In no particular order… Bad: there is something deeply, fundamentally wrong with setting your alarm at 5am to train. Good: at 5am, kids asleep, spouse not asleep… Bad: bed warm, air cold. Good: get the training session out of the way early. Bad: no chance for breakfast before training. Good: damn! breakfast is great afterwards. Bad: man was not meant to run hard at 5:30am. Good: no trouble falling asleep at night. Bad: falling asleep at night at 9pm. Good: chance to do a second workout later in the day. Bad: can’t watch the 10pm news. Good: can’t watch the 10pm news.
It is pretty embarrasing when I tell people I go to bed at the same time as my 8 and 10 year old boys.
Good: The world is yours at 5:00am Bad: The world is also shared by the odd drunk guy at 5am Good: Ships in the mist off St. Lawrence river. Bad: City turns off most it’s lights right when you run under them. Good: you can wear off the piece of chocolate that you had with breakfast way earlier. Bad: you eat more chocolate. Good: very few people train in the wee hours Bad: gets mighty lonely. Good: crawling back into bed to wake spouse up, who is all snuggly and warm 
Try setting it for 4 am. I know, I am insane.
Agree w/ everything you say here. =)
Good: No need to train during “family hours”.
Good: Have you ever trained where you are the only thing awake and moving? You have if you’ve trained at 4AM.
Good: The serenity that a cold, winter morning presents you. You’re wearing long johns, tights, 2 sweatshirts, stocking cap, gloves, and 2 pairs of socks. You can’t decide if you’re committed or should be committed.
Bad: My contacts don’t like the cold morning air.
Very bad: The damn snooze button.
This past week was a bad morning week for me. Stayed up too late most nights, slept too late most mornings. When I am hitting my AM workouts, everything rokks … rokks like Eddie Van Halen playing Eruption.
Once you get into the sleep/wake patterns, there is no downside to early AM workouts.
On the rare occassion I make it out of bed at 5am, I’ve never have regrets!
But … the bed is so warm …
:))
matt
Good: feeling hard core for setting your alarm at 4:40am Bad: the alarm Good: your timex has 5 alarms, so you set them to go off at 2 minute intervals starting at 4:30am. sometimes you wake up before the alarm clock Bad: sometimes you don’t Good: seeing the sun come up Bad: crashing out at home three hours before your spouse is even close to tired Good: feeling like you’ve actually accomplished something before the day’s even started
You can’t decide if you’re committed or should be committed.
Perfect.
I hear you brother. My daughter’s swim team just added morning work outs that start at 5:15. That means getting out of bed at 0’dark thirty. I can’t wait until she can drive.
Set the alarm for 3:50 am, drive into Manhatten to run before work. There is still lots of traffic and plenty of runners along the East River at 5:30.
Want to feel hard core? Strip down naked and put on your work clothes on a Manhatten sidewalk in January!