out of a zombie movie.

The one teenager attacking the door like that is not as harmless as it might seem. The juvenile justice system in this country is just about non-existent, so gangs will use minors to do things like the actual break-ins, where there's a better chance of detection. Once the break in is complete, the big guys arrive.

But anyway, you almost get used to it. The thing to take away from what's happened here is that crime is always serious; a law-abiding culture is a precondition for a decent life. When crime happens near you, you want to know about it, and you want to be asking what's being done about it. And most of that is simply just maintaining a standard/ the right kinds of expectations. Soft on crime is the same as anti-quality-of-life. I remember being very amused at how people in Switzerland would wait for the light to turn green before crossing, even if there was no traffic, and how angry they would get at people just making up their own rules for safely crossing the road. Now I get it. Rather that than all the little tendencies toward anarchy that have always been a part of this country. That's another of the ways in which one can process this as simply "getting what you deserve".

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

Bazza,

The fact that I am writing this at 3.30am will give you a clue to my poor sleeping patterns! I don't think it's got worse since running but it definitely hasn't improved. I can usually get enough hours but nearly always have a waking patch in the early hours. I'm lucky that retirement means I can sleep in if I need to make up my sleep. I tend to think it's an age thing.

I spent all my working years feeling sleep deprived - first as a Mum to young children, wife to a snorer and then travelling and staying away with the job. I ended up in a job that required me to get up at 5.15am each day, when my preference is for about three hours later! So I just try to go with the flow these days and don't let it worry me.

I hope you can resolve your sleep problem soon.