Make me a morning person!

Giant Phil

Howdy

Kinda getting abit peeeed off with miself as of late, as my inability to get up early to go training with mi mate, who is a mega morning person, gets increasingly worse. Its not just to go training with mates either, it would be great for packing training in around busy scedules. However, my early morning ride plan usually morphs into an 11am lie in, without much imput on my semi concious behalf.

Any tips for getting ones sorry arse out of bed and into the saddle in the mornings? And if you feel a slightly slaggy comment comming, feel free, could probably do with it as well!

Ta, Phil

sods_law

I would love to be able to ride in the mornings, but i get up at 6am for work as it is :?

May sound obvious, but go to bed earlier. If your in bed by 10, no reason for you to not be up at 6am to go riding. If you really have the desire to do it, then your willpower will do the rest...

smithy1.0

Go to bed earlier. Cut down on the caffiene - limit it to am only. Don't overeat in the evening.

Anonymous

I get on the bike at 0430 when I ride in to work on a day shift as it starts at 0600. You are still in a catatonic state when you get one but feel great at the end.

But yes, bed earlier, cut out the caffeine...

GavH

I too cannot do early mornings, staying in bed always wins out. When I have done it though it's usually for long rides, as I convince myself that I'll have more of the day to myself and the traffic will be less. Both good reasons for training early but I'll be damned if I can manage it regularly!!

DaSy

I get up at 0500hrs, Tuesday to Thursday, for a couple of hours training starting at 0600hrs.

I just set the alarm, then when it goes off, get straight out of bed, make coffe, get kitted up and out of the door. An hour from waking to riding gives me enough time to get my sh!t together.

I think you've just got to want to do it, don't p!ss about with the snooze button, just get up. You've got to do it at some point, so may as well be early enough to allow you to get some bike time in before the purgatory of work begins.

brownbosh

MTFU.

hopper1

Move your alarm clock to the far side of the room, so you have to get up to silence it!
DO NOT return to your bed... just grab a quick snack, have a coffee (without sitting!), chuck your kit on and go train! :shock:
It is that simple
I'm very much a morning person. To me, staying in bed is just wasting the day...

Training in the morning is easy... If you want to!

synchronicity

I read in the book of "long distance cycling" the following tip which helps me get out of bed whether it be for a road or DH MTB ride.

Prepare all your kit the night before.

Pick out your clothes including gloves, socks, sunglasses. Then leave that stuff where you would normally get changed (I assume in the bedroom?).

Also fill your bottles the night before & get your helmet & shoes ready. Along with energy bars & tools required (tubes, multitool, tyre levers and pump). It helps if you have storage box to keep everything together.

Even choose the breakfast you're going to eat.

Above all, make sure your bike is in 100% working order.

vorsprung

I am not a natural morning person but I have been fine getting up to train

I have to agree that the way to go is to prepare all your kit the night before. Don't think just throw your clothes on and leave. If you need breakfast before you go make it simple and instant. If you can just take a bottle of energy drink with you instead of breakfast

The main trick is to not have to think about anything, JFDI and go

ride_whenever

it's just a case of practice. get up and go!

Aggieboy

Giant Phil wrote:

Any tips for getting ones sorry ars* out of bed and into the saddle in the mornings? And if you feel a slightly slaggy comment comming, feel free, could probably do with it as well!

Ta, Phil

I get my 8 year old daughter up for one of her swimming training sessions at 5am for a 1 1\2 hour session (once a week admittedly). If she can do it,so can you!

'Slaggy comment' over.

LittleB0b

synchronicity wrote:

Prepare all your kit the night before.

^wot they said.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

As a Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferer, I know all about bad mornings! Two things I use which could help anyone wake easier:-
Sunset/sunrise alarm clock (30 mins of gradual light change before alarm time)
A quality, low cost lightbox eg. Lumie Brightspark used for ~20mins during your first caffeine of the day

biondino

I'm loving the dichotomy here - it's either post-11am or pre-6am! Perhaps OP would rather we gave him slightly longer in bed, and he can come to a compromise with his training buddy. I personally consider anything before 9am as early, but if I leave the house at 8.30, say, I've still more than likely got my seven hours' sleep. And most normal people are still in bed so it's a lot quieter, even if not 5am quiet.

Obviously this is just the weekend or non-work days - but if OP can lie in till 11am then I reckon that's the same for him!