Twelve hours of sleep?

My last post was last Wednesday morning. I was tired and sore when I woke up that day, which I expected after one of my hardest skiing days in quite a while. But, regretfully, something else was going on as well. It became apparent during the day on Wednesday that I was coming down with a cold. I've had a really rough winter - worse than many recent winters, in terms of illness. I feel like I haven't really been 100% since about Thanksgiving.

There is no doubt that my winter-time schedule of working five days per week in the office and then teaching skiing all weekend, every weekend, is taxing. I've had a few nights recently where I've awakened during the night, and I found myself wondering which job I would be doing in the morning. That's kind of a weird feeling, to be in a haze and wondering what day it is.

Since the first of the year, I've had two days where I didn't ski or work my day job. Those two days were sick days, spending a weekend on the couch because I was too sick to teach skiing.

I don't mean to complain here; I choose this lifestyle because I love teaching skiing. Plus, I need a "real" job to pay the bills, and I really do love my job during the week. But, it is physically and mentally demanding at times, and I can get pretty worn down over the winter. This winter just seems to have been worse than some recent years. Perhaps it's because I entered this winter less fit and a bit "heavier" than in recent years, and maybe my advancing age is a factor as well.

The cold turned out to be relatively mild, and by Saturday morning, I was feeling better. I wasn't 100%, but I felt good enough to teach skiing. We had a great weekend on the snow - two beautiful sunny days with above-freezing temperatures. I love spring skiing, although it seems a bit early in arriving this year. It would be nice to get one or two more snowstorms so the mountain snowpack will make it through April. But, rather than worry about that, I just enjoyed the weekend. We skied some hard terrain through the weekend, and it was fun as usual. My group of girls seemed a bit wild this weekend. I blamed it on the weather, but I was concerned by how poorly they were listening to me at times this weekend. I think the season wears on them as well - spending sixteen straight weekends on the snow with the same instructor has to get a bit old after a while.

When I got home last night, I was beat. I just sat on the couch, staring at the TV. For the second day in a row, I didn't even have a beer when I got home from skiing. By a little after 6:00 p.m. last night, I was dozing on the couch. At 6:45, I headed to the bedroom to rest for a while. I "rested" until 6:45 this morning - a solid 12 hours of sleep.

I feel great this morning for the first time in a while.

I still have a huge amount of work to do at my regular job, but that's part of working for a start-up company that is constantly undergoing change. I have three weekends of instruction left in my ski season. After that, I can ski as little or as much as I want on the weekends, but it won't be work. And by then, I can choose to spend a day running rather than skiing if I want.

I'm not looking forward to the end of ski season, but perhaps I am looking forward to a slightly less intense 7-day workweek in the near future.

Tonight, I'm going to go for an outdoor run after work - easy pace and just for fun.