Rowing In The Morning

[old] richkrz · Post by **[old] richkrz** » August 19th, 2004, 9:09 am

Hi, I row for general health & fitness. The only time I have to use my erg is early morning before work. Unfortunately, I don't sleep well, and have a real tough time getting moving in the morning, which interferes with the workout. As a result, the time and intensity has been steadily decreasing) Has anyone else had to deal with this before? (I've tried various small snacks, either protein or carb based, a short time before rowing, but it hasn't really helped. What do most people eat before rowing when they do it early am?) Thanks, Rich

[old] LacticAcid · Post by **[old] LacticAcid** » August 19th, 2004, 1:32 pm

Before bed, I have a small meal and a GALLON of freezing water! Guaranteed to get you up! Seriously, this is what I do! A snack or protein in the AM before rowing won't do you any good, save that for after. Have a cup of coffee or take a gander at your credit card bills.

[old] JRBJR · Post by **[old] JRBJR** » August 19th, 2004, 1:37 pm

Like you, I also do my erging early in the morning, before I shower and head off to work. Before I erg, I first spend about 10 minutes scanning the morning paper (which gives me time to clear the cobwebs), drink a full cup of semi-caffeinated Columbian coffee (half decaf, half regular), eat a banana or two, then climb on and start erging. By then, I'm pretty much wide awake. I usually do a 40 to 60 minute session (depends mostly on whether or not I have early office meetings that day). If I want to increase my intensity at any point in the session, I can usually do so without any difficulty or undue effort.

[old] PaulH · Post by **[old] PaulH** » August 19th, 2004, 2:08 pm

I'll agree with the other posts. I'm not erging at the moment (water and bike keep me to busy!) but when I do I follow this pattern: *Small snack before going to bed (small glass of diluted OJ with some protein powder) to avoid being starving as soon as you wake up *Iron shirt, make sandwich, pack bag etc to give me time to wake up, along with another small glass of water/OJ/protein *Erg Now I'm neither fast nor thin, but I do struggle to get going in the morning and this helps! Cheers, Paul

[old] John Rupp · Post by **[old] John Rupp** » August 19th, 2004, 3:02 pm

I always row first thing in the morning, the best time of day. It takes me about 10 minutes to wake up, drink water etc, and hop on the erg to get going. I usually don't set any time or distance, so can take a quick break any time (usually bathroom in the first 10 minutes), then quickly back on the erg. It used to take me a long time to warm up for faster sessions, but then I noticed swimmers start doing repetitions right from the start, so I've recently started doing the same thing for a warm up, doing these for 10 to 20 minutes, then the main session after that. This morning I did 2 hours this way. Optimally I drink 1/3 of a gallon of water before rowing, another 1/3 before my main session, and another 1/3 for the rest of the day. Sometimes I get lazy and don't drink very much but it's better when I do. I usually don't eat anything before rowing. Sometimes I mix various herbs with the water. When rowing easy I might have a banana 1/2 way or 2/3 of the way through, and sometimes 1/3 of a banana before time trials but most of the time just water. For time trials I try to not eat anything after 2pm the previous afternoon, and drink more water the night before. I eat plenty right after rowing and a shower. I eat the most right after rowing.

[old] Sir Pirate · Post by **[old] Sir Pirate** » August 19th, 2004, 3:50 pm

I have to argue the point about early morning sessions, especially faster interval type sessions. Most people will sleep for an average of 6-7 hours a night, which means that the heart has been beating at a slow rate for that length of time, also, your body has been relaxed too. To get up and then within half hour push you heart rate up close to max can not be a healthy thing to do. I will not train until I have been up and about for a minimum of 2 hours; I will also make sure that my heart rate has fluctuated a bit during the morning before a session is started. Just my opinion. I very rarely train in the morning; I perform better in the afternoons/evenings. Sir Pirate

[old] Cran · Post by **[old] Cran** » August 19th, 2004, 5:45 pm

When I trained on the erg in the mornings I ate the night before, light carbs, about 600 calories, no fat, and 1-2 pints of water or fruit juice. It was always just a 1 hour UT session in the morning and the pace was always slower than the same session in the evening. I did my harder sessions at lunch time. If you are training straight away when you get up eat nothing, if you have an hour or more before you train you can eat a slice of toast & jam, or a bagel & jam. But not more than that and definately no fat. At the moment I train on the water some mornings, and get up 1 hour before I get to the boathouse so I do eat toast. Works ok, and then I have my proper breakfast about 1/2 hour after I finish the session. Mornings suck, but they are not so bad on the water as long as it isn't raining.

