Early Morning Workouts

I heard Nate talk about a vibrating wristband/watch. Might be a solution for you.

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My Garmin Forerunner 945 has a “vibrate only” alarm option, so the watch vibrates to wake me up, but my wife doesn’t hear the buzzing. I primarily workout during the early morning and essentially never wake my wife due to my alarm. I know other Garmin Forerunner models have this feature too (935 for sure)…

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Apple Watch alarm. On my wrist.

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As others, silent alarm or just wake naturally, creep out of bedroom, change in kit downstairs, quick drink water and out to garage.

Back in and wake wife with coffee at 7 :grin:

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I think you’d be surprised about how quickly your body will adapt. Within a few months it’ll be normal.

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Baby was up from 3:15 to 4 am, my alarm was set for 4:45. Dammit. Managed to get up at 5, and was on the bike by 5:15. Knocked out an hour of endurance and was in before anyone else was up. Good morning.

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Everyone is different, but here’s what works for me.

I typically get up at 4:00 a.m., change into my kit and put on my HRM, both of which I laid out the night before. I then proceed to the kitchen and (i) eat a banana and a couple of dates; (ii) drink a quart of water; and (iii) take a caffeine pill. (Again, I lay all of that out the night before.)

I then go back to bed for an hour to allow the bananas/dates to digest and let the caffeine pill kick in. (For some reason, it is also a psychological boost to be able to go back to bed for an hour. I know it’s probably better to simply sleep straight through to just before the workout, but for some reason, going back to bed for an hour feels like a “treat” of some kind. Funny, I know.)

I then wake up at 5:00, calibrate the smart trainer, and start the workout. If I have a particularly tough workout or one longer in duration than normal, I may have a gel right before starting, but that’s rare. The banana and dates are usually enough, along with the caffeine and rehydration, to get me through the toughest workouts.

For workouts that are 90 minutes or more, I will also take in fuel on the bike.

I’m planning on shifting from evening rides (5pm) to early rides. Clearly you nailed the workout, but do you think 3 SIS’s is enough fro a 122TSS/1500kj ride? Clearly, you have this figured out…so do what is your post workout nutrition? Thx.

Honestly it depends what you are going for and what your training history looks like. I can, and a couple times a week do, ride for 1500-2000kj at an endurance pace fully fasted. My goal with a session like the one above was to as fully fuel as possible while still doing the endurance block at the end fairly low. However, when I’m getting closer to race season I will fully fuel as if I am in a race to make sure my gut is handling the upper limit of carbs without issue

This means bars, gels, chews, hydration mix in the bottle, sometimes even beta fuel. Making sure I’m taking in around 350 calories/hour

Since I’m only riding once a day I’m not doing anything special post-ride. I eat a (for me) normal breakfast of around 550 calories and then eat a bunch of small meals throughout the day to get my calorie count up to where it needs to be to make sure I’m eating enough. My legs will be fully restocked with glycogen by the time I wake up the next day either way.

If I have a particularly active day (not going to work and sitting all day like normal) scheduled I will have a recovery shake just so my legs don’t feel like crap while I’m walking around but otherwise I don’t really bother

All super duper extremely helpful man. Thank you.

I am about to jump off a pretty big TSS cliff and am concerned about fueling while trying to lose weight. I’m finding I ‘need’ a gel prior to every 10min or greater SS interval. about the same for O/U’s as well. I have some fear I am over-fueling.

Anyway, you outlined and confirmed all sorts of things rattling around in the back of my head already. Thanks for the the feedback.

If you’re trying to lose weight at a higher priority than gaining fitness then you should try to balance out your on bike nutrition and stay as low as you can. If you are trying to balance losing weight with gaining fitness, or fitness gains are a higher priority I’d strongly recommend you continue fueling on-bike as needed to complete the work - reduce caloric intake elsewhere, but not on the bike

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I’ve always had to loose weight while trainning.
The key is just to time your fueld for the workouts.
So I have my normal dinner, and I have a normal breakfest after.
But I would cut out calories in between. No need to overdo. You can do everything in a plan with a 400-500kcal deficit.

hi, early morning workouts are very hard.

i have usually 8-10 bpm more than afternoon workouts.

i suppose that my ftp is around 5 to 10% less in morning

i’ve tried everything:

5 - wake up
5:05 - energy drink with coffeine + vitamine b group + L carnitine to activate metabolism
5:15 - wc stop
5:20 - on the bike, 10 to 20 minutes easy spin
5:35 - workout
6:35 - shower
6:50 - in my car

to be consistent i test my ftp in the morning, i listened the podcast regarding the warmup, but i think in the early morning i need more thank 20 minutes, probably 30-40 minutes, but this would mean sleep deprivation.

When you workout in the afternoon do you take the same energy drink or at least another form of caffeine. If the drink has a decent amount of caffeine in it and you usually don’t drink that before your afternoon workouts then that could definitely account for about a 10BPM increase.

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Yes, i’ve tried even without Energy drink, and in the morning i still have high BPM. Caffeine Is around 60mg. in the afternoon/evening workout (usually in the weekend) i take around 150mg.

I think Is something related to Circadiani rythm https://mennohenselmans.com/best-time-to-work-out/

I am an early morning group rider, 3-4 times a week up at 4:15, out the door around 4:30. In the past just on a quick banana as I get ready. Have recently started doing overnight oats, with coffee in the mix (like in the overnight oats). Cant make morning coffee because it would wake the kids

Has made a big difference to my morning RPE, everything seems a bit easier.

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Well, crap. Just curious, do you also have a 9-5 job ?

I lived that sort of lifestyle for a while, but no matter how early I’d go to bed or how much I’d eat, I’d still burn out after a couple of weeks of that schedule.

If you are eating enough throughout the day, you definitely do not need a gel before every interval. I would echo what others said about fueling your workouts appropriately so that you can actually do the work, and carve out the calories elsewhere.

French press? :slight_smile:

Its more the making water hot thats the issue. Kitchen is very close to their bedroom