New Approach

This week I took a new approach to my workouts, I decided to jump back into AM workouts. Granted this means, getting out of bed at 5am and getting to the gym by 5:30 am. I have been wanting to do this for awhile now but didn’t have the opportunity until just recently. My gym is about 5 min past my house, so typically when I go to the gym after work, I don’t get there til about 5:45-5:50pm with traffic and after my 45 min workout, it’s close to 6:45-7pm by the time I am getting home. Unless I have pre-made dinner, then I have to make dinner and I don’t actually sit down to eat until 8pm, then dinner is had, check emails, watch a little tv and it’s time for bed. This evening schedule has frustrated me because as we all know there are only so many hours in the day and I don’t want to waste any of that time. Plus I lose out on just have a few minutes to relax when I go to the gym after work. Now this is not the case for running after work, because I have the luxury of running right behind my office and on those nights I am home typically by 6:30pm, much better time-value for me. 

As I took the approach of getting up early this week, started on Monday, my mindset was workout before your body knows what you are doing. So this is what happened.

4:50 am- alarm #1 goes off, cut off. 5:00 am- alarm #2 goes off- GET UP! and then immediately get dressed. Take Carly out…come back upstairs, put in contacts, put up hair, head downstairs, grab banana and water bottle and get in the car. Eat banana on the way to the gym, arrive at the gym at 5:30 a.m. Do 45 minute workout and be home by 6:30 a.m. shower and get ready for work. 

Can I tell you that this was a complete success on Monday AND Tuesday! I am thrilled that I had the self-motivation to get myself up, because as I have said before I am not a morning person AT ALL!!! Granted the beauty of going to the gym in the AM is that there are not that many people there. I like going to the gym but I don’t like the crowds that are there from the 5-7 pm hour. I understand that may be the ideal hour for most people to workout so I shouldn’t complain, but when it comes to my workouts, I like to get in, do my workout and get out. There is no time for socializing while I am getting my sweat on! 

Now this morning I had all intentions of going to the gym for my third AM workout but I have to be honest, while watching the State of the Union Address last night at 9:30 pm I was nodding off. I haven’t gotten up at 5 am in a LONG time so that early morning wake up call was definitely catching up to me. I did go to bed at 10pm last night but of course because I was so tired, I couldn’t fall asleep (so frustrating!) So when the 5am alarm went off this morning, my body said NOPE NOT TODAY. So I changed the alarm for 6am and proudly took that extra hour of sleep. Tomorrow is a new day and I plan to get right back into that 5am wake up call. I can’t tell you how much I am loving have that extra time after work now! I get home at 5:45 pm and that is so much better than 7pm.

I still plan to do my runs after work because it’s obviously dark from the hours of 5am-6:30 am but I plan to take full advantage of getting that early morning workout in for my crosstraining. I love having more time in my day and I think it’s going to make me less stressed and help me to get more things done in the evenings!

What are your tips for getting that early morning workout in??