Suggesting any one food is the cause of type II diabetes is pretty misleading, and I would be very cautious using an anecdote to advise someone on the internet on what they should or shouldn’t eat without any qualifications, scientific backing, or familiarity with the individual’s diet, lifestyle or medical history.
Also, a GI number often loses a lot of applicability in the context of a meal. Most people aren’t eating plain oats for breakfast, unless they’re living in 18th century Scotland. The addition of fiber and protein/fat sources lowers glycemic response when compared to the carbohydrate source alone, so bar allergies and intolerances you’re better off considering your diet as a whole.
Due the birth of my first child in the summer, I’ve moved to doing all of my workouts early in the morning before my wife and daughter are awake and before I need to start work.
Started on Traditional Base low volume and the first block is straightforward, lots of endurance. But the next block involves Tempo and Sweet Spot sessions.
My question is how do you early risers combat the higher RPE and in particular the higher heart rate? I find the workouts harder and my heart rate is up at 90% of max on Tempo workouts. I drink plenty of water and my usual nutrition is to smash 5 or 6 fig rolls before hopping on the bike, where I drink 1.5l of water (400kcal, 73g Carbs)
It takes a little while to get used to it, I’m still getting used to it and have been early morning training for 3 years. Not to deter you that it’s not possible, I’m just not a morning person. If you’re fueling the work that will definitely help RPE. Another thing is I make sure to do some dynamic stretching to loosen my body up and prepare it for the session. I notice when I don’t do any dynamic stretches my body isn’t too happy with me afterwards. I’ve honestly done workouts that I couldn’t believe with how terrible I slept. Not the best advice but for sure fueling and dynamic stretching will get you more comfortable waking up and hitting it hard! I’m glad I do morning sessions because it checks the box of training for the day and helps my ego.
Fueling starts the day before; I don’t go to bed hungry if I have a tougher workout in the early morning.
Coffee and a banana 15 minutes before I get on the bike.
I don’t look at heart rate whatsoever in training. If it’s power-based training, that’s all that matters—can I hit the power targets or not? If I have trouble, I know to take a look at the previous day’s life stresses or training load coming in. Heart rate is too variable to give much attention to, in my opinion.
I may be an outlier on this, but my HR is lower early in the morning, for the same effort. Everything shifts down 5-10 bpms.
As for RPE - you get used to it, since it becomes the new normal. Having little basis of comparison since I do all my workouts early (and mostly fasted), I can’t tell they’re harder anymore…
Agree with this completely. I’ve been doing it so long that nowadays, if I do a workout at lunch time or later in the afternoon, they feel EASY comparably, since I’ve had two or three meals and have had time to fully wake up.
Early morning riding today, as always, all time power PRs from pretty much 2mins upto 4:30
Got up at 4am, toilet, ate some overnight oats (small serve) with coffee mixed in, on the bike 4:35ish, no other fueling for a nearly 2hr ride. Coffee with the group then home at 7 to get the kids ready for school
So much great advice here but i thought i would add my own experiences. I have trained in the afternoons / evening from the age of 17 to 28 and could never bring myself to train in the mornings other than easy recovery rides. Couldnt get HR, Power or the determination to a point where i could.
Then at the age of 28 my daughter came along and a change of job meant it was either mornings or to stop. So over the past 22 months i have gone from not being able to do it at all to being able to do it with ease.
Night before:
Make a strong espresso and leave it on the kitchen (coffee machine is to loud and drawn out for the mornings.
Get out my kit and leave it downstairs so i don’t disturb the family sleeping.
Get out the plate and knife for pre ride food.
Ensure lights are charged and bike is ready.
All of this takes no more than 5 minutes.
Alarm goes of at 5.30 - Best advice here is to get a Lumi light or similar, this wakes you gradually with a simulated sunrise, i find that 9.5 / 10 times i will wake naturally with the light and not the sound of the alarm, this makes me feel so much better and although the light some time wakes my wife she just turns over but usually it no bother and the lack of the alarm noise doesn’t wake the house.
Straight up and downstairs and i then get 2 slices of wholemeal bread with butter and some strawberry jam, sit for 10 minutes eating that and drinking the now cold espresso before getting into my kit i left down stairs and heading out the door just before 6 o’clock for a session varying from 1.30 - 2.45 long depending on the day.
This has been a real revelation and is working so well i know choose to do it at the weekend too so I can then have the whole day with the family, this also allows me to incorporate roughly 3 - 4 home gym sessions a week on lunch breaks / late evenings as and when i can. Overall this is giving me a training time of roughly 14 hours a week on the bike and 2 - 3 hours a week gym whilst maintaining a happy family, work and good sleep patterns.
Moral of the story is just to be patient and allow your body the time it needs to adapt, with commitment and planning it will happen you just need to allow it too.
I’ve had good luck getting up and having sugar water on the bike, with generally no solid food. I vary the concentration of the drink based on how hard the workout, going to about 70-90 grams/750 ml bottle for sweet spot and above rides. I do the gatorade powder + sucrose that has been discussed in other threads.
I’ve still generally struggled with intensity work in the early mornings.
I’m going to fuel a bit more (I’ve always had a hard time fueling rides, very psychological) as I have been doing them fasted or with a bit of maple syrup.
I decided to do a ramp test early in the morning the other day and it dropped by 20 watts, which I kind of figured. I’d rather start out with a lower number and adapt to training at that time of day, rather than try to hit the numbers I have when my body is primed and fueled. Hopefully this helps me.
Sunrise alarm clock plus sitting next to a happy light while having coffee/breakfast then positioning the happy light close to my bike during the ride seems to make pre-dawn workouts much more bearable
Does anybody here ever nap, say 30 minutes to an hour, in the afternoon after having worked out in the morning?
I ask because I can wake up 1 hour earlier and get maybe 7 hours sleep instead of a usually but I’m wondering wondering if a 30 minute nap in the afternoon could help balance it out?
I do this whenever my schedule permits, regardless of when I worked out
My typical nap is about 30 minutes laying down, maybe 15-20 of which I sleep. This short duration never leaves me groggy and fits into my normal rhythms beautifully
Plus, this short duration means if I get a short break in my workday I can crash out without negatively impacting anything
Naps are good if you can, 20 mins, no more than 30 mins, listen to the headspace app on occasions.
recovery is important not to training but your daily lifestyle in general.
Just another positive comment for naps. I’m up at ~4am and then nap around noon most days. I usually spend 10-15 minutes doing really low-key work items (reading through required, but not urgent or vital emails, for example) right before heading to bed. I set a timer for 30mins and I’m usually asleep within 5mins (Headspace wind-downs can help if I’m still a little thinking about work).
The most important part is that my cat naps with me. She’s warm and her purrs definitely calm me down.
