It’s 5:15.
In the morning.
Dang. This is probably the earliest post I’ve ever done at BIT.
I am not a morning person.
So why am I up?
There’s only one reason: to get better
Ever since I quit LifeTime Fitness and joined my local community club (The Monon Center), I’ve had to adjust some of my workout habits. The Monon Center is better in almost every way possible: it’s closer, it’s cleaner, it’s cheaper and it’s less crowded, but the one thing LifeTime had to it’s advantage was it was open 24/7. The Monon Center closes at 10pm. The pool usually closes at 7pm and most of the spinning classes I take are usually around 6:30. Those times aren’t very unusual and are actually pretty convenient for most people.
The problem? I’m not most people.
I know the whole thing in the Lifestyle Design blog world right now is “be your own boss, make your own hours.” I’m not sure if I’m technically considered an “Lifestyle Design” blog but I know a lot of people who read this are, and while, I’m not my own boss right now, I’m lucky enough to have a job that is quite flexible with my working schedule. Usually I end up going into work around 10am and leaving around 6pm. Up till now, I’ve gotten up, gone to work and then fit in working out, blogging, free time, and relaxing into whatever time slots I could find after work. Naturally, I’m night owl, so it’s really no problem for me to stay up all hours of the night to get work done.
The problem I keep running into is being able to fit everything in and get everything done in time table that works well. Theoretically, this works great. The thought process goes, “As long as I do the same amount of work, I can accomplish the same things, no matter what the hours are! I can do what I want! Success!!!”
I’ve found, it doesn’t work so well (at least for me). With the gym closing at 10pm and the pool at 7, right now, if I don’t get off of work immediately at p.m., I’ll either miss my workout or be sprinting from my job to the gym and then fighting someone for a pool lane. Neither option is great and both options end up making me feel rushed. I find I focus less on the workout and more on the guilt of not working out or not being able to fit in the workout I want to.
So I’m going to have to change.
Part of me hates that idea. Me, change? To accommodate someone, something else?
What happened to
- Rebelling against the system
- Fighting the power.
- Doing what I want
I’m supposed to be my own boss, design my own life, I shouldn’t have to change for anyone!
That’s true to a certain extent, but I’ve also realized that change isn’t such a bad thing. Sure, sometimes we change for people who we shouldn’t or we change because we give up and realize that people are right or something d. There’s certain things I keep coming back to:
- Gyms are open at certain times.
- People are available at certain times.
As much as I’d like to try, it’s pretty hard to find other people available to go for a lap swim with you at 1am. Midnight “Screw It & Do It” runs are no problem for me, but trying to find a cycling class at that time of day, is pretty difficult. If I’m going to get serious about triathlon training, I need to make sure I’m surrounding myself with quality people & make sure that I’m able to get my workouts in at a decent time so I can focus on getting better rather than just finishing my workout before the gym closes.
So I’m going to change. And that’s not a bad thing. In fact, a lot of the time, in order to do things you really want to do, you have to do some things you really don’t want to do.
For me, that change involves getting up really freaking early so I can do everything I want to get done. What about you?
It’s 6:30 now. Time to get better.
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[Photo Credit]
Hey Joel,
How would you say you’re becoming better through having to wake up earlier? I know I’m an advocate, but I didn’t really see why you thought waking up earlier would be beneficial to you, other than making sure you’d still be able to get some of your different exercises in–but that seems like something you were already doing before… Would love to hear how you expect getting up earlier will improve your life!
Best,
Haidn
Haidn,
Sorry I thought I addressed this.
My main problem is my being rushed during my evening activities. When I start late, I lose a lot of hours that I could be productive with. Basically, starting later makes me force all of my activities that have to be done within some sort of time restraint (daylight, gym times, etc) into a two hour period between 6pm and 8pm. If I have to stay late for work or have another commitment at night, I’m force to pick and choose which ones I do and something usually ends up getting cut.
Shifting my schedule (and believe me, this will be a process for me) allows me to get things done in the morning and free up the evenings (heck, just this morning I wrote a blog post, ran 8miles, swam 1000m and fixed a monthlong client issue all before noon today!). This frees up my time in the evenings and makes it much harder for me to make up crappy excuses to not do things I know I should be doing.
The “time to get better” quote referred to the fact I was heading out to go for my run & swim this morning, not necessarily that waking up early is “making me better”. Guess I should have made myself more clear. 🙁
Does that clear things up?
Thanks for the question! Let me know if I need to clarify anything still 🙂
-Joel
Awesome, I’m totally on-board with you (and yes, it’s much clearer now, thanks). Congrats on the great start to your day!
Haidn
Glad I could clear things up. Look forward to talking soon!
Hey Joel,
I was never able to get my best workouts done in the morning. I perform best in late afternoon/early evening.
That being said, there are times when the situation is that I either had to do it in the morning or it wouldn’t get done.
I don’t know much about the “lifestyle design” stuff you mentioned, but none of us operate in a vacuum. Other people and businesses have schedules as well, and none of them live to serve our specific needs.
Glad to hear that you made the less comfortable choice to wake up early and work on the things that are important to you.
Hey Martin-
It’s really weird for me. In the workout sense, I’m great in the mornings and love getting them in early just so I’m done. I think it’s a carryover from early morning high school basketball workouts years ago :). However, creatively, I’m so much more effective during the evenings and I’m worthless in at 6am so I’m trying to structure my schedule so I can do things when I’m most effectively. Definitely a little uncomfortable for sure, but worth it.
The key is doing what works for you and making sure that what you’re doing is enabling you to reach your goals.
Joel!
Wow, I think I would pay to see you get up early. I’ve been getting up at ridiculous hours lately to get my workouts in too, but for a different reason. Turns out this place is called Hotlanta for a reason, and the humidity only subsides between about 1 and 7a.m. Late evening runs are ok sometimes, but its still so humid that I usually end up just feeling bad about my run. As much as I hate the waking up part, I love running in the morning. Its quiet, you get to watch the sun rise, and you feel good for the rest of the day. And waking up at 6am to run 5 miles is a totally legitimate (even respectable) reason for being tired at work.
How much would you pay? =)
It’s gettin’ hot here in Indy too. I was amazed at how much cooler it was here this morning than it is during the day.
I completely agree with all the reasons you just mentioned for running in the morning. I was (probably am still) going to write a post inspired this morning on why morning workouts are awesome outlining a lot of the things you just said 🙂
I completely hear you about working out with other people. While I can alone whenever I want, I choose to run with my two running buddies about 4 days per week in the morning. We all have a lot going on, so we realize we all have to be flexible with our times in order to maintain the group runs. It’s usually 6AM, but sometimes we’ll have to go at 5 or 5:30 to accommodate one of our schedules. I find that, for me personally, the benefits of training with others almost always outweigh the “inconvenience” of adjusting your own schedule.
Hugh-
Like you said, sometimes “inconveniencing” your own schedule so you can fit into other ones can be totally worth it! Thanks for chiming in!
-Joel