This morning I woke up at 5:09 am, also known as too-goddam-early, to get to the gym by 6 am.
Actually, let me digress here to tell you how I manage this, because it’s no easy feat to actually be ready to workout in the gym BY 6 am.
- I prepare all my food for the next day the night before sometimes including breakfast and put it in tupperware in the fridge and have a bag set out to put it in in the morning, no hassle.
- If I don’t have a pre-made breakfast I opt for something super simple, this morning was a protein shake consisting of: 1 c. almond milk (unsweetened), 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1/2 c. frozen raspberries and 1/2 tbsp. organic pure cocoa blended in my Magic Bullet – therefore I eliminate some mess.
- I shower at night and then after the gym, no morning showering.
- I choose my work clothes and put them in my bag (including work shoes) the night before.
- I get into my gym clothes as soon as I get up so I don’t have to change at the gym and sometimes have this as well as my running shoes laid out the night before.
Knowing that all I have to do if get up, get dressed, put the pre-made food in a bag, eat and go makes it a little more bearable to go. Plus, I trained with a trainer this morning, so I was accountable to someone and couldn’t just not show up. This is also key, if you can get a friend to meet you for morning workouts or have someone hold you accountable, you will be way more likely to go.
Ok, so I left my house at 5:37 (that’s right, less than 30 minutes from bed to out the door, boo-ya) and was actually at the gym in time to get in a 10 minute warm-up before hand. This was partially because the gym was freezing and walking on an incline slightly relieved the horrible cold. The trainer I am working with loves high intensity workout and training “like an athlete” which is awesome, but kind of hard to muster at too-goddam-ealy o’clock. Still, it’s makes you feel like a champion when you are done. This morning’s workout consisted of 4 rounds of Tabata training (crazy guy that he was) and 1 quick crossfit inspired WOD called Fran. FYI Tabata training consists of high intensity (all out) movements for 20 seconds, then 10 seconds rest repeated 8 times for a total of 4 minutes, which is one Tabata round. It went like this:
The too-goddam-early workout
Round one Tabata: Rowing… at level 9, I managed to get 870 meters in my 4 minutes
3 minutes walking to rest
Round two Tabata: Rowing… at level 9 again, I only managed to get 830 meters in my 4 minutes this time because my legs were on fire!
3 minutes walking to rest
Round three Tabata: Hill running… 6.0 mph at a 10% incline, I probably could have gone faster, but this was about the incline not the speed
2 minutes just standing on the treadmill while it’s still running
Round four Tabata: Hill running… 6.0 mph at a 11% incline for the first 4 sets, then 12% incline for the last 4. There is apparently a HUGE difference in the effort between 11% and 12%, because I was toast on 12%
3 minutes walking before giving a run down of what Fran is and demonstrating the form and such which probably took an additional 2 minutes
Fran WOD
21 “thusters” with 55 lbs, 21 chin-ups with a little jump – I still had to break in the middle of the chins even with the jump because it was damned hard
Repeat with 15 reps – broke the chins in 2, did 8, pause, 7
Repeat with 9 reps – did everything continuously
* Thrusters are kind of a half squat combined with a push press using an olympic bar, so you start holding the bar against your chest, elbows up, do a half squat and on the way up push the bar above your head, bringing it back to your shoulders as you squat again.