Training & Nutrition - 4am rides - How do you do it???

I’ve tried a few times to ride at 4am, but I just can’t seem to find the motivation to train that early. I’m at work at 6am, and most of the time I’m there for 11 or 12 hours. There are days when I’m planning to ride after work, but when I get home I’m either too exhausted to ride, or I need to get things done around the house. If I could get my training done before work in the morning, then I wouldn’t have to worry about my schedule interfering with my ride time. I also think that a ride before work would help me deal with all the stress of the day a little better too. I go to sleep the night before with intentions of getting up and training, but the last thing I want to do at 4am is put on all my riding gear. I’ve even tried just getting up, throwing on a pair of shorts, and riding on my trainer - but can’t seem to do that regularly either. I do commute to work a bit, but it’s only four miles each way so it’s not long enough to count as training…

I’m just wondering how those of you who ride before the sun comes up find the motivation to get out that early. I would love to hear any of your suggestions or comments.

Thanks,
-Mike

Get to bed early enough, and when you get up in the morning, just go for it!

I found it difficult in the beginning to get up that early for rides, and I still have to literally shake myself into a wakeful state (takes about 5 minutes), and even then, I'm still dragging a bit. I make sure that before I get to bed, I have EVERYTHING ready to go, so there's very little time to think about things or talk myself out of not doing it. When I don't have to go right to work, I can get out of the door in about 15 minutes.

Once you get on your bike, I always find that my endorphins are way high- I start picking up as soon as I swing my leg over the bike and climb on.

You have to just do it- just like the Nike slogan.

Koffee

Koffee has it right you just have to make yourself do it
for me i get up about 20 min before i want to head out, i drink a big glass of orange juice and eat a banana and after that im usually ready to go. i find easin into things after i get out of bed helps me, rather than jumpin up geting dressed and hitting the streets.
but the bottom line is just makin yourself do it, find what works best for you. and after a short time it does get easier.

I used to have the same lack of early morning motivation problem. My solution was to get out a couple times early in the morning and find other riders out as well. I don't mind riding with other people, in fact I enjoy it especially if they are better then myself.

Making a commitment to other people to ride with them is enough for me to get out of bed ... I would feel bad letting someone down on a ride. Once I did that for about a week I no longer had a problem getting up early to ride, even by myself.

The avoidance of 100+ degree temps is good motivation as well.

Since I don't have any commitments I just stay up all night, ride when the sun is coming up for a few hours then sleep the rest of the day. Thats how I do it, but I don't think many people can do that.

Im with shaharidan. I cant literally role out of bed and striaght onto the bike. I normally get up, go to the bathroom, get a glass of water, handful of raisins, then go back to my room and get suited up and then head out. Just gives you a few minutes to wake up and get your legs moving just a little. I take the first 15-20 minutes of the ride as easy get going miles. Then I pick up for the last 1.5 hours or however long Im going out.

Thanks for the replies...

The more I think about it, maybe my problem is that I just don't enjoy riding in the dark. Once it starts getting light out I don't have a problem getting out on the bike, but that's not until 5:15 or 5:30, and by that time I need to be getting ready for work. In order for me to get a descent ride in before work I need to be riding by about 4am.

I suppose a descent lighting system would help. The headlight I have is pretty crappy. A new job where I wasn't working so many hours would probably help too... :crash:

Thanks again...
-Mike

you dont do it! its as easy as that!!! for the love god, get your sleep!

:D

Originally posted by killerasp
you dont do it! its as easy as that!!! for the love god, get your sleep!

:D
Hahaha... You sound just like my wife... :D

any chance of starting work earlier that way you can go home earlier and ride?

Originally posted by shaharidan
any chance of starting work earlier that way you can go home earlier and ride?
Unfortunately not...

..BUT...

I did get up this morning at 4:00 to ride!!! It was only on my trainer, so not as good of a workout as the real thing, but better than nothing! I used a few of the tips here... I didn't get right on the bike (giving myself a few minutes to wake up first really seemed to help). I had a glass of orange juice and a banana, and watched tv for about 10 minutes (man, are there alot of stupid infomercials on at 4am). Then I stretched a bit, and spun on the trainer for about 40 minutes.

I figure if I can do this every morning before work, it will be a good "base" workout for the day. Then if I don't get a chance to do a more serious ride after work at least I will have got SOME exercise that day. Depending on how much riding I'm able to get in at night, I'll probably switch a morning or two and do some light weight training just to give my legs a break. If I can really make this a routine, then I'll probably buy a descent headlight and get outside and off the trainer...

Anyway, that's my plan! Now all I have to do is keep it going!!!

Thanks again for the tips... :)
-Mike

About a year ago I got back into riding after abut eight years off the bike. My schedule doesn't allow for me to ride after work so I began riding in the morning. I get out around 5:15 and ride for about an hour. I have several "standard loops" that I do on various days to get in different types of terrain. As Koffie and the others said "Just do it!!" After you do it for a while you get into a routine that you feel strange not doing on your rest days. If you haven't found out yet, a lot of bike "training" is obcessivly doing things with an end goal in mind.

