A Change in Morning Routine

I hate waking up early. My alarm is set for 7:00, but I hit snooze and sleep until 7:09, at which point I take out my earplugs and usually lie in bed until 7:15 or 7:20. As a result, I don't get to work until 8:20 or 8:30, when technically I'm supposed to be there at 8:00.

Well, a few times recently I've had to wake up at 6:20 to take my two kids up to school in Draper, 45 minutes away. And it's not so bad to wake up that early, as long as I didn't go to bed too late the night before (bedtime by 11:00 is good for me, by midnight is passable).

The other part of this equation is that I do 30 minutes on the treadmill three times a week, and I've been consistent for over two years now. But I've been doing it mostly in the evenings, and on treadmill nights it irritates me that I have to set aside time for that.

So today I took a plunge and woke up at 6:45 to do the treadmill. It wasn't too bad, and I even enjoyed the golden quality of the early-morning light. I don't like jumping into a hot shower when I'm already hot and sweaty, but I can get used to it.

Anyway, I was thinking I would do it two mornings a week, and then just anytime during the day on Saturday or Sunday. But then I thought how it would be a pain to change my alarm every night. So now I've decided to just wake up at 6:45 every weekday morning and do the treadmill. Isn't that funny, that my laziness about changing the alarm leads me to do another 90 minutes a week of treadmill? But another reason is that they say you need to do at least 30 minutes of exercise on MOST days of the week to get any real benefit, so now I'll be hitting that "most" mark.

Of course, I've only done it one day. And I may miss some mornings if I don't have a good sleep. But I'm old enough now that I don't fool myself much anymore about what I'm willing and able to do, and I feel willing and able to do this. Plus, it will make weekends even nicer, not to have to do any treadmill. Another benefit will be that I can catch up with my backlog of audio books, since I'm almost doubling the time I spend listening to them on the treadmill.

Currently playing on iTunes: "Cherub Rock," Smashing Pumpkins