Personally, I would absolutely make every excuse in the world not to work out after work. Leave work close to 4pm, 35 minute commute. Hungry by time I get home but wouldn’t want to eat before a ride. Make the dogs food, take the dogs to the park, home by 6pm or sometimes close to 7pm. Yes, sleeping in till 4 or 5am would be great but working out at 7pm for an hour to an hour and a half. Then shower, eat and to bed. Figure it would be 9 or later. Lets say 10, that’s 7 hours sleep but your working out exhausted.
Flip side of the coin, bed by 7pm, up by 2am. Half an hour to set up and have coffee, the sleep is gone by then. That’s the first thing you knock out for the day and done. Even bed by 8pm still gives you six hours sleep. What else do you want to do on a work week, watch tv?..
I find it I try to work out past noon, I’m procrastinating. I did that last Sunday when I was suppose to do a 2 hour ride, ended up doing 1 1/2 hour ride, TSS was down for the week cause of that one. Oh, I remember now, I slept in till 4 Sunday, the wife woke the dog up, so I ended up taking the dogs for a walk and worked out later. So many things to do, I cut the ride short. I personally like to get up earlier than the rest of the world, throw on some metal and just burn through a workout.
I’ve spent the last year getting up @ 4:00 and on the trainer by 4:10 on my workout days. Truthfully, I’ve always been a morning person anyway. I have to be @ work by 6:00, so I prepare my lunch and breakfast the night before and always have the bike and kit ready to go. The fewer obstacles in your way, the more likely you are to get the workout in.
Being physically ready to put out that level of effort that early in the morning is largely mental for me. I’ve adjusted to it by “bulletin boarding”.
(insert competitors name here) isn’t up right now crushing his training, so I’m gonna crush him in the next race.
Don’t forget hydration for early morning workouts. I train before work and I would be tired and have to pee frequently on the days I trained. I thought this was just a result of the work I put in… Tried solving it by eating a larger breakfast etc… but turns out I was dehydrated. If drink a bottle of skratch instead of just water on the bike, I feel great all day and don’t have those symptoms.
Noooo! Don’t let one workout that didn’t go the way you wanted it to ruin your whole week. I fall into this trap myself sometimes but have to keep reminding myself that the journey is just one step at a time, one workout at a time. If one doesn’t go to plan, then don’t worry about it, get back on the horse and continue your plan.
Thanks for the kind words. I managed to save the day by doing an 8pm 30min version to get in the other 2x10 intervals that I missed. I felt it today but glad to get it done.
The best thing for me about working out in the morning is that when I go to bed, I am not thinking that the next thing I have to do is go to work, but rather, spend some time doing something I enjoy.
I need to be finished and showered by 06:00, so I reverse plan my weekday rides from there. I make sure everything is set up the night before, I get up 15min before I need to start riding. This gives me time to go to the bathroom, get my kit and shoes on and drink some water, maybe eat a banana if I am really hungry.
I get home from work at 18:30, so then I want to spend time with my wife, we have dinner together and chat about our day and just have quality time together. Go to bed between 20:30 and 21:00, read a bit in bed, then dose off for a good night’s sleep. I initially tried cycling when I get home after work, but I found starting to train at 19:00, results in dinner at between 20:00 and 21:00, no quality time…and then a grumpy wife… not worth it!!
In the morning I can get up and cycle in peace and quiet while she still snoozes away! Happy days for both of us!
For years I rode and trained at night, usually after 9pm. Part of that was naturally being a night person but also living in NYC I had the park to myself mostly so when training was actually happening I had few interruptions.
About 18 months ago I forced my body to accept and adapt to being a morning person. This was mostly to optimize my days but an unexpected side effect was the quality of my riding/training went way up. However it took my body a good 6-7 months to fully adapt to a in bed by 10:30pm and up at 5am daily schedule.
I saw the quality of my riding/training went up for a few reasons;
It’s a quiet time, I can focus on the work I need to do, little to no distractions if I’m outside or on the trainer.
