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As I sit here, yet again, with the clock ticking towards midnight, I think about the workout I won’t be doing at 0’dark thirty in the morning. I’d like to pretend that I’ll get up early and run, but we all know that won’t happen. What will likely happen is that I will get up at the last possible moment to get my older kid ready for school. Then, I’ll take the younger one to school, usually in mismatched clothes and with my hair uncombed (yeah, I’m that mom) and then return to the house. Where I will drink coffee and eat breakfast and start some laundry. THEN (and only then) I will consider heading out for a run.
I’m a night owl. I’ve been one since I was a child. I remember still being awake in my bed most nights when my parents would check on me on their way to bed. I can’t tell you how many nights of my life I’ve been up past midnight, but I’m pretty sure the number is higher than 50%. (And I won’t tell you how many all nighter’s I’ve done. Yes, I was made to run Ragnar, why do you ask?)
This makes it really hard to get up early. Other than races and long runs for my only fall marathon (MCM in 2008), I have never gotten up early to work out.
The only time you’ll catch me running in the dark…
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve tried. But I’m not a “hit the ground running” kind of person in the morning. (Pun intended.) I need an hour at least to get from bed to activity of any sort. When you think about the fact that my husband leaves for work at 6:30am and back that time up for wake up time, work out time, etc… Yeah, we’re talking about a 4:30am wakeup call.
Not.going.to.happen.
(I don’t need a lot of sleep, but even I need more than 4 hours.)
Which leaves me having to workout later in the day. All the studies say that you are much more likely to work out if you do it first thing. I’m a librarian. I could get you the statistics, but that would take effort. Anyways, it’s true. Otherwise, life gets in the way.
So, why do I still work out later in the day and how do I make sure it happens?
Why? Honestly, it makes me unhappy to try to shift my body clock and work out early. And since exercise is my happy, it’s not worth it to me.
So how do I make sure it happens?
- I evaluate each week on Sunday night and figure out which days will work best for which workouts. I have a general idea in my head of what I’d like to accomplish and I fit it into the week.
- Each morning, while I’m drinking my coffee and waking up, I look at my schedule and reconfirm my plan.
- I don’t shower until after I get my workout in. (I’m absolutely sure the moms at my kids’ school love this. Not.)
- I dress in workout clothes from the moment I get up. (I work from home, so I have that flexibility. When I worked in an office, I took my clothes and worked out during lunch some days).
- Prioritize! Prioritize! Prioritize! I’m a better wife, mother, and employee when I’m working out on a regular basis and everyone around me knows that.
- Accept that shorter is better than nothing. If I’m really missing my workout, I’ll try to squeeze in a quick HIIT or Tabata workout.
Sometimes, I have to cut myself some slack. Sometimes, things just don’t go as planned. And that’s ok.
I just remind myself that a few missed days are not the first steps down the road towards couch potato.
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(A version of this post first appeared as a guest post on Carla Birnberg’s page.)
WOW! You are amazing! I could not be any more opposite if I tried, but it is incredible that you can do it to me! Whatever works for you! You have obviously found a system that works, so best to stick with it! Like you said, one day off leads to the next, and so if you have found a way to stop it, then keep it going!
My husband is more like you. On Saturday’s he’ll get home from his 2 hour bike ride before I’ve even rolled out of bed…
I need an hour to come to life in the morning too!!! I get up when my hubby does at 5:30 . . . after I “come to,” it’s time to wake the kids up for school at 6:30. I’m not done getting them dropped off until 9am. I usually workout somewhere between 11am – 2pm.
Yep, I have one kid to get up at 6:45 and the next to get up at 7:30, so there’s really no time until I drop the second kid at school at 8:15. I will be heading out shortly for a run…
I am so not a night owl–I’d rather get up and run at zero dark thirty than run in the evening. However, this time of year, it takes 1-2 cups of coffee to rev me up before I head out the door. And I do have to get my teenage boys fed and out the door too….
I envy all you morning people because the world is set up for you. But, yeah, I’m just not that person.
I would also rather run in the afternoons or evenings, and I find that my muscles are warmer – making for (usually) faster runs. But I’m also NOT an early riser and would probably sleep 1 or 2 a.m. until 10 a.m. if I didn’t have work. Now that it’s getting dark outside at about 5 p.m., I should probably invest in a headlamp or borrow my fiancé’s so I can run in the evenings still. Thanks for sharing your tips on scheduling and prioritizing! I think that’s really key.
