An Early Morning Workout

This morning I took James to the airport. He's going to New Zealand until Saturday. When I got out of bed at 4am today to get ready for our 4.30 drive to the airport, it felt like I had not even been to sleep in the first place!

Last night I was trying to decide what to do with today. I had two options - return from the airport to my bed at home for another short sleep followed by a late morning start at work, or head straight from the airport to start my day early and finish work early. I chose option #2.

As a result, this morning I found myself going to the gym at 6.30! It should have been 6am but I won't go into an explanation of why I started half an hour later than intended.

As I approached the gym I began to reflect upon 6am gym-goers. Who are these people? Was I about to encounter a gym full of people who only fall into the "elite" fitness category? Were there even going to be any people at the gym? After all, it takes a lot of dedication and discipline to go to the gym at 6am. I struggle most days to make it by my ideal time of 8.30!

As I surmised the parking lot I could only deduce that there were, in fact, quite a few people at the gym. There even appeared to be more parked cars present than at my usual 8.30-9am start time. I suppose that makes sense; if only one or two people were going to the gym at 6am then surely the staff would open the gym later.

I hopped on the treadmill just after 6.30 for my run and was done by 7am. Per my typical Wednesday morning routine, I then headed upstairs for weight training. 7am is my usual waking time so you can imagine the sense of accomplishment I felt at having already completed my run. By 8.30 I was finished, showered, hair dried and off to the office.

Is the 6am atmosphere different to the 9am one?
For sure. 6am is a when those who want to exercise before work come. 9am is the when the Mums with the gorgeously cute little kiddies come because creche opens at 9am. I found the 6am crowd to be very focused but not particularly sociable, whereas the 9am crowd sometimes seem to come to the gym to work out their vocal chords more than their muscles.

Both times have their advantages and disadvantages. I can't say which I like better. I can, however, say for sure that I definitely prefer these times to the horribly busy peak hour, 5pm post-work time, when all the machines are in high demand so that you have to factor waiting time into your workout if you don't want to be late for dinner, and the place stinks because there are so many sweaty people everywhere!

If I were more disciplined and focused, perhaps I would try more often for an early morning workout. I mean, it's 11.30am right now and i feel like my day is more than half over when it's nowhere near!

However, between my love of sleep and my desire to put God first such that it is imperative I spend time with Him before I head to the gym every day, regular 6am starts will not be a reality in my life. At least not until I figure out how to get to bed by 8pm! Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

In the meantime, I'll just wait for the next 4am drive to the airport.