Early enough

It’s Thursday and I was up early for the third time this week. Ouch

It wasn’t that early and it wasn’t that dramatic but it does require some level of commitment. And I still find it harder to wake early through winter when the moon is still out in force at 7am.

There’s no doubt that training early, before work, is best for me. I rarely have any issue waking for a 6am spin or pool session through summer. I’ve actually struggled to find people with whom to train at that time of day here.

What I like most about training early is that I know it’s done when I start work. When I make a decision to sleep in to 7am, for example, then I start my day in deficit. As committed as I am to training, my enthusiasm or energy may wane through the day.

I call it distraction.

Controlling distraction is an art. It takes time and patience to develop. And it’s a never-ending challenge.

Let me recap my week so far. Up early Monday, bike. After work, swim. Up early Tuesday, swim. That’s the first early swim I’ve done since August and it was great. After work, a run.

Wednesday. Hmmm. Opted to watch TV bit too late on Tuesday and decided then and there that I wasn’t going to wake too early. Wednesday is my bike day – two sessions. As noted, I didn’t get up early to spin before work.

After work, I was ‘distracted’ by life. Again nothing dramatic but the dog needed to be walked, groceries needed replenishing, etc. When I finally got on my bike, my mind was elsewhere.

The cup of black tea wasn’t helping.

I do remember one of the basic lessons of training: start.

So the session I did start. It was to be a timetrial workout. I knew within 15 minutes of the planned 60 min session that I really wasn’t going anywhere fast.

I modified my session and made it through half an hour. That’s a half hour more than I had before the day began and that’s a positive. It was a fair bit less than planned which isn’t a positive.

As for today. I decided I would get back on the bike this morning. So up early. I did put in a solid 45 min set before work. My plan to swim after work though ended up just that – a plan.

I have been walking Luka anywhere from 30-60 mins on average a day every day and I do count that as a positive. Of course it’s not the same as running on a treadmill but it’s better than sitting on the couch and watching Criminal Minds after Criminal Minds after Criminal Minds – though that would be tempting.