How to get up at 5am to workout

Some of you reading this post are triathletes, so you are thinking, great! this post could be useful.  For the rest of you, yes, I just confirmed that we ARE that crazy.  ;)

There are those out there who have no problem getting up and getting out there at this hour.  (I hate you all).  I am not one of those people.  I am a night owl.  Always have been.  My mind and body don't like me much when I don't sleep till at least 7.  And the older I get, the more I seem to need a half hour in bed after the alarm before I can actually get up. In the past, of course, I have managed to do it, and often for years at a time.  Still could never get used to it.  Even Topaz this morning looked at me as I turned on the light and said in his non-verbal cat kind of way, 'are you out of your freaking mind? it's 0-dark-thirty..I'm going back to sleep'.  At least he didn't growl at me.

Anyway, I digress.  So how do you manage it if you aren't naturally 'gifted' to get up early? Especially as you try to get into the initial habit?  Here are a few ideas:

1. Go to bed early.  (really).  
<Insert obnoxious buzzer sound>. Thank you for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts for you.  No.  This is not what I did. I did not go to bed till after 11 last night thanks to a Coaches meeting in Timbuktu.  Okay, Woodstock, but it's really far for me!  I know, I know.  This is a tough one, but seriously, it's so obvious and common sense, and we often overlook it.  And the reality is, it's bloody hard to fit everything in when you go to bed at 9pm.  But 5am would feel like 7 if I went to bed at 9 instead of 11.  (I swear I didn't intend for that to rhyme.  I feel like Dr Seuss right now).

2. Have a workout buddy who is also as crazy as you.  
This one actually does work.  At least if you are like me and feel super accountable to promises you've made, no matter how much you don't want to do them.  I will be late for my own workout but never late if I've promised to meet someone.  Go figure.  (that's another blog post all on its own). Sadly, I'm out of available crazy friends at the moment.  But try this one - it works on so many levels - not just getting you up at 5.

3. Have an early breakfast planned with a great group of friends.

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!  We have a winner.  Yep.  This was the one that worked today.  Ok, there was a little more to it - that is a little willpower that won out the battle knowing that if I didn't do it before breakfast, I wouldn't do it, and the fact that I had two workouts today.  But.  That being said, thanks to Marc and Keith for a great breakfast this morning.  And I was only 10 minutes late.  And though Anne didn't actually make it to breakfast, thanks for not bailing until AFTER my run.  ;) 

So I didn't actually get up till 5:25, but I did get up, and I did do it, and I also managed to get my 2nd workout in as well.  Much to my surprise I found that I like fartleks in the pool!  Who knew!  And the 9-miler this morning was good, and as a bonus for getting up early, it was relatively cool.  

It's a tough slog sometimes fitting it all in, but always worth it.  Once I get that first mile under my belt, I wonder why I made such a fuss about it.  Funny how that's a lesson we have to just keep learning over and over.  At least I do.  

Alrighty.  It's after 9 and I have to go to bed so I can get up and get riding before 7. (Hey, it's Saturday.  There is no 5am on Saturdays.  It's a Canadian Law.)

So get up and get going.   Happy training,

Kat  

What now? It's the middle of what month?

Good lord.  I cannot believe it is the middle of July.  July! I swear it's true - the older you get the faster it goes.  I think it must be exponential though.  This year is worse by far than the last few.  I REALLY don't know where the time has gone.

So, ya.  I've been writing tons of blog posts in my head over the last few months.  Funny how none of them have appeared here.  Woops.  :)

Most of you know already that I'm out for IMKY.  I asked for my refund a while back, and got hit with the $450 "cancellation fee".  Gotta love Ironman.  So my Kona '13 plan is now the Kona '14 plan.  lol.  Work just got majorly in the way.  (it's a word!!) Was on a new gig, and just worked a crazy and unsustainable pace for about 3.5 months.  70-80 hour weeks, home like, NEVER, and just exhausted.  Not to mention sick for 9 weeks straight.  My SkyMiles hit 80,000 for the year in April.  And that's just MQM's ... meaning actual flown miles.  CRA-CRA.

Mid-April I finally said enough, and got off that project and got back onto the one I was on previously so that I could at least be in ATL part-time.  And then yI started training again.  Not really knowing what my goal was, or if I would even really race this year at all.  At first we thought maybe I'd go after sprints and ease my way back in.  But in the end I concluded that just was not doing it for me.  It's hard to get up at 5am for a swim when training for a sprint.  At least it is for me.

Then one day I was talking to my sister Leona, and she asks me out of the blue - Hey are you going to do that race up north? aka Muskoka 70.3. "Up North" is slang for cottage country in Ontario.  We've always had a place up there, and the latest one has been in the family for 25 years.  Before that was another cottage that we spent our early summers at.  When she asked me it kinda sparked something inside.  A little hope, a little excitement, a lot of fear.  LOL.  But I realized that I'd always wanted to do Muskoka yet was never able to because of the timing.  It's the same month as Augusta, and the same weekend as Vegas.  But now there was nothing standing in my way.  Well, nothing but the fact that I couldn't even finish an FTP test.  Ya, REALLY.

So here I am, 12 weeks back into training, after an astonishing 9 months of doing almost nothing.  And it's starting to come back.  I really doubted it would at times, but it is, just like April and Brett said it would.  I'll talk more about that in upcoming posts.  For now, I'm 7 weeks out from Muskoka.  And while I might not be at the top of my game by then, I will be a lot closer than I was in April.  It's never too late to come back, and it DOES come back.  Proof right here.  Even at my ripe old age ;)

Hope ya'll will start reading again.  I'll do my best to post regularly and take you on my renewed journey again!

Happy Training
Kat