Getting Up Early Got Your Goat?

In the nascent stages of your trigeek life, a 4:30am wake-up call was simply insane. 4:30! Why would I have to get up at 4:30?! It's still dark. 4:30 still qualifies as night! Even after years of training, those 4:30 wake-up calls still haven't gotten any easier.

But, in the best interest of forming your awesomely bulging muscles, and stimulating that metabolism that has others wondering where that 20oz turkey sandwich you had as a "snack" at 10:30am went, 4:30am is a necessity. Or maybe for you, it's 4...or 5...still, it's pretty freakin' early. And right now, it's also pretty freakin' cold.

Here are some suggestions to help get you up and going, when everyone else you know is dreaming of sugar plums...or something like that:

• set your alarm for the latest time you can possibly get up and meet your buddies/make it to practice. DON'T do the snooze thing. That just cuts into time you could've been at REM instead of lying there dreading the 3rd time your alarm goes off.


• DON'T drink caffeine. Or, if you must have coffee to be a productive / kind member of society, please do, just not for several hours before you go to bed. Let's say 5. That looks like a good number.


• Give yourself a treat for waking up. No, not the Rice Krispy kind. Say you're going to swim practice. When you get up, think of that super cute guy/girl on your Master's team. Because you got your butt up so early, you get to ogle this person in their tiny bathing suit at every rest interval. Or, if you're lucky enough to swim the same pace as they do, you get to swim behind them all of practice. Maybe they'll even talk to you!


• think of all that time between now and when you have to go to work. That's a lot of you time before you have to give yourself up to the corporate infrastructure. Excellent.


• picture the amazing body you are building. Think about all that body fat you are widdling away. Those bulging biceps. Think of all that time you're shaving off everything--minutes off your swim, bike and run. You will dominate this year! And all thanks to your special morning wake up time.


• it gives you bragging rights at work. When your coworkers meander in at 15 minutes late at 10:15, apologizing because they couldn't get up, just say, "Oh, that's ok. I got up at 4:30 and worked out for 4 hours. I didn't think I'd make it in time, either!" (Or something equally as subtle.)

Be proud of yourself! As you know, early to bed, early to rise...makes a triathlete healthy, wealthy, and gives him/her great thighs!