I have just started the early morning trainer rides recently and have found this schedule successful so far:
Make sure your bike is set up the night earlier
Wake up 45mins early then you want to start. That 5.30am for me, start time is 6.15am
Have a coffee and something to eat, and set your laptop up with TR and whatever else you load for your workout (I use youtube videos).
Im finding Im much more productive in my sessions - my body feels awake and ready to train, and my stomach has some food and caffeine in it ready to go.
I like the idea of early mornings, and usually make it out for morning road rides (accountability buddy system) but solo training, doesn’t seem to work I have a partner that likes to stay up late, and often gets home around 9-10pm, and for the sake of the relationship I try and spend some time around her, or have the odd meal together.
That doesnt lead to early morning training sessions…
I am pretty sure she emits a sleep pheromone from the back of her neck, if I make the mistake of snuggling… there is no chance of waking up, might even run late to work
I find that for fasted rides you can really shrink this window down, for me it’s at ~15 minutes (coffee + bathroom + ride), that extra 30 minutes makes a huge difference for me.
I’ve just started out on the early morning workouts too so really appreciating the advice. My main motivation, aside from getting it done and having the day clear, was to try and get my body used to the stress soon after waking. I race TT’s over here in the UK and these usually start very early in the morning so my thinking was to try and replicate the timings so when the season starts again next year I’m kind of used to it. Not sure if there is any research out there that has been done to back this up but I think it kind of makes sense. Any thoughts?
Triathlons are the same. All are at the latest a 9 am start. So that means breakfast in the 5-6am timeframe for a normal race day. To me, that is just another day and I seem to always be able to handle a little less sleep on race day because of the excitement of the upcoming event.
I do all my weekday workouts at 5:15. I set my alarm at 4:45. I have a large cup of coffee with some MCT oil. >further a large glass of water with lemon and some sea salt. It does take some discipline and getting used to. I set everything up the night before (cycling clothes, breakfast, clothes to go to work, etc) I also choose something good to watch for my ride or select a TR podcast.
I have three children and after work ( I am a surgeon) I am more tired than in the morning. I also have a lot more peace in the morning as everybody is still asleep. Needless to say I go to bed at 9:30 with lights out at 10.
Started Sweet Spot Base 1 this morning. I got all my kit laid out last night, PWO ready, headphones charged, playlist selected, nice early night. Alarm went off at 4:50, chugged my PWO at 5:00, started the ramp test at 5:30 and felt great!
Girlfriend was less than impressed by my grunting and heavy breathing but at least I got my test done and with a higher FTP than I expected! Roll on Thursday morning.
I’m a morning guy usually, and have done my workouts exclusively in the the morning. However, that all changed when my wife took a new job that requires her to actually be on time and in the office early. with two kids, my morning routine just changed to night, so we’ll see how that goes.
However, for morning workouts- and i may get yelled at here so i thought it was worth posting. you know that pre-workout powder that body builders use- i down a glass of that before every ride. it contains a lot of caffeine too which helps. coffee for me raised my core temperature and was uncomfortable because the trainer is hot as it is. I’ve currently got a bottle of C4 which i use. don’t know if overall this would help or hinder efforts, but the boost it seems to give my system really helps in the mornign and i’m able to get motivated and have enough energy to get through a ride partially fasted- the C4 is all i have prior to my workout. It promptly gives my gut some issues, but they are sorted out pretty quickly. i think i have Chad’s iron gut…
Any comments on the use of a pre-workout powder i think would be beneficial for the group.
I’m an early morning person as well on mornings that I am going to work. 24-hour shift at the FD. Typically up at 4:00-4:30 for my 60-120 min sessions. This way I can do any run or weight work on shift with the crew. I try to shuffle the work so that the really intense work is on an off day so that I can fuel for those specific workouts. All my early morning stuff is fasted with no coffee of carbs in my system. Central Florida, so temps are better at 5:00 am as well instead of >90 in the garage even with a fan during the mid-day. I try to always get my workout done before early evening. This allows me to relax before bed and not be restless so close to sleep. Mostly in bed by around 9:30 pm.
Funny you should mention the effect coffee had on your core temp, I had been having a cup before starting but noticed when I was on the trainer I felt like I was so hot compared to normal… so was thinking it might be related! Will try a cold drink in the morning!
The logic sounds great and should in theory help. My only thoughts would be that are you capable of the same performance training in the morning than training later in the day?
