Morning Training

[[old] Carl Henrik]

This morning I trained within an hour of getting up. I've been feeling great the past week in my training. This morning I did not feel so great, allthough I don't think it was oxygen constriction, judging by how it felt. <br /><br />I found it hard mentaly to use the SPI I ususallly do for this UT1 session (3x15min, 3min rest). My guess was that it was the nervous system that had not quite "woken up" yet. I usually experience morning trainings tougher for the same intensity and they leave a tired feeling during the day. In fact they feel hard when doing them, in a way, no matter what intensity. If I train in the evening it's the opposite - I feel strong during and refreshed after for the rest of the evening no matter how hard the training (possibly except a 2k race). <br /><br />What do you feel, think, know or can refer to as to the causes? <br /><br />I know hormonal levels and dehydration are mentioned about this but how does that ultimately lead to a different performance or feeling? I drank a lot before workout btw and before going to sleep. So either I always get dehydrated when sleeping and don't have enough time to recover in the mornig and there is nothing I can do about it or there is some other cause. -hormones? affecting the neuromuscular efficiency perhaps? How? Something else?<br /><br />I will measure my HR tomorrow morning rowing and compare it to the same evening session two days ago. <br /><br />HR log from previous two weeks since starting good training, same session (10k 184w):<br />152 evening<br />156 morning<br />144 evening<br />141 evening<br />xxx tomorrow morning

[[old] csabour]

I usually train on the erg at 5.30 am since November and one thing i found that helps is to eat and apple or orange right when you get up. If it's a hard granny smith (green one) it takes some work to eat it and somehow this whole procedure wakes me right up. <br /><br />I suggest doing this half hour before your workout.<br /><br />I still have problems lifting in the mornings though. I start out fine but i gets really nausious and dizzy after just 40 minutes.<br /><br />So in a nutshell i think the answer to your question is low glycogen/glucose levels... i think all that stuff drops off during your sleep. so stuff some sweets in your face when you get up, even if you are not hungry and that should help.

[[old] Afterburner]

If it makes you feel any better I always find that I do better later on in the day than first thing in the morning. I find that I usually tend to have better technique rows (on water!) in the AM (I just tend to focus better), and in the evenings I do better with the whole pulling hard thing.<br />Erg test scores also tend to be much better in the evening than in the morning.<br />I tend to attribute it to the whole dehydration/low blood sugar in the morning thing. Generally I just don't worry about it and structure my workouts around my natural tendencies, makes life easier.<br /><br />Heather

[[old] Carl Henrik]

I forgot to mention, before rowing I took a very light breakfast with some orange juice and 3 small slices of white bread with "Messmör" (I don't know the english word, but it's rather sweet and based on natural whey).

[[old] Carl Henrik]

<!--quoteo(post=55595:date=Feb 11 2006, 08:19 PM:name=Afterburner)--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Afterburner @ Feb 11 2006, 08:19 PM) </b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Generally I just don't worry about it and structure my workouts around my natural tendencies, makes life easier.<br /><br />Heather<br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />If you are able to structure it around your natural tendencies, well, sounds like life is allready quite easy <br /><br />Seriously, my reasons for training early are social in the winter erging and water quality in the summer. During the winter only some weekend sessions are in the morning. It's the summer sessions that I don't want to feel unnecessarily hard and leave me fatigued during the day. This year I will focus on 4- which will manage motor boat waves better than I did in my 1x last year. Still think we will do a lot in the mornings though.<br /><br />Now it's time to sleep so I can get up in the morning and do the row... <br /><br /> <br /><br />

[[old] prairiefire]

Carl,<br /><br />I too find that morning training sessions are not optimal - motivation aside. I think that part of this has to do with the diurnal variation in cortisol production (it's lower in the a.m. and rises throughout the day) and then there is the issue of muscle fiber recruitment. Both of these things are improved after one has been up for some time. If I remember my old exercise phys professor, he thought that the average athlete probably fit into one of three optimal training times - one around 10 a.m., one around 4 p.m. and one after 8 p.m. The relative time of day for maximal effort on a regular basis has a lot to do with one's inherent chronobiology and some of that is amenable to change. My best time for erging is around 8 p.m. with at least a 4-6 hour without food! <br /><br />All FWIW!!<br /><br />Prairiefire

[[old] ljwagner]

I'll throw in my 2 cents, Carl. Its material out of Exercise Physiology.<br /><br />OJ and the white bread with sweetener are likely to have a bit of a sugar rush then a blood sugar drop.<br /><br />Try your OJ diluted at least 1:1 with water, 3:1 or 4:1 better. Use some margarine on the bread. Long workouts need some fats to burn. And try to have all this at least an hour before your workout, since digestion will interfere with a workout. Better to just have the dilute OJ 30 minutes or more before the workout. Then you rehydrate (12-16 oz likely best), and have no digestion interference in the workout.<br /><br />A group of boys on my daughters XC team took to having a breakfast with some protein, carbs and liquid about 3 hours before big Saturday meets. Meant getting up at 3:30-4:00 AM for 8:00 AM races. They said it really did the trick for them. They felt better, raced better. <br /><br />Good Luck<br /><br />Also, if the sluggishness is a bit sudden, and its winter, you may be fighting a virus or something, that may pass in a few days. Be sure to get your rest, and consider backing off just a bit on your workouts for a few days. You may end up no worse for the light let up, instead of getting knocked on your back for a few days if the bug gets the better of you.

[[old] Carl Henrik]

<!--quoteo(post=55641:date=Feb 12 2006, 07:44 AM:name=ljwagner)--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(ljwagner @ Feb 12 2006, 07:44 AM) </b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>I'll throw in my 2 cents, Carl. Its material out of Exercise Physiology.<br /><br />Good Luck<br /><br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Thanks for the reply<br /><br />The juice was diluted 1:1 and the "Messmör" contains about 5% fat, not much, but some. I will try the OJ only diet next weekend. In the past I've felt really bad when not having consumed anything but water before a long morning row. <br /><br />Today my HR was 141 with the same breakfast. I felt fine. And the SPI seemed to correspond to how much I intented it to be with every stroke. Still 141 may be a bit high compared to evenings if I'm still improving rapidly. I'll know on thursday. <br /><br />The idea of getting up at 4am is not so easily conceived so I have now made a mental note of the possibility of it for regattas in the summer. Thanks. <br /><br />Most years I don't get sick but I've done the training with a growing cold thing and am very cautious as to how I feel in that area. This was a different feeling though. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><!--quoteo(post=55623:date=Feb 12 2006, 12:51 AM:name=prairiefire)--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(prairiefire @ Feb 12 2006, 12:51 AM) </b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'>Carl,<br /><br />I too find that morning training sessions are not optimal - motivation aside. I think that part of this has to do with the diurnal variation in cortisol production (it's lower in the a.m. and rises throughout the day) and then there is the issue of muscle fiber recruitment. Both of these things are improved after one has been up for some time. If I remember my old exercise phys professor, he thought that the average athlete probably fit into one of three optimal training times - one around 10 a.m., one around 4 p.m. and one after 8 p.m. The relative time of day for maximal effort on a regular basis has a lot to do with one's inherent chronobiology and some of that is amenable to change. My best time for erging is around 8 p.m. with at least a 4-6 hour without food! <br /><br />All FWIW!!<br /><br />Prairiefire<br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Thanks Prairiefire<br /><br />"Muscle fibre recruitment", that's confirmation to my own feeling. therefore I like the idea <br />I will look in to the cortisol as well. Thanks.