Early trainer here too. Usually on the bike around 5am depending on length of workout.
My tips are basically what others have said.
Keep all bike and running clothes in the same room as the trainer so you can slide out of bed and change near the bike.
Have bike, computer headphones ready to go at the bike. Just turn everything on
Have coffee ready to brew hit the button as soon as you wake and chug it with small glass of water, eat if needed (oatmeal or bagel for me)
Grab water for the ride
Prep lunch night before so I can train with just enough time to eat, shower pack lunch and run out the door within the minute every morning
Only downside is even on weekends even if you don’t need to wake early you still will (at least I do). So i train early on weekends early so it doesn’t mess with family time to much
I’ll echo what others have said. I do trainer rides in the morning 2-3 days/week
Have everything ready the night before, coffee maker on a timer, clothes and shoes out, water bottle ready in the beer fridge, sensors paired.
Try to get to bed and asleep before 10pm - rarely happens
Wake @ 515 and dress
Coffee, banana and/or something carb rich and easy to digest…I need something to eat if I’m doing a hard session and I need at least 5 minutes before getting on the trainer just to come too.
Off to the toilet
On to the trainer - finish my second coffee before the end of the warm up.
Smash it
Get the kids ready for school
I’m going to move my clothes to beside the trainer as someone suggested earlier
Instead of coffee, get a quick caffeine fix by adding a SIS Cola hydro tab that includes 75mg of caffeine to your water bottle. Great for fasted training.
As said above, get everything ready the night before then say to yourself ‘I will get up at 5am and do this workout’. When morning comes don’t allow yourself to think about whats coming, just get up, have a coffee if you wish and then get into your kit. I personally allow myself half an hour to get up and out and love a decent cup of fresh ground coffee. That cuppa is the reward for getting up so make it a nice quality brew. I also find heading out for an off road session for an hour so much easier than getting on the turbo, even if it’s cold, wet and horrible. There is beauty in every day and I love being up to see it before the world wakes up.
Agreed with all the above … but one of the biggest motivators is to make it something to really look forward to entertainment wise…
I find if i save a good podcast / tv show / bike race replay / documentary … for the AM then getting on trainer for a recovery or endurance ride is only ‘part’ of the waking up.
When i wake up at 4:45am i can’t wait to watch/listen to that thing i’ve been saving.
But it does take planning etc.
Having said that i never do anything more more than endurance rides so far … sweet spot pre breakfast i think would crush me!
Go to bed by 10 pm. Up at 4:15, make smoothie for the wife to take to work and for me post workout. Eat an apple and drink a plain green tea. Foam roll legs to get out the kinks at 5:15 am. Hop on the erg for 15 min warm up. Kettle bell, bow-flex and jumping jacks before 45 min erg session. 20 min easy cool down on rollers with bike. Start to increase bike time around Xmas. Done workout before 7:30 am.
i had trouble waking-up in the morning when I used to do it only 2-3 times per week. Then I decided to just eff it and do all my workouts(ride or strength training) in the morning. That made it a lot easier because it definitely becomes a habit.
Mondays(rest), I still wake-up early and just treat it as my free time to catch up on sorting out my workouts and schedule for the coming week. .
similar to everyone above.
have everything ready the night before. Bed early (try to get 8-9hrs as buffer)
i have a caffeine tablet as soon as i jump on the trainer which helps a lot.
i wake up thinking “why am i doing this?” then after the workout is done, i say “i’m soo glad i did this”
Besides having everything set up the night before the biggest thing that helped me was getting used to going to bed early the night before.
Reverse engineer the time you want to get up and the hours of sleep you want/need to get to determine your go-to-bed time. Especially the first weeks/months that you need to get used to it.
So I started early rides this week and three rides in all have been done.
Used a lot of the advice given above which has helped a lot. Today was the hardest and I really struggled to get out of bed. I find the warmups really difficult (almost harder than the interval’s!) but once through that and after a couple of intervals I feel awake and on it again.
It does feel great afterwards knowing the work is done and you have the rest of the day.
Allow yourself to wake up a bit - don’t jump straight on the bike if you have time
Loud music and forgiving neighbours
#4 is interesting. I’ve tried working out with no coffee and jumping straight on the bike. It’s horrible. Yes you get through but it’s inefficient. With coffee and a little waking up time (30 mins) I can hit higher numbers and produce a better workout.
I got up at 5:45 this morning to do my Ramp test (in the garage, with the outside temp at 2 deg C). I psyched myself up last night that it was going to go great, I went to bed suitably early, slept OK, was organised and on the bike in good time.
And then I discovered my P1s were out of batteries and wouldn’t connect to my phone/headunit!
Need to check my bike the night before as well as my kit!
I get up between 5-5:15 every morning, usually on the bike by about 5:30. A big thing that’s helped me recently is my wife and I have transitioned to daylight alarm clocks (we use the Philips Hue smart bulbs in our bedside lamps) - I’ve found it’s MUCH easier to get up when I wake up to light instead of being jolted awake by an alarm clock. YMMV, but it’s been a huge help to me.
Same as everyone else, but I find I need the positive attitude before I sleep just as important to carry through and get me out of bed. Usually on the turbo bleary eyed within ten mins. If you’re working out properly you’ll soon be awake!
Better than putting it off then finding life has got in the way, before you know it another week of no training
I’ve had the same experience! I can’t count the number of days where 5 minutes in I thought “wow this is going to be a rough day” but then it all turns around and I have a solid workout.
I have for years done all my training weight or turbo training first thing no food just wake up and crack on but should I do my ramp test at the same time as I plan to train or later in the day so I would fully fuilied ?
