how to become a morning runner
I'm a morning person. I love getting up early before everyone else in the house (even MacKenna) so I can have some time for myself. If I can sit on the couch and watch the news while drinking a cup of coffee while the sun rises outside, I am one happy girl.However, even as a morning person, I still find it difficult to get up and workout during the week. During the school year, I wake up at 4 AM every single day. During volleyball season, it's usually even earlier, thanks to that being the only time I can workout. No matter how much of a morning person you are, 4 AM is rough. I struggle daily to pull my tired rear out of bed. I seriously come up with every excuse I can think of to go back to sleep, but I know that if I don't get up, I will be in a terrible mood the rest of the day. So, I've come up with a few little tricks to actually pull myself out of bed.
Set your clock so it is 10 to 15 minutes fast. I will admit this is a really stupid one, but it works for me. My clock on my nightstand is 15 minutes faster than the actual time. So, while my clock says that it is 4 AM when I am waking up, it's actually 3:45. It makes me feel like I got to sleep a little bit longer than I actually did. And really, seeing a 4 first instead of a 3 seems so much easier to wake up to.Give yourself 5 minutes to wakeup. I just started doing this about a year ago, but it has really helped me get up early. When my alarm goes off, I give myself 5 minutes to check my email and play on my phone while still in bed. Some days (like yesterday) are harder than others and I can barely keep my eyes open. Other times, I don't need the 5 minutes to wake up. Of course, you have to include this 5 minutes into the time it takes you to get to the gym, but it does help me wake up a little bit.Don't hit snooze. I'm worse at this now than I used to be, but I very rarely even give myself the option to hit snooze. It's just part of the routine now: the alarm goes off, I turn it off, play on my phone for 5 minutes, and get up. Snoozing isn't an option - it just makes it harder to get up the more times you press it. I also know that the more times my alarm goes off, the more chances I have to wake up MacKenna with it.Other things that can help you but that I don't practice:
- Place your alarm clock across the room from you. That way you actually have to get out of bed to turn it off.
- Find someone to keep you accountable. It would be so much easier if I had someone I was planning on meeting at the gym. I actually think of the "regulars" at that time as my friends and think that they'd be disappointed if they didn't see me there at that time. I don't actually talk to any of them, but it makes me think that someone is expecting me to be there.
- Have some sort of mantra. I have heard of people literally yelling what a great day it's going to be. I, of course, want to avoid waking up my non-morning-person hubby and light-sleeping daughter.
If you're struggling with waking up in the morning, try doing one of these this week to see if it works for you. Find one that will help you and motivate you to actually get out of bed. I'm not claiming it's going to get any easier, but at least you'll feel better after you get your workout on!