5 AM Workouts - How to fuel up?

For me, just a muesli bar or a banana as i feel hungry. then a proper breakfast after that. Generally i barley eat anything but have a monster brekky.

kbone said:

Does anyone else workout first thing in the morning? How do you fuel up before starting the workout? I don't have more than 15 minutes between the time I wake up and the start of my ride so I generally have some water and maybe a GU. Anyone have suggestions as to light EARLY morning foods?

A handful or two of some trail mix (and water) would be good- a mixture of dried fruit, various nuts, m and m's will give some sugar, good fat as protein as well.

I do an hour+ commute or training ride most mornings. A Powerbar Performance at 45g of carbs as I am dressing before heading out the door gives me right at enough calories and carbs to get going. I can add more to that on the road if I plan on going for more than an hour and a half.

same issue. not awake enough to eat, but need to ride early. I drink some pineapple juice, have a slice of bread with honey, and off I go. I'm not fully awake until 20 minutes into the ride. On the ride, I'll down some raisins. When I get back, its time for big breakfast.

kbone said:

Does anyone else workout first thing in the morning? How do you fuel up before starting the workout? I don't have more than 15 minutes between the time I wake up and the start of my ride so I generally have some water and maybe a GU. Anyone have suggestions as to light EARLY morning foods?

kbone said:

Does anyone else workout first thing in the morning? How do you fuel up before starting the workout? I don't have more than 15 minutes between the time I wake up and the start of my ride so I generally have some water and maybe a GU. Anyone have suggestions as to light EARLY morning foods?

I eat a half banana before my bike ride if it's in the am. I am usually out of bed and on the bike in less than 10 minutes. My rides start at 0430hrs.

This is something i have thought alot about, i am studying for a degree in french and work full time. But i still want to ride long slow distance at the week ends, how do you motivate yourself to get up at lets say five; preferably i would like to do a four hour ride on both days but i struggle with the getting up bit, although i was a squadie for five years so i should be able to bo it. Any suggestions? cheers

nath1 said:

This is something i have thought alot about, i am studying for a degree in french and work full time. But i still want to ride long slow distance at the week ends, how do you motivate yourself to get up at lets say five; preferably i would like to do a four hour ride on both days but i struggle with the getting up bit, although i was a squadie for five years so i should be able to bo it. Any suggestions? cheers

It was hard at first, but it's a breeze now. The air is cooler and much easier to breath in. the traffic is minimum. Sometimes I do roll out half asleep but soon wake up after my first sprint. Also, I only ride about 20miles in the morning.

I eat nothing at all. Just water while I ride. If combined with a gym session, it may be upto 2 hours before I eat and it doesn't seem to bother me. Guess its what you are use to. When I do eat, I try to get some protein with the carbs and/or fat, so to get the body into action repairing the muscles.

I get up at 5AM every morning to work out. It is the only time I can get a good workout in without taking time away from the family. For me, the best motivation is to set a lofty goal myself and then train to meet that goal.

My current goal is to climb 3 mountain peaks in July and that has been driving my early morning workouts. I don't want to bonk on the climb or let my climbing partners down so that motivates me to get moving every morning.

I am not a morning person by any means and I hate getting up that early but I have found that if I can just get out of bed then the rest of it isn't so bad. I have also found that after working out in the morning I feel better throughout the day.

So, I guess my advice would be to set a goal for yourself and then work toward that goal. Also, don't hit the snooze button and just get up when the alarm goes off - that is the hardest part and once you are past that you are OK.

cheers

it seems that there are a few morons who are up with the possums! I am up at 0420 and out the door by 0445 0450hrs. Its hard to do, but when you dont have a car in the driveway, and you dont get paid if you dont turn up to work, thats motivation enough. Also, what I do now and again, is get up at 0300, chuck on my gear, put my trackies back on, and jump back into bead, to warn up my gear as its getting really cold now.

Food, well I used to eat bananas, but at $9 odd a kg ( Thanks cyclone in QLD :o ) I now have a slice of toast or 2 with honey or Vegemite. Get to work at 0630 and chow a hell of a big b.fast! I dont use any suppliments, but I guess I should have a protine, but I wouldnt have a clue which one to use...😕

LeojVS said:

it seems that there are a few morons who are up with the possums! I am up at 0420 and out the door by 0445 0450hrs. Its hard to do, but when you dont have a car in the driveway, and you dont get paid if you dont turn up to work, thats motivation enough. Also, what I do now and again, is get up at 0300, chuck on my gear, put my trackies back on, and jump back into bead, to warn up my gear as its getting really cold now.

