trying again

Morning workouts.... the bane of my existence.

For years and years since the beginning of time I have tried to turn myself into a morning worker-outer.  For years and years I have failed.  I have always been uber impressed with the people who drag themselves out of bed at the crack of dawn to tackle a workout.

Me?  I can hardly tackle pouring a cup of coffee at the crack of dawn.  I've just never been able to get myself out of the house at that time of day.  Sometimes I am able to get out of bed at the appointed time, but somewhere between bed and door the motivation disappears... and I end up sitting or going back to bed.

And it's frustrating!  It is frustrating to have SO much resolve and ambition as I lay in bed the night before.  I lay there and carefully plot out the next morning's workout.  It sounds so exciting and totally doable!  I think to myself "FINALLY I am becoming an awesome morning exerciser!"

And then the alarm rings at 445am.... and then I hate the world.  Why is it that my bed is SO comfortable in the morning?  My pattern is that I'll try again for a few days and continue to fail at the morning workout, eventually resigning myself to the fact that I'm not a morning person and return to afternoon/ evening workouts.

But...here I am again.  Trying AGAIN to do the morning workout thing.  It just seems so appealing to have my run out of the way before anyone else is awake.  Plus, it's wonderful running weather right now- no humidity and cool morning temps. 

Last night I boldly declared that I would be getting up at the crack of dawn to do my 5 mile run.  Last night I sounded very confident...but I was still 75% sure that I wouldn't follow through... because, hey, I know how I roll.

Today was different.  I rolled alright... rolled my butt right out of bed.  I'm not going to lie, there was some grumbling (quiet grumbles as I didn't want to wake the infant, the toddler, or the husband), but I dragged myself to the Keurig and slammed down a cup of coffee.  Even as I stood there waiting the 3 minutes for my coffee to brew, I contemplated returning to bed for another 1.5 hours of sleep.  But I just kept moving... and eventually made it out of the house.

And I was SO glad I ran.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  53 degrees.  No wind. No humidity.  And at 5am it is totally dark outside.  I've never done any running in the dark before... it was kind of scary, but awesome at the same time.  The sky was clear and the stars were bright. 

It was so peaceful.  My hobbled leg felt good for most of the run too.  I saw several deer, what I am pretty sure was a bunch of mice, and a shooting star.  I was afraid of being hit by cars on only a couple of occasions.  I had just a few irrational thoughts about creepers and murderers hiding behind trees. 

I am proud of myself for actually getting up and running.

I am also completely exhausted!  I was ready for a nap by noon.  I was ready to go to bed by 7pm.  It's 9pm right now and I'm hardly able to string a sentence together (which is why this is ending in just a moment).  Morning workouts are totally against my nature.  But I'm going to keep trying to force myself out of bed, because I also kind of loved my run this morning. 

Don't hold me to this though... I might beg to differ tomorrow morning.