I started just to get in better shape. After three or four months I had dropped almost thiry pounds and four inches in my waist!! Now that gives you motivation!! Now I find that I feel strange when I am not on my bike in the morning. You will find that after a few weeks you don't even mind that it is dark and there are few people around. Use a good light (10 watt minimum) and a good blinker for the back. Reflective cloths help too!! I live in the mid atlantic area and it is now starting to get cold. I was out on Tuesday dressed like a polar bear, but had a great ride! When it gets cold I move inside for some of the time since the cold air can really get my throat scratchy!! Get a good trainer for this (I recommend the Tacx Basic).

Enjoy yourself!!

I started getting up at 3:00 am three times this week. I work fout 10-hour days with three days off every weekend. I wear a t-shirt with a sweat shirt over it and a pair of bike shorts. The weather is pretty mild here. I got out of the houwe at about 3:10 and rode for about 45 minutes. I didn't push it, around 9-10 miles.

It's a different world out there at that time. I'm still not used to the way the shadows make everything seem different, even on familiar roads. I agree with wlevey about the lights. I have a cheap halogen light that I got from wally world. I'm sure that other people can see me, but I have a hard time in areas with no street lights. I'll be looking for another set-up. I also use a reflective vest.

Just get up and do it basically. Of course, it helps if you have a climate like ours where it's often simply too hot to sleep by 4am.

Chris L - sounds like my kind of weather! Unfortunately, I live in an area where we get about four months out of the year where it gets down right cold in the morning! This morning I opted to spin on the trainer in the garage becasue I couldn't bring myself to go out in the 33 degree (farenhite) darkness one mor morning this week!

For a light I use a Niterider Trail Rat II. I think they have a newer model now. It cost about $100+, but when I facter in the cost of four AA bateries about once or twice a week it is probably cheeper in the long run than the old one I have.

If you want to be out and on the road at 4 am, it is easy to figure out what you do. That means you wake up at 3:30 am to get ready and wake up. So to get 7-8 hours of sleep that means you have to be in bed with the lights out at 8 pm. That means you will never see a prime time TV again which is probably not a bad thing.

I thrive on 4- 5 hours a sleep per night personally, and on my 2 days off, I sleep in.

Can't miss my prime time....

;)

Koffee

I thrive on 4- 5 hours a sleep per night personally, and on my 2 days off, I sleep in.

Try doing it seven nights a week for about seven months straight. I actually did this during the summer of 2001/02. It wasn't much fun -- and I don't even watch television.

Try doing it seven nights a week for about seven months straight. I actually did this during the summer of 2001/02. It wasn't much fun -- and I don't even watch television.

Ummm... that's been my sleep schedule since 1997 (could have been the end of 96, but I can't remember). Once you get used to the schedule, 7- 8 hours a night seems like sloth. ;)

Koffee

and on my 2 days off, I sleep in.


Not quite the same. Forget about sleeping in on the two days off, or at least, forget about it in the summer of 2001/02. It wasn't going to happen.

Totally understand, but even then, doing that for years is much more than doing it with two days off than doing it for a few months, which I don't think to be too bad.

For the record, it's just recently that I've started the two day off thing. During the summer, I took one day off, but as I change my periodization program, I take more days off and spend longer amounts of time doing base and endurance riding- gotta work with the tempo training stuff!

Back when I first started getting up that early, I was doing it every day. I had a lifting as well as cardiovascular training program, plus my yoga, as well as a full time job and teaching my classes- at least 2 classes a day. So for a long time, before I started easing back (hint- old age), I was at 4- 5 hours a night every night. In 2001, I got tired and started adding in a day of rest, and this year, I decided to add in a second day of rest. That second day has done wonders- I've seen greater gains in speed and more weight loss with the second day off than when I was on every day doing everything. Of course, no weight training either, but that will change, and I will have to figure out how to incorporate this back into my sleep routine.

Koffee

I was going to say 'for me, spending time a trainer is the biggest motivation for getting out and riding, no matter when!', then you said you were riding the trainer in the morning.

If you do decide to hit the roads, definitely get a good light and blinky for the rear. Out of desperation, I've tried riding in the dark, both morning (not 4am, tho :eek: ) and evening. I can ride in rural areas, but the evening traffic is just dicier... there's more of it and more of them seem to have an "attitude." A morning ride where you can watch the sun come up and the world wake up is a pretty neat way to start the day, IMO.

When I finnish work at 0400hrs I ride an extended loop home (great time of the day to ride ) or if I have to start at that time I ride to work but I certainlly would'nt get up at that time of day to ride by choice .
After a week of night shift where I only get patchy sleep for a week I can sleep for 14hrs straight on my 1st day off :o

I am going to be night riding....if you want a decent light, do it on the cheap http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?p=355591 and build your own! and get a CatEye 5LED rear flasher light, and a smaller one you can attatch to your helmet or clothes.

Brendon