For me I always struggled training with any intensity in the early mornings and had to bail on a few sessions that I would almost certainly have completed later in the day. So I guess the trade off for getting used to early morning sessions would be for me a slightly poorer performance than I might have had later in the day against getting used to riding early. Is that that significant? I’ve no idea really but given I don’t have to ride early currently I choose not to. I generally swim early anyway
Train to get the best out of yourself whenever you can and if you have an early start time the extra adrenaline of having a number on your back will always get you going I reckon.
FWIW my earliest start time was a few years ago on the E2 at 05:37. Nothing quite like forcing a breakfast down at 3:30am
That was well confusing because my username on forums is Johnnybike not Jonnybike and I looked at the post and I thought I had written it because it mentioned being in the UK and being a TTer. However I do not train early as it does not suit my body clock at all and never has.
This is my situation as well. Need to catch a 7:10 bus so I’m up at 4:55. On the bike by 5:10. A 1 hour workout gives me just enough time to cool down, relax, drink some coffee, and get ready for work. I find that fasted is ok for most rides an hour or less. I do the longer workouts on Friday when I work at home, or on Saturday.
Yesterday I managed my first successful early morning workout thanks to the advice on this thread.
Prepped the bike and kit the night before (including water bottle in cage).
Setup TrainerRoad and suitable videos to watch.
Got a coffee pod ready on the machine
Alarm set to 6am, I was on the bike and workout started by 6.13
I’m doing SSBLV1 - so the workout was SSB not hard efforts - Tunnabora
It felt harder than it should have – not sure if this was anticipated perception or really harder than if I’d done it in the evening (Battery has died in my HRM)
Was a great feeling to be done by 7.30 in the morning - although the wife thinks I’m going slightly mad
A question for users, today I did an early morning run and now I am seriously struggling. Little bit light headed ect, I have been cutting quite hard and when I do evening workouts I don’t notice this because when I have my evening workout I follow it with a family meal. How do you fuel post work out?
My experience so far, differs from many I’m sure and I think it ties into the early morning; I used to run three times a week at a gym at work. So I’d have a 400 calorie smoothie, milk, yogurt and fruit before the run, then a protein bar to tide me over till lunch. I usually run 8 miles a day just over an hour, so a decent pace and a fair amount of calorie deficit.
I’ve gone full swing to cycling five times a week, just finished sweet spot mid volume1 and now a couple weeks into sweet spot mid volume 2. Just started this mid August, I have not been on the bike in three years, so a pretty big change.
Where I’m going with all of this is I’m going over the diet also. A 400 calorie breakfast isn’t enough. I’ve dropped from 172 to 165 so far, so I’m allow around 10 calories per pound or 1650 per day plus workouts, using myfitnesspal to get a rough estimate how much more to add. App says I’ve been doing about 3000 to 3400 calories in exercise per week. All those numbers are how I’m basing what I eat in a day.
So, the actual answer, I’ve upped my breakfast after I get off the bike in the morning to 740 calories, egg white whole wheat burrito followed by that same milk, yogurt, fruit smoothy. If I still feel a little hungry at work, then I’ll grab a nature valley protein bar but trying to keep the sugar down as much as possible.
Hopefully you guys don’t mind the geeking out of the data and semi long rant.
My son has swim practice two days a week (Tuesday/Thursday) at 5 a.m. so it’s a 4:10 alarm followed by two Pop Tarts in the toaster for him and a shot of espresso for Dad.
I then drive him twenty five minutes to practice…jet back home and crank out a 1 hour ride (today was Geiger) and then bolt back to pick him up by 6:45.
Once we arrive back home I make him breakfast, shower and then take him to school. I usually arrive at work by 8:45 on these early mornings.
It’s not easy being a single parent by any means but you have to prioritize your goals and chose discipline over all else. Are their days I don’t want to do it? Sure…but it’s not an option.
Also, at 52 years old…VO2 work doesn’t jive with me in the early morning. I can run lights out but trying to hit consistent Zone 5 intervals just cooks me. This being said, I try to stick to no more than 95% of my FTP for the early a.m. workouts.
Remember, discipline is training oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way.
Wow, my deepest respect for all of this early morning discipline!
I do workouts in the mornings from time to time, too, but I can surely say that my workout quality suffers under the tiredness of the body.
My question would be:
Why doing these workouts in the morning? The 1-2hours we need to invest are not for free. If I invest them in the morning, I need to go 2 hours earlier to bed.
Or is it the mental fatigue, that kills motivation to workout in the evening and can be overcome by training in the mornings?
