How Much Sleep Do You REALLY Need When Training for a Marathon?

So I am halfway to my 26.2 mile goal. I’ve done the one 13 miler and plan to do 11 – 13 this weekend, Saturday, and then definitely begin at 13 the following weekend and build from there.

In the meantime, I am swamped with work right now. I’m completing 4 websites, a copy job, a logo and my other regular articles for Body Philosophy, All Business, Families, Style Chicago and Today’s BusinessMom (Shew, typing that out was about as long as my days are!)

And of course I am staying up until midnight to work, then waking at 5 to run.

I’m wondering just how much sleep I really need to train for this race!

I read in a training manual that when training for a marathon the runner should have about 7-8 hours per night. Ha! I have gotten more than five hours in a row one night, which was during our vacation this past weekend, and only because my infant was sick and slept the night through-from 7-7.

I was so rested that I was tired the rest of the day!

I talked to my husband about this. I asked him if he felt tired when he got more sleep and he said yes. I think our bodies learn to survive on minimum sleep and then we overdrug ourselves by sleeping longer than normal.

I have a lot of work to do tonight. My 4 1/2 mile run is in the morning.  Will be interesting to see just how much sleep I get tonight and how the run goes.

But I know I’m not alone. I don’t know one mother that averages 7-8 hours of sleep per night!

Maybe I’ll call myself Sleepy Mama Marathoner. I’ll run the race in my PJs. Everyone would understand!

Happy Running Marathon Moms!