Sleeping is my strong suit. I can sleep anywhere. I am not a napper but I basically have two modes, On or Off. I was never one of those kids that stayed up late. As an adult I still sleep a ton. When Bill and I met he was concerned that I might sleep too much. Even when stressed I can sleep like a baby. I average around 9 hours a night sometimes getting even 11! So when the Altitude tent went up I wondered how it would impact my beauty rest.
I can safely say I am still out like a light. In fact, that thing makes me sleep in a coma! Bill woke up yelling at me. Wondering if I had died. I have also been dreaming relentlessly and when I have to go to the bathroom it's a chore to drag myself out of sleep.
We snaked all the tubes in through a small window of our bedroom. The noisy compressor is outside the door. I can't even hear it. The tube that sucks out the air inside the tent and replaces it with less oxygenated air sounds like a heavy breather. No louder than my cat who refuses to get out of the tent! I actually got worried about him. He loves that thing and sleeps like a dead animal in it. I shook him wildly one night just to be sure he was still alive. Alex searched the web to be sure it was safe for animals :).
So far I have been in it 6 nights and am sleeping at 7500 feet. I will move it to 8500 on Sunday after my 6 hour Gorge run this weekend. Besides the coma like sleeping I have noticed a bit of loopyness. Seems I think everything is really funny right now and am busting myself up constantly. Also, my recovery from some weight sessions has not been as quick as it usually is. I have also dropped a bit over a pound in one week. I think that might be water from the frequent bathroom visits. On the forth night I had a mild headache while reading inside it. I don't know if any of this is related to the thin air sleeping but those are some things I am noticing.
Bill and I made a pact when we got married to never purposely sleep apart. The only time we sleep apart is when one of us is out of town. I was feeling really guilty about this but Bill's travel schedule is sort of intense right now. While I am over there feeling guilty he is perched happily in the center of our king sized bed seeming to be in heaven!
As I mentioned on FB, we are sleeping at altitude too as Nathan is running Hardrock. We are up to 9,000 feet and have been sleeping in our "covered wagon" as I call it (as it goes over our queen sized bed) since the beginning of april and have raced 4 times therein. I definitely don't feel as recovered from those races because of the acclimitizing but do notice increased lung capacity and such. I have noticed that my weight dropped about 1-2lbs off my race weight and that my metabolism is roaring! Have fun acclimatizing! We have been doing about 1,000 feet more per week. We have to hang out at the uncomfortable 13,000 for a few weeks before Hardrock! Gulp!
ReplyDeleteI had a client last evening who also sleeps in a "smaller variation" of this thing. His wife said it's really loud, and they, too, plan to take tubings and compressor out.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are picking up the seriousness of your summer prep!
Oh, the beauty of 9 hrs of sleep...or 8...had escaped my life. When I hot 7, it's a celebration. I do believe 8 should be the minimum for any adult, and really don't like when some say it's too much of extra. Best immune defense (not to mention training recovery). I just wish for times I can plan it in...once my son is out of the house:)