New Years Resolutions: 2011

As I have stated before I'm not much for new years resolutions, mostly because I don't really think you need to wait for the new year to make changes in your life that will improve it. It is important to always trying to make changes for the better. That being said here are some of the things that I want to work on in the new year.

1. Get Less Sleep
Yes, that's right I want to try and sleep less in the new year and in subsequent years. Personally I hate the thought of spending 1/3 of my life lying in a bed unconscious and I have heard of many different people being able to sleep significantly less than the average person and still feel rested and be productive. Some examples are Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Dean Karazes(famous ultrarunner). From what I have been reading about people like these and from some of my own experiences, I believe that I can get as little as 4 hours of sleep a night and still be rested and very much functional, mentally and physically. I have heard of people going off as little as 2 hours but I feel that working my way to 4 hours of sleep is the most practical for me.

The reason why I believe that I need only 4 hours is that I currently get about 6-7 hours on average and feel just fine and again there are examples of people getting only 2 hours. Plus Dean Karnazes only gets 4 hours of sleep a night and he runs far more than I do and has a wife, kids and runs his own business, so if he can get by on 4 than so can I. I will do a separate post on how I plan to do this and why I believe I can still thrive on nearly half the recommended amount of sleep. Stay tuned...


2. Train smarter
Timothy Ferris is the author of the 4-Hour Work Week and 4-Hour Body, both of which I highly recommend, he is a remarkably productive person probably best known as a productivity guru. He basically tries to deconstruct activities or skills such as language learning, swimming, even sleeping, and yes distance running. Though I am not really going to use any of Tim's direct advice for my running, due to the fact that he is more focused on simply finishing endurance events I want to win them, I am more than intrigued at his approach to improving whatever craft or skill he tries to master. So this year its smarter nor harder. I have already been doing a lot of indoor cycling and started to try some yoga classes, so this might be a year of experimenting too.

3. Run 100 Miles
That's it just run 100 miles at one crack.

4. Drink More Red Wine.
I've heard it can make you live longer, and it tastes great.


These all seem pretty doable. The only problem is that #2 will be hard to define but I think that as long as it is a constant focus on quality training is maintained it shouldn't be a problem.