getting sleep 2 nights before the race is BS

I know everyone says two nights before is more important, but I had to run a race one time after only getting 3 hours of sleep the night before and it was REALLY bad. I think I'd rather pull an all nighter 2 days before and sleep 12 hours the night before the race than vice versa.

Speaking from personal experience, the night before the race is most important... not 2 nights prior.

didn't ryan hall run his half marathon AR in Houston off like 4 hours sleep? I thought there was a story about that somewhere. Apparently the night before the race was a total disaster in every way. That's what I heard.

I believe there are more factors than meet the eye. Training, rest the last month, state of health, age, and can you think of more?....

Apples Oranges wrote:

I believe there are more factors than meet the eye. Training, rest the last month, state of health, age, and can you think of more?....

No doubt there are. I think the OP was just referring to sleep the night or two before a race though, so I'll stick with that.

In my experience the night two nights before is a bit more important than the night before. I often find after a night with little or interrupted sleep that I'm fine the next day but tend to struggle the day after.

Timing of sleep is important too. I had one race earlier this year after having to work until 1am for two days in a row before (the race was at 1.15pm, ~12hrs after finishing the 2nd late shift). Even though I got enough hours sleep (~8), my body clock was thrown out and the race was poor.

The reason they say get a good sleep 2 nights before is because sometimes athletes are restless, nervous or excited the night before.

It is insurance, not magic.

The reason they say get a good sleep 2 nights before is because sometimes athletes are restless, nervous or excited the night before.

It is insurance, not magic.

Why the hell that link is in there i don't know

Who the hell is this Gina Coloda broad anyway?

Is she the official voice of the 5 hour marathon runner or something? She's been responsible for some of the shittiest running articles I've ever seen.

Actually the site fit in with another factor, diet. I am in to factors simply because there are more than one answer to most questions.

"Many tell athletes that what really matters is a good long sleep two nights before the event. But Dr. Michael Joyner, an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic, said that is an old wives’ tale with no data to support it"

Should rather be "with no data that I am aware of to support it"

They have actually done studies on this here in Norway. What they found out was that performance was not effected by one night without proper sleep, but two nights gave a marked effect on performace. That should support the idea of getting good sleep two nights before as one rarely sleeps really well the day before.

Marius

thank you marius. it is always nice to have an intelligent experienced comment by someone we know and respect rather than anonymus trolling.

Marius wrote:

They have actually done studies on this here in Norway. What they found out was that performance was not effected by one night without proper sleep, but two nights gave a marked effect on performace. That should support the idea of getting good sleep two nights before as one rarely sleeps really well the day before.

Marius

Could you post the study?

I believe it is. My HS coach (who won an event at Penn Relays - i.e. he was fast, not just a hobbyjogger) strongly encouraged it since it's more important.

Anecdotally, I race best if I run 3 2 days before and 4 the day before. Hitting low mileage freshens your legs

As someone who chronically can’t sleep the night before a race (anxiety/excitement + already having issues with insomnia = I don’t even get tired) I think the 2 nights before rule seems to work for me. That or I chronically underperform and have been in national class shape at points in my life. I think it’s moreso that 1 night without proper sleep doesn’t disrupt your body/brain function too much but 2+ nights of sleep loss will. I unwillingly get to experiment with this due to my sleep condition, and I find a sleepless night (0-4 hours) is completely inconsequential if I got good sleep the night before and the night after, but 2-3 days in a row will wreck me in training for up to a week.