Food, well I used to eat bananas, but at $9 odd a kg ( Thanks cyclone in QLD :o ) I now have a slice of toast or 2 with honey or Vegemite. Get to work at 0630 and chow a hell of a big b.fast! I dont use any suppliments, but I guess I should have a protine, but I wouldnt have a clue which one to use...😕

I'm hearing ya! Banana's prices are as lofty as fuel!!

Waking up at 3??? you are crazy! no doubt.

PS: It's colder in Melbourne.

🙂

I'm with the others... Gotta love bananas. One of nature's gifts to workout warriors!

LeojVS said:

it seems that there are a few morons who are up with the possums! I am up at 0420 and out the door by 0445 0450hrs. Its hard to do, but when you dont have a car in the driveway, and you dont get paid if you dont turn up to work, thats motivation enough. Also, what I do now and again, is get up at 0300, chuck on my gear, put my trackies back on, and jump back into bead, to warn up my gear as its getting really cold now.

Food, well I used to eat bananas, but at $9 odd a kg ( Thanks cyclone in QLD :o ) I now have a slice of toast or 2 with honey or Vegemite. Get to work at 0630 and chow a hell of a big b.fast! I dont use any suppliments, but I guess I should have a protine, but I wouldnt have a clue which one to use...😕

Leo, you are as crazy as the rest of us. If toast is your choice of brekie, you could try puting a bit of cottage cheese on it. Bacon and Egg roll from the local coffee shop. Anway, its sounds like you body works pretty good anyway, so perhaps a dietary change isn't needed?

Energy bar but more important would be dinner the night before.

Anybody who wakes up before the sun does is tops in my books.

Every time i try i end up sleeping till 8 or 10. But just seeing how you guys all force yourself to get past that sleepy feeling once the alarm sounds in the morning, when you feel like its only been a second since you closed your eyes and you need to get up again... makes me wanna really really do it tomorrow morning.

Getting up so early is really hard, it only takes determination... later on it becomes a routine, but that means no partying on weekends for me...

Every Friday and Saturday I wake up at about 04h50 for a 2-3 hour cycle. I try to do 5 hours on these two days combined. I always have a small bowl of muesli and a banana with honey as well as a big glass of water before I go riding. Although if I ride really hard, then I get stomach cramps, so like on a race or so, I would just eat a banana and an energy bar for breakfast.

For the very early workouts it's not normally at too high an intensity for me. I usually make sure I have a good carb meal the night before to start with.

On the bike its mainly Gatorade and for the very long ride my special home made fruit loaf and/or these apricot and coconut bars I get from the health food store - bit soft, easy to chew, energy dense.

One good trick to get out of bed and get riding... put your very loud alarm clock about 3m away from your bed and next to your cycling gear 😄

nath1 said:

This is something i have thought alot about, i am studying for a degree in french and work full time. But i still want to ride long slow distance at the week ends, how do you motivate yourself to get up at lets say five; preferably i would like to do a four hour ride on both days but i struggle with the getting up bit, although i was a squadie for five years so i should be able to bo it. Any suggestions? cheers

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The best thing I found for getting up early(there was a period when I was donig a degree when I got up at 4.30AM evey morning for months to study before lectures - I managed to do nearly a whole years work in one 6 month semester!) was to have an alarm clock set in my bedroom for 4.25AM.

I would have another one set in my garage for 4.30AM. Therefore I used to get up, turn off the 4.25 and head out(outside garage) and turn off the garage alarm - hated the thought of the neighbours hearing a loud alarm clock ringing.

After that little sprint, feeding the cat, toilet, wash etc I was feeling awake and would breakfast and get into study🙂 .

But I don't think I could do it now - married with two young children.

LeojVS said:

it seems that there are a few morons who are up with the possums! I am up at 0420 and out the door by 0445 0450hrs. Its hard to do, but when you dont have a car in the driveway, and you dont get paid if you dont turn up to work, thats motivation enough. Also, what I do now and again, is get up at 0300, chuck on my gear, put my trackies back on, and jump back into bead, to warn up my gear as its getting really cold now.

Food, well I used to eat bananas, but at $9 odd a kg ( Thanks cyclone in QLD :o ) I now have a slice of toast or 2 with honey or Vegemite. Get to work at 0630 and chow a hell of a big b.fast! I dont use any suppliments, but I guess I should have a protine, but I wouldnt have a clue which one to use...😕

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Why don't you sleep with you cycling gear on? I wouldn't want to be waking through the night to get changed and trying to sleep with cold clothes on.

Bananas in Auckland are $1 - $2 a kg. May be we should export them....🙂