I could control pre and post workout nutrition much better. I always struggled with an upset stomach when riding at 9pm (I get home from the office around 7-7:30 mostly so eating was always a struggle pre late ride). Mornings allow me to generally ride in a fasted state (Always a glass of warm water when I wake up, lately I’ve replaced that with 8oz bone broth though - a banana or on bike nutrition if the ride is over 2 hours). Post ride nutrition is the real win though. My standard morning rides are 60-90mins, which means I’m generally showered and cooking breakfast by 7:30 at the latest. That allows me to really maximize post ride nutrition and timing, it’s been amazing. This was a totally unexpected benefit of the morning thing.
As I said I’m up at 5am, on the bike bu 5:30-6am depending on the ride, eating/coffee by 7:45, still time for some reading/etc, in the office by 9:30… Home from office by 7’ish, dinner and quality time with the wife (no kids) and in bed/asleep between 10:30-11pm. Luckily I figured out years ago my body works best on 6’ish hours of sleep a night, any more or less and I turn into a zombie after a few days.
I have little problem motivating myself to get on the bike, indoor or outdoor. Hot summer morning where I can ride into the sunrise are always special, but even these dark and cold morning this time of year on the trainer are easy to get going. However I do have issue motivating myself for anything not bike/run related…yoga, body-weight/strength training, and meditation are all constant struggles for me in the early AM. I usually need to force myself to get going and it doesn’t get easier.
I maintain this discipline on weekends as well (the key is a constant daily schedule) but since I have more flexibility on weekends I usually push my workouts a little later, unless I’m heading out for 5+ hour rides (I like to be home by noon to have my afternoon free to spend with my wife).
I’d say that forcing my body into a morning person has been one of the best things I’ve done, not only for my cycling/running, but my productivity and marriage (happy wife, happy life right?). it was worth those months of struggle to adapt.
Seconding the daylight clock. I have an overhead light in the bedroom that slowly fades up over the course of 15 minutes (I forgot the brand of bulb), and partway through that I have one of the wake up light alarm clocks start to light up as well. If I’m not awake by then, the clock turns on the radio so NPR voices gently wake me up - no jarring alarms for me.
This is the clock I have, but I think a few companies make them:
I don’t feel like I’m exaggerating when I say that this setup has changed my life. No more groggy mornings, as long as I’ve actually gotten to bed at a reasonable time. The only problem is if you have a partner who’s sensitive to the light and doesn’t want to follow your schedule
Another motivator for the early morning WO’s is that you have a firm deadline. If you have to leave the house by 8 am, you have to start you WO by 5:30 am. The deadline gets me going. At night I would just loll around and find something to fidget with. Like reading this forum.
You all inspired me to give an early morning workout a try again. In the past I’ve thought about it and the night before told myself I’m going to get up and do it. But every morning I pushed it off and said I’ll do it in the evening.
Not this time!
Thanks to all the helpful tips I successfully completed my SSB I (Carson) workout this morning!
I think the most helpful tip for me was getting everything setup the night before. The process of doing this gave me a sense of commitment.
I also setup the 2018 Nové Město XC race to watch on Redbull TV. (SPOILER) Timed it so the sprint finish between Schurter and Cooper was at the end of my last interval. This gave me something to look forward to.
I did find this workout to be harder than I think it should have been. But it was doable. I perform it fasted with only an espresso and water in my bottles. Going to do an anaerobic endurance ride tomorrow morning also fasted.
With my work and home schedule, the morning rides are beneficial, so I’m going to finish SSB I with morning workouts. After that I’ll make a decision of if I should continue with morning workouts.
Thanks to everyone’s advice! I would not have given this another shot without it!
Keep it up you will adjust to it. Brave man doing it fasted I always fuel a lot on my morning rides. Helps keep me going during a long day and not feel like a muppet by lunchtime.
I’ve been doing early morning workouts (running in the past, cycling now) for so long (10+ years) that it is second nature to me now. It’s one of those things that will take a couple, three weeks to get adjusted to.
Just focus on today…don’t worry about tomorrow or next week.
It’s a great feeling getting to work knowing your workout is done for the day.