[old] raverlaw · Post by **[old] raverlaw** » August 19th, 2004, 6:55 pm

I'm new to erging, but try to do my main session in the morning before work. I am more tired later in the day, and usually do a lighter session in the p.m., if at all. I wake up, use the bathroom, start the coffee. Then I do light calisthenics to loosen up and get my heart rate moving a little. I erg for 30-45 minutes, varying the workout from day to day- sometimes intervals, sometimes just a straight row. Then I have the coffee, read the paper, and eat a light breakfast - fruit, cereal and non-fat yogurt. I shave, shower, and am out the door feeling fit and ready to tackle the day. When I miss the workout, my whole day sucks...

[old] Guido B · Post by **[old] Guido B** » August 20th, 2004, 2:59 am

How do you do find the courage to get up in the morning and start training? I saw an interview once with Musseeuw, one of our great Belgian cyclists. They showed him training early in the morning on an indoor bike, really going hard. He claimed it helped it body burning fat in stead of glycogen. This way, at a race, he would have more glycogen left at the last K's where it mattered. Any comments? I suppose moderate physical efforts in the morning can't be at all bad. After all, our ancestors lived like that for many years: Getting up early, feeding the catle (in the winter) and other farm animals and AFTERWARDS take breakfast. I guess it's hard for us because our habits have changed due to 9 - 5 jobs and TV and other entertainment in the evening.

[old] brianric · Post by **[old] brianric** » August 20th, 2004, 3:26 am

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'>QUOTE (Guido B @ Aug 20 2004, 01:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'> How do you do find the courage to get up in the morning and start training?  </td></tr></table> I get up at 00:30 and go on the treadmill for 1 hour. I watch the evening news (CBS, ABC) plus part of another show minus commercials on my Tivo and Replay units. When I get on my C2 (about 2 AM) I listen to satellite radio and row for about 10,000 meters. I use a carrot stick approach. The stick is the exercise. The carrot is to watch TV and listen to music. I refuse to watch TV without exercising. BTW, I go to bed at 6:30 PM.

[old] Clemson · Post by **[old] Clemson** » September 7th, 2004, 1:20 pm

I used to train late afternoon/early evening right before dinner, and was making great progress. A job change late last year required me to start my day on the erg, at 5:00 am and it has really been a struggle for me. I guess after reading this, I know that I am not the only one! My meters and times are down signficantly, and not surprisingly, my weight is heading back up. I think after reading everyone's thoughts I just need to toughen up a bit and get some of my discipline back!

[old] k-dawg · Post by **[old] k-dawg** » September 7th, 2004, 9:12 pm

The laws of Physics say that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. I just keep moving until I wake up. I drink a cup of coffee and some cranberry juice while this is going on. I also do some crunches before getting on the rower.

[old] adian · Post by **[old] adian** » September 14th, 2004, 2:29 pm

hey Rich, Nowadays I'm training on the water in the mornings with my univ., practice at 5:30, so I'm up by five. I find this much easier than waking up to erg but I do have some tricks for getting myself out of bed (although I am a morning person, 5 AM is still tough). before I go to bed I drink a large glass of water, so that gives some incentive to sprint out of bed I have a LOUD alarm clock. It sounds like a fire alarm and really makes me jump. Gets the heart rate going! If I anticipate that I am going to be exhausted, I will put it half way across the room so I have to get up to turn it off. I drink another glass of water after I wake up, and I will also eat something high in carbs to give me enrgy for the workout, maybe fruit leather or sharkies, equalling 100 - 200 cal, depending on the workout. Sometimes, If im totaly wiped, I'll drink a nice huge cup of coffee. On my way to practice I pick up two other girls. We converse in the car to wake each other up. The final thing that gets me up in the morning: the cold! Walking from the heated car to the boat bay is really quite a shocker. Especially when wearing old, thin, spandex. Any way, I'm just enjoying 'hearing' myself 'talk' now. Good luck Rich! I find the best way's to wake up in the morning are shock treatments... but prehaps thats just me! -Adian

[old] roadrunner · Post by **[old] roadrunner** » September 15th, 2004, 6:57 am

Alarm goes off at 4:45, on the erg by 5am, no food no drink, just row. Loaded from night before's dinner. RR

[old] Xavier · Post by **[old] Xavier** » September 15th, 2004, 8:52 am

Recently I've been training at about 9:30am, (having made the 12km kickbike trip to the gym) and I haven't noticed too much difference between late(ish) morning, and training in the afternoon. I can't do it after work though (always too knackered, and it's only a desk job! ). Generally it's just a couple of pieces of fruit, and a few swimming pools' worth of water beforehand. Don't get hungry during the sessions or anything. Xav

Concept2 Forum

Rowing In The Morning

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness