Yeah I hear you! As you can see I didn’t exactly “nail it”!
@dprofis I’m no nutritional guru but I like to eat later in the day prior to attempting SS or zone 4+ workouts. My last meal tends to be around 8 p.m and I seem to carry over enough fuel for those workouts.
Good luck 
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@veloaccro you may be right, I actually ate at 9M last night and may have been fine but the ride kinda scared me, may have been more mental!!!
Go with the late fuelling strategy and see where it takes you, good luck with your next workout.
I found this thread interesting …
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in bed by 2145. everything ready to go night before. get up fix coffee and banana while i change. stretch and do some body weight leg stuff for 2-3 minutes to loosen them up. That really helps with the lethargic feeling in my legs. all this starts at 0500 for me. consistently do this and you will get used to it.
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Bumping this: I do early morning workouts because of my schedule/family obligations etc. Also, try as hard as I can, it’s very difficult for me to be in bed before 10 pm (because of those same obligations.)
My question concerns sleep: if I have to make a choice between getting inadequate sleep vs. skipping a workout, say one of the low intensity fillers like boarstone, which is preferable?
Let’s assume motivation and willpower to get up early isn’t a problem (army training never really goes away.)
I ask because I’ve read a few articles/podcasts recently about how critical adequate sleep is and how much long term damage we can do with sleep deprivation. So now I’m mind-f*#$&@ myself about whether I should get up early or not.
On days when I get up early I’ll get between 5-5.5 hours, otherwise I’ll get 6.5-7 hours.
Lately I’ve been trying to split the difference and make sure I got the high intensity days but skip the low intensity stuff if I’m feeling inadequately rested.
I just finished a base and build and started the high volume century plan, training for a gravel double century in June that I’ve done a few times… I can do it with 7-10 hours of training per week, based on past experience.
Thanks
I would never skip sleep - it’s the foundation of everything!
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Are those obligations things you really can’t influence? Or find a way to work around?
I wouldn’t skip sleep, but shorten or skip the training you’ve got planned.
But it totally depens on how many hours of sleep you need to feel good. I know people who can perform perfectly on just 4 hours of sleep, and others who need 9+ hours. Find what your body needs and make sure you get that.
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This was an issue for me as well. I went through a period in my 30’s when I decided I needed to learn how to play ice hockey. The hockey was fun, but ice time was all late at night, and I would get home and be too wired to sleep. Thus I do as many of my bike or running workouts early in the morning.
Love to do early morning workout. It give me enough energy to stay refreshed and active for the all day.
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as for drinking hot coffe and being hot…i was having the same issue and now switched to cold brew…not only is faster to drink but im a tad cooler
i also have started eating a big bowl of oatmeal before bed at 10pm and it seems to be helping me in my 5am ride…any do any similar carb back loading
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I get up earlier at 4:30am and make coffee and drink water so that I can use the bathroom before the intervals start; I also like that 1h to get emails and other misc tasks done before I hit the workout. Then I’m done at 7am and the day feels very accomplished!
Brendan EVOQ.BIKE
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Agreed. I put my alarm on the other side of the room, so I have to get up to turn it off.
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If you have a really terrible night for sleep, (partner rolling around, kids waking you up, that sort of thing), do you still get up and do the workout? If so, does it affect the quality of the workout?
Last night I went to bed late, slept really badly, and my daughter woke me up about 3am! When the alarm went off at 5:30 I really didn’t want to get up and do a workout. I compromised, hit snooze (only 10 minutes) and did a 45 minute version of Ericson (instead of 1 hour) - it felt loads harder than that workout should and I felt quite queasy for a chunk of it. I want to ride on Friday (shake down of new wheels and race prep for Sunday), so I didn’t want to push todays workout to tomorrow, but I’m wondering if there’s a better way…
in my experience… no, there’s not really a way to make it easier on those bad days.
However, it depends on where you are on the fatigue spectrum. If you’re already pretty fatigued, just sleeping in and calling it a day is perfectly fine and will make the next day more productive.
Nope. I don’t. I recently started doing workouts at 05:00/05:30. But if I don’t fall asleep within 10 minutes when I go to bed at 21:30 then I re-schedule and do it later in the day instead. Has only happened once though.
If I really feel like I can’t do it in the morning, I’ll do it in the evening as a backup plan.
I try to go to the gym twice a week at 6:40 am. My alarm goes off that 5:50 am and I take the train at 6:29 am. The only thing I do besides the obvious bathroom activities is eating a bowl of oats (100 g), whey protein (30 g), cacao (sugar free, 5 g) and berries (frozen, 100 g) with hot water.
Did my first early morning (well first TrainerRoad) workout this morning - Mount Field. I was up at 5am, had got my bibshorts and socks ready to go (trainer is inside the house so don’t bother with a top - too hot and no one to see me!). I had made a cold milky coffee last night ready to drink (I just forgot the sugar) and ate a banana during the warm up. Didn’t have any issues with the workout and was don’t by 6.10am and at work by 7am so a pretty good way to start the day.
I have always done workouts in the evenings before but it can be hard to find motiviation after a long day! Seemed to work well so looking forward to the next one.
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