Good morning, sunshine...

Sunrise over Bolsa Chica Wetlands, Huntington Beach.

Due to the convergence of 3 circumstances - an increase in training volume, a decrease in free time due to starting Endurance Athlete Project and the desire to stop disappearing for hours at a time during weekend afternoons, I've realized that I have no choice but to try a schedule that gets me out the door earlier.

It's not that I am lazy, or at least I don't think so.  It's just that I've always been a night owl.  Due to work, I deal with a lot of people in Europe.  And the thing about that is because of the time difference, it's usually better to stay up past midnight to make those calls, otherwise I may lose a day on something.

Luckily, the realization that I need to get some miles in earlier neatly bookends with my desire to start doing more group training.  Apparently, the group training people realized the secrets of the morning long before I did - almost every organized activity I have come across is scheduled in the morning.

My first official group workout is tomorrow (Sunday).  I'm joining my swimming coach and his group on a 30 mile bike/6 mile run brick.  I need to be at the starting point at 7:00.  It's a 45 minute drive away, so I'll be getting up at 5:45.

If these are my coaches friends, I can safely assume that they are all 2/3rd's my age and have 3 times my experience.   I'm not exactly sure what I've set myself up for - though the distances don't concern me, the potential speed they are going to roll at does.  It's just a little thing, I know, but I'd rather not get dropped the first time out.

Though it's impossible to presuppose the dynamics of my first group training session, I thought it would be a good idea to practice getting up early.  So last night I made a plan to get up at 6:00 for my own bike ride.  I was truly and deeply committed to doing this up until the point that I fell asleep.  But the next thing I knew it was 7:30 and Ian was shaking me awake.  However, he grabbed my phone and took this picture first.

That's me under there somewhere.  You might be wondering why I am sleeping in a tiny bed with a "Star Wars - Clone Wars" fleece blanket.  It's a simple answer.  Like I'm sure many kids do, Ian wakes up in the middle of the night every once in awhile and comes into our room.  Since Mary and I only have a queen bed, it gets a little tight and I usually move.  That said, I don't remember moving last night.

Obviously this morning's experiment was an epic failure.  It's strange though, because I've gotten up early plenty of times to get to races.  I suppose there is an extra element of excitement on a race morning that doesn't exist when it come to routine training.  Today, I was still out the door by 8:00.  And I must say, it's a whole different (and admittedly better) world out on the roads at that time.

So I'll be trying again tomorrow.  My alarm is set for 5:45.  After I finish this post, I'm going to mix up some bottles with Nuun and then go to bed.  We'll see how it goes...