Early Bird

I had an early start on the bike today. I mean really early, as in "the time on the alarm clock started with a 3 when it went off" early. Youch.

The reason for the early start was due to external circumstances and there wasn't much I could do about them, so it was a case of either get up early or not train. Since there wasn't a lot to be done about it I did just that, got up early and got on with it. Such are the realities of training and working.

In the end the getting up early wasn't actually that big a deal. I knew the early morning was coming so I simply planned my week to allow me to get into bed early. Last night I was tucked up and ready to nod off by about 8:20pm. Sure is an exciting life that I lead...

With sufficient sleep under my belt, the early alarm wasn't really that painful. On the contrary, I kind of enjoyed it. Not necessarily the getting up early bit, but rather getting out on the bike super early. I find I always enjoy it when I head out to exercise in the really early morning. It is sort of like the world is all yours. Not many cars or other people out and about. The world is quiet and kind of peaceful. There is a certain beauty to it. 

The other thing I enjoy about being out super early is watching the rest of the world wake up, move from being quiet and empty to busy and bustling. As I rode this morning I got to watch the empty roads fill with more and more cyclists as the groups met up and got underway. Hard to put a finger on why, but there was something nice about it. 

I am not sure I would set my alarm at 3:30 many other mornings but today showed me that with adequate planning a really early morning doesn't have to be the end of the world. Quite the opposite in fact. 

The ride itself was pretty good too. The ride was a bit of a mix, some steady warm up type cycling and then some solid TT type riding. The TT riding was a push above what I have been doing for the past few weeks, but as with the run I did on Tuesday I went into the ride with an attitude that I could do the effort and achieve the result. Just like with the run on Tuesday heading in with an expectation of success helped me to push through when it got tough and achieve the goals of the session. Don't get me wrong it still hurt quite a bit and I still had to work hard, but approaching the session with the right mindset helped me to keep pushing when it really began to pinch. 

The ride was probably one of the better session I have had over the last few weeks of training. One of the first session I have had this year where I felt about normal physically. Hopefully it was just the first of many.