So for the past week or so, I've been giving more and more thought to early morning workouts. As it stands now, I've been getting up at 5 am on Mondays & Fridays (and sometimes Wednesdays) to work out so I won't have to worry about it after work and can actually enjoy my evenings.
Before I started doing this, I fought the idea really hard because I'm just not a morning person, at all. And for a while, I was trying to fight my natural sleep pattern. I've tried so hard for the past couple of years to try to get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep every night, but you know what? My body just isn't cut out for that. It likes to cap out at about 6 hours. And I'm actually ok with that, finally. I think any complaints I've had of tiredness were mostly psychological. Most days, I'm actually pretty well rested. I avoided morning workouts because I thought I would be tired at that hour (and I am a little, during those first few minutes out of bed), but I'm pretty much ready to go. In fact, I'm a little more alert by the time I get to work around 8 am. And if not, it's nothing a little coffee or green tea can't handle.
And lately, I've been dreading my post-work exercise plans more and more. I'm so mentally drained from work (whether it's busy or dead-slow), that I reeeeally have to pump myself up to either drive to the gym afterward or pop in a DVD when I get home. At 5 pm, I just want my day to be over and it gives me kind of a bad attitude toward working out when I know it'll be closer to 7pm by the time I'm home, changed and have dinner on the table. Some days I try to leave work early just for the sole purpose of getting to the gym earlier (and thus getting home earlier), but I can't do that every week.
SO, my point here is, I think I'm going to try and commit to just getting up early every morning (weekends excluded, of course) and working out, either at the gym or at home, before heading to the ol' job.
I used to think that I would have to get up even earlier (like 4:30 or so) in order to make it to the gym and back and still make it to work on time, but I don't think that will really be an issue anymore (it was probably more of an excuse than an actual issue, to be perfectly honest). I just did some estimating in my head and I can still get up no earlier than 5, make it to the gym (less traffic at that time too), get about 40-60 minutes in and still make it home by about 6:20 more or less. Really, all I need to do is make my lunch/snacks and maybe pick out/iron my clothes for work the night before. With that stuff out of the way, I should still have plenty of time to get ready. Plus I recently chopped off my hair, so that saves me 15 minutes already, heh.
It feels like kind of a "duh!" moment, but I suppose it's better late than never. When I'm up that early, there's really no time for me to dread much, heh. And I've never been the type to hit the snooze and go back to sleep; once I'm up, I'm up. And the past few weeks, I've gotten pretty used to it.
So tomorrow, the plan is to head to the gym for more incline training (I kind of struggled with it last night since I hadn't done it in a while). Still not sure about Friday... I suppose a run on the trail will be in order, but with a light this time so I don't freak out in the dark, heh.
I still want to do some P90X, but I think I'll save that for the weekend at this point.
3 comments:
YAY! I am not the only loonie getting up that early every morning to work out. Welcome to my world.. I can't even imagine going to the gym after work anymore. I have my routine, my morning gym friends (& boyfriend.. ok not really my boyfriend, I just find this guy really attractive, and I don't think hubby would approve!).
I am excited to hear how your first week goes.. what time do you go to bed and what time do you usually fall asleep? give or take.
I'm usually in bed between 10/10:30 and fall asleep between 10:45/11. I know staying up til 11 and waking up at 5 sounds crazy, but if I try to go to bed any earlier, I'll wake up at like 3 or 4 and won't really fall back asleep.
I'm in a much better mood when I get home on the days I work out in the morning, where as I'm more bitchy on the days I wait until after work, heh. I figured I might as well just get more out of my day by getting up an hour earlier. It makes life so much easier.
I think you are losing it, lol. I workout before work two days a week I couldn't imagine five but if like you said, you don't sleep more than 6 hours you should be fine!
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