While it could have some deeper meaning, today, this truly just means “getting one’s posterior out of bed”.
You see, we are not morning people, by any stretch of the imagination. If left to our own devices, we would happily go to bed in the wee hours of the morning and sleep until noon. When our schedules relax (as in, offseason in November and December and for really real over Holiday break), we tend to trend later and later until something corrects the situation.
Winter doesn’t help things as it’s the got the trifecta of causes of “wanna-stay-in-bed-itis”:
- It’s cold and rains more
- It’s dark later in the morning
- Tri season is far away
It’s not all a bad thing to roll our sleep schedule a bit later to enjoy some morning R&R during off and during lighter training, but as spring approaches, so does tri season, heavier training load, and those warmer and longer days, so it’s time to start inching that alarm clock earlier and hitting snooze a little less.
To give you perspective – 8:30am is about go time for us on weekday mornings now (includes 30-45 mins morning training about twice a week, the other days we go right to work). By summer, we’ll be up by sunrise most mornings, and 7:30 or 8 will be sleeping in. It doesn’t sound like a huge shift, but right now, sunrise is just about the middle of the night and those precious morning snooze minutes are like HOURS at other times for me so it will take some doing.
How will we do this?
- Well, a lot of it is just *doing* it. Committing to two weeks of getting up a bit earlier on the weekdays. I’ve been through this before and Week 1 just sucks, but by the time the end of Week 2 rolls around, it’s just routine.
- A little bit at a time. This week, we’re trying to get us up around 8. We’ll acclimate and then see about earlier. It takes a lot more than 2 weeks (for me, at least) to acclimate to more than 30 mins earlier, and I’m a freaking zombie while doing it, so we certainly don’t want to be ripping band aids off here.
- Obviously, going to bed earlier is key. During the summer, I’m in bed around 9:30pm. Lately it’s been more like 11pm (and I’m asleep about an hour after that and gotta get my 8). If you can’t fall asleep – here’s the crappy part – see rule 1. Just do it. A day or two of being tired will get you asleep early right quick (usually).
- In the mornings when I want to snooze, I try to think about what performing well at my next race and progressing means to me. I know that any one workout will not make or break my training, but consistency is key. That usually gets me out of bed.
- On workout mornings, I stuff a Sunrise Energy bar in my face with my eyes closed laying in bed (or whatever my fuel of choice is for the day). Today I actually would have probably slept through my alarm if I didn’t have good carbs coursing through my body.
- Anything I can have ready to go (clothes laid out, food packed or set out, bike set up on trainer, gym bag packed, etc) is helpful, so I can eek every moment out of that snooze button possible. If I don’t have to get up early, I certainly am not doing it for fun!
However, some mornings you may get up and feel abnormally sore, cranky, tired, or down. Then you have a judgment call to make.
- Can you reschedule without screwing up your week? If it’s just a matter of training after work instead of before, that’s usually a no-brainer. If you’ve already got a lunch workout on the schedule and plans right after work, it may be harder and you may have to consider the next point.
- Is training today going to be detrimental to your overall and long term mental and physical well being? Sometimes it just takes a little bit to get going, and most of the time, you’ll feel GREAT after the session. However, sometimes you just may be worn so thin mentally or so physically sore and tired that you feel like you might injure yourself or break down. In that case, abort. Reschedule if you can, scratch it if you can’t.
- These calls get easier the longer and more consistently you train and get to know your body. It’s better to err on the side of caution but if you do find yourself missing a lot of training, you might want to try to figure out what’s wrong and resolve that, or just buck up and do it, and see how you feel. You might find that when you THOUGHT it would be dire to train, you actually feel much better when you get up and do it. Some days it might just mean shortening the duration or lightening the intensity rather than just skipping it.
While they were few and far between (maybe 1 out of every… 100 workouts), I certainly had some days last year during peak where I dragged myself out of bed, looked in the mirror, and said, “Aw, heck no” and went right back to bed. There is no guilt or shame in taking care of yourself.
For us, we are going to make a goal to be as well-rested as possible with everything going on this week. The house cleaning can wait, the laundry will just stay in the basket, and My Fit Foods can prepare the meals. We just need to focus on work, training, Scuba classes, and getting our rest and let the rest of it fall to the wayside until we’re done.
Monday question: What time do you wake up? How many hours of sleep do you get per night?
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