How to Prepare for Early Morning Erg?

[JohnW18]

Our team has been doing early morning erg workouts that starts 6:20ish. They look closely at are scores and I do not want to be left behind.
Recently I have been feeling tired, lack of energy, mentally exhausted, sometimes very sweaty, and other times too hot. I am doing worse than most people who I am usually slightly better than despite the fact I have PRing on every piece so far. My main issue is wondering what to eat because I wake up at 5:40 get ready and at 6:00 I leave my house. If anyone knows a good eating strategy that will help me endure a painful 2x 20minute, 10k erg, or other long pieces that are team does for these workouts please let me know.

[hjs]

The day before, eat more then, in the morning keep it light, take some stuff with you to eat/ drink during the wirk out, but if you eat enough the day before it will be enough. Its more the time of day, that is horrible, you can never be 100% that close to waking up.

[jamesg]

You won't do yourself any harm if you:

Drink plenty first, water, coffee, tea or whatever.
Go slow during the 10k (HR in UT2 or max half way into UT1 band); if you use 2k W as guideline, 70%.
Eat what you like after.

Don't worry what others do, we're all different, and if we rowed, it was because it's fun and nice to listen to the boat sing on a cold spring morning, while the gulls shout and the fish jump.

10 k is LSS work and doesn't take any special eating. It's just minimal exercise that everyone does or should, even us OAPs.

If I wanted to give your syndrome a name, it would be overtraining, but on 10k it looks doubtful. However trying to PR every time is a certain killer.

[AnimalNige]

Go to bed earlier.

I begin training at 6:30am It's just difficult.

You have to make sure you can get some simple carbs and caffeine in first. Then start slowly.

I start with a bike ride which starts with hardly any pressure on the pedals. But after 20 minutes I'm feeling good. I move onto the erg once I feel sprightly.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

You don't want to eat anything more than an apple or banana if you're waking up 40 minutes before practice. If you eat anything bigger you're still going to be digesting it by the time you start working out, and it won't help you at all. If you're a coffee drinker just have some coffee and a banana.

As for feeling exhausted, tired, etc. = you're probably not sleeping enough. Only one way to fix that - sleep more.

If you're sweating a lot and feel hot - it's probably hot in your erg room. Get a fan or ask the coach to get you guys a fan.

[JohnW18]

thank you everyone I will take all this advice.
Should I eat a lot like an hour before sleeping? and like a banana in the morning with a granola bar or something?

[AnimalNige]

I find bananas on an empty stomach give me stomach ache.

Coffee with plenty of sugar, and a pot of yogurt gives me a kick start for a two hour morning session.

Oh, and I down a pint of water immediately upon waking. I've been not drinking for hopefully 8 hours. It should be absorbed immediately.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

thank you everyone I will take all this advice.
Should I eat a lot like an hour before sleeping? and like a banana in the morning with a granola bar or something?

Bad idea. An hour is not enough time to digest the food and for your insulin/blood sugar levels to stabilize.

You need at the very least 2 hours.