I’d totally sleep until 10am if I didn’t have kids! At least my kids are night owls too LOL
This post could not have come at a better time. The whole time change did a number on me and I have been staying up WAY past my bed time…hence it has been harder to get in early morning workouts. I LOVE getting my sweat on in the AM but this whole darkness thing is really killing my vibe!
I can’t get out of bed when it’s dark, unless there is a race LOL. Probably a good thing I don’t work in an office…
For the record, a few days off from exercise for me is the road down the couch potato path! But luckily, I never let that potato syndrome get too bad. ive gone down that road before nd i won’t do it again. I’ve found a. at to keep myself motivated and going for the win. 🙂
I’m too addicted to exercise to quit. And if I do take too long of a break, my husband makes me start again because I’m impossible to live with LOL.
Yes!! this is me!! I am a night owl and it won’t change. I’ve tried so many times to get up and run but it just doesn’t work. I’m still half asleep. People are like you will wake up when you start! I”m like no I feel sluggish and tired and end up walking lol. Evenings are when I have the most energy so why force myself to do it when I dont? Yeah some days are tough and all I want to do is go home and relax after work but most of the time I can make it work and feel much better than waking up to do it. Glad someone can relate!
I love it when I meet someone who can relate! Everyone else is like “why don’t you just go to be earlier?”
I was (am) like you, but they made changes at work where if we take a short lunch we get a day off every third week. I now get up at o’dark thirty and train, then go to work. The extra day off to get housework done in an empty house was the kick in the pants I needed to start getting up.
Back when I had a normal work schedule, I was better about going to bed and getting up, but I still tended to slip later and later until I was exhausted.
Great tips! I seem to bounce back and forth every few years between being a night owl and a morning person. I’m currently in the “morning person” phase, but sometimes still get in late night workouts regardless!
I forced myself onto my husband’s schedule before we had kids, but I haven’t gone to bed at the same time as him in years now.
We are so similar! I have always been a night owl myself so I can relate. I can’t count how many nights I look at the clock and say I can’t believe it’s after midnight. My mom used to leave me in the living room when I was a kid. She was a 8 or 9 pm bed person. Having kids has made me try to get more sleep because they will be up and ready to go regardless of my lack of sleep. I prefer to workout in the afternoon or evening. Just can’t seem to get it together in the morning to get in a workout. When I do, the earliest I like to workout is 7am.
Thankfully, my kids inherited my body clock. My husband gets blissfully quiet mornings while the rest of us sleep LOL.
My husband hates to run/workout first thing in the morning, too. He gets up early every day and loves it but not the thought of working out then. I get up early every day (and don’t really love the time) so that I can workout.
I used to be a night owl but now I rarely stay up past 11.
Ugh, I just can’t get up early.
It doesn’t matter when you exercise as long as you get it done. And you do. You’re committed to it as a lifestyle.
Exactly!
I relate to this post, even though I’m not a night owl per say. I work super early (up at 4 am for work) so I don’t have time for morning workouts during the week. I usually do two nights a week running and then fit in other workouts as my schedule allows. I like your tips! The hardest thing for me is being super tired after I get off work, so it’s hard not to give in to the (pressure) to take a nap!
I don’t think I could work a job like that. I’m pretty sure it would make me insane from lack of sleep!
I have tried to work out later in the day and really I just can’t. LOLOLOL! BUT that is good you can do it. I do get up at 4:30 am. LOL. Love it and I will be up at that time tomorrow for the early morning run. I’ll be thinking of you. 😉
Enjoy your run while I’m sleeping!
I’m not an early morning exerciser either. Don’ t know how the 5 am runners do it. I am a 10 am runner. To each his own!
10am is a good time. Usually good and awake by then…
I have just recently become a night owl, but tragically i’m still also a morning person, so I’m sleeping very little these days!
I never get enough sleep…
I’m a morning person married to a night owl 🙂 My husband needs to read this.
My husband and I are the opposite of you. He wakes up at 5 without an alarm clock…
Great post. I would rather workout in the morning and be a sloth at night. 🙂 Love this perspective you shared. 🙂
Thankfully, I have a flexible work life, so I work out mid morning more often than any other time of day.