This summer, while I was using AI to help me sort out my food situation, something unexpected happened — we started talking about CNS load. And once that door opened, it changed how I looked at my entire schedule. I realized that the thing I was actually trying to solve wasn’t just food, or travel, or fatigue — it was the weight my nervous system was carrying underneath all of it.
The past few months, I’ve been learning how to see that load more clearly.
What Summer Taught Me About Surviving My Schedule
This summer pushed my schedule harder than usual — long coaching days, stacked sessions, heat, travel, transitions, and the kind of “life load” that doesn’t show up on a training plan but absolutely shows up in your body. I had to figure out how to survive it without burning out, and the thing that kept coming up over and over was CNS load.
Your central nervous system responds to everything: stress, sleep, transitions, decision-making, emotional load, physical fatigue, and even how chaotic your day feels. This summer forced me to pay attention to all of it — not just the training side.
One of the biggest lessons was learning to look at two sides of sleep:
– How well I slept
– Whether I was even ready for sleep in the first place
Those are not the same thing, and once I started separating them, everything made more sense.
What Goes Into CNS Load
– Life load — stress, transitions, decision fatigue, emotional weight
– Training load — intensity, volume, recovery gaps
– Environmental load — heat, travel, noise, unpredictability
– Schedule load — stacked days, no buffer time, constant “go”
– Sleep debt — even small deficits add up fast
This summer, all of those were happening at once — which meant my CNS was carrying more than my workouts alone could explain.
Variables I Look At to Understand “How Good I Slept”
– Sleep duration — how long I was actually asleep
– Sleep efficiency — how much of the night was real sleep
– Restlessness — how often my body was fighting the night
– Heart rate patterns — did my system settle or stay elevated
– Recovery markers — did my body shift into repair mode
– Smartwatch data — having a device that tracks sleep stages, HR, HRV, and movement has been essential. It gives me objective markers to compare against how I *felt*, and helps me see patterns I would never notice on my own.
These gave me a picture of the quality of the sleep I got — not just the hours.
Quantity vs. Quality — They’re Not the Same Thing
There’s a difference between how long you sleep and how well you sleep. We talk about “8 hours” like it’s a magic number, but what actually matters is your sleep architecture — the balance of deep sleep, REM, and stable light sleep that lets your nervous system repair itself.
If the architecture is solid, you don’t always need a full eight hours. A shorter night with strong deep and REM can leave you more recovered than a long night full of restlessness, elevated heart rate, or fragmented cycles.
Quality is the real driver of recovery. Quantity only matters if the quality is missing.
Variables I Look At to Understand “Am I Ready for Sleep?”
– Evening stress — was my system still buzzing
– Heart rate stability — did my body feel settled
– CNS quieting — did I actually downshift
– Mental load — was my brain still processing the day
– Transition time — did I give myself a buffer or crash straight into bed
– Body temperature — this one surprised me. On nights when I coached late, my core temperature stayed elevated for hours. Even if I felt tired, my body wasn’t physiologically ready for sleep yet. I had to cool down first — literally — before my nervous system could shift into parasympathetic mode.
I learned quickly that if I wasn’t ready for sleep, the sleep itself wasn’t going to be good — no matter how tired I felt.
The Heart of the Message
This summer taught me that CNS load is the real story behind energy, mood, recovery, and performance. When life gets heavy, your nervous system carries it. When you support it, everything else gets easier.
There’s one more piece of this season that deserves its own space.
RIP Allister
Allister passed away the 2nd night I was away in Spain. I posted a memorial on Facebook, and I’ve created its own page if you would like to read.
Triathlon Worlds in Spain with Stephanie
Spain wasn’t a vacation; it was Worlds. And Worlds came with noise — real noise. The only way I could keep my room cool enough to sleep was to crack the window, and that meant every car that went by sounded like it was driving straight through the room. The city didn’t quiet down until 1:00 a.m., so falling asleep was a whole process.
Sleep was definitely compromised. I’d lie there waiting for the noise to drop off, waiting for my system to settle, waiting for my body to finally give in. But once I did fall asleep, my sleep architecture held. Deep sleep showed up. REM showed up. My nervous system still managed to repair itself even though the conditions were far from ideal.
And then there was the coffee — bitter, every single morning. I tried different ratios, different water temps, different timing, and it was still bitter. It became part of the rhythm of the week: wake up, navigate the noise hangover, sip the bitter coffee, get moving. But by the last day, I finally figured out how to make it manageable. Not great, but drinkable. A small victory in a week that demanded a lot of improvisation.
Thankfully, Stephanie’s races weren’t at dawn. Her Sprint was in the afternoon, and her Standard was late morning — not leisurely, but at least not the crack-of-ridiculous that would’ve made the sleep deficit a bigger problem. That timing gave us both a little margin to wake up slowly instead of jolting into the day.
The rest of the week was movement — but not “walks.” There was one actual walk, and that was it. Everything else was coaching movement: getting to the venue, the swim start, navigating crowds, finding the right gate, doubling back because Worlds is big, weaving through athletes and spectators, and hustling from one location to the next. It was 20,000-step days built out of logistics, not leisure. Well, okay, my last morning there was a 2nd leisurely coastal walk with Stephanie, rehashing the week, the experience.
Most mornings started with coffee and a slow settling of my nervous system. We had recovery days at just the right time. Team USA keeps their athletes busy! We both walked in the Parade of Nations on Wednesday, She had the Sprint on Thursday and the Standard on Saturday.
Stephanie raced with the steadiness she’s been building over years of training. She handled the hilly course, the noise, the pressure, the 2 races, and the sleep disruption. She executed well, stayed composed, and walked away proud of how she showed up on a global stage.
- In the Sprint distance, she finished 26th overall, 7th for Team USA.
- In the Standard distance, she improved: 21st overall, and 5th for Team USA.
My two racing rules showed up in real time:
Rule #1: Have fun. She genuinely did. Even in the chaos of Worlds, she stayed loose, stayed connected, stayed in the moment. Here’s a photo – my favorite and hers – that shows this.
Rule #2: It’s going to hurt, you may as well enjoy it. She lived both of these rules out there.
We now have an updated training plan for her to move forward. Nationals 2027 is the next big event, and qualifying for Worlds again.
I came home with a clearer sense of how my own body handles load — not just physical load, but the nervous-system kind. The kind that comes from noise, unpredictability, heat, responsibility, and compromised sleep. Spain taught me that pacing isn’t just about training; it’s about life. And that rhythm — the way I balanced movement, rest, noise, and timing — is what made the week doable.
Still with me? Studio stuff coming!
Studio hours thru October 24:
- Tuesday: 10:00–3:00 –Taylor
- Wednesday: 12:00–4:00 – Austin
- Thursday: 11:00–3:00 – Taylor
- Friday: 10:00–1:30 – Taylor
Studio hours after October 24 (Tuesday & Thursday change)
- Tuesday: 11:00–4:00 – Taylor
- Wednesday: 12:00–4:00 – Austin
- Thursday: 11:00–4:00 – Taylor
- Friday: 10:00–1:30 – Taylor
Group Fun
- Taylor Track Time: Tuesday & Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Memorial Field in Taylor.
- Pilates & More: Friday at 8:30 a.m. In‑person and virtual options available.
Available Appointments
Taylor
- Tuesday, 10/20 @ 1015a
- Thursday, 10/22, 1215p
Austin
- nothing in the near future
- Yes, I know I dropped Tuesdays in Austin. The advantage of coming to Taylor: you can more easily book a 90 min session!
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