Attack (Your Day) From The Gun

If you’re reading this, you think about cycling quite a bit, and we don’t have a problem with that. If you’re reading this, you do more than just ride when you feel like it, because you’re more interested in the competitive and/or performance aspect of cycling, too.

Consistency in Morning Workouts: A Game-Changer

With that in mind, this stuff is important to you. Our experience with athletes has shown that athletes who train in the morning, workouts are done better, and more importantly, more often. That is, there are fewer missed days and workouts. There’s a better consistency to their training and workouts.

This isn’t to say that afternoon or evening training is bad. Getting the work done (plus rest and recovery) is how you improve, and getting the work done is what matters, not when you get it done. However, when you train in the morning, there’s less opportunity for things to get in the way. The less often things get in the way, the better consistency you have, and it is the consistency in training that matters more than what you do in a particular workout.

Further, if you train first thing in the morning, you’re more likely to make better choices through the day in terms of how you eat and spending your energy. The folks who train in the morning feel that they are more productive during the day. It also helps to have improved sleep, and additionally, athletes who work out in the morning tend to have better sleep hygiene and habits. So, even though they’re getting up earlier, they get better sleep.

The Unique Appeal of Morning Rides: A Bonus for Cyclists

With a time change recently, darkness falls earlier, and those afternoon and evening rides are done in the dark, or you’re on the trainer. Daylight does arrive earlier, so that’s a bonus for riding in the morning, but even year-round, training in the morning has other benefits. If it is in the cooler or cold parts of the year, the ride will start chilly, but warms up as you go, but training in the evening, temperatures drop as the ride goes on and it gets dark or darker. If you’re on the trainer, the trainer doesn’t care whether it is morning or night when you’re on it. In the warmer or hotter times of the year, training in the morning is when it is cooler.

Similar to training in the rain, there’s also something to riding in the morning- most people don’t do it, so it is a bit of a bonus to be training when others aren’t.

We work with plenty of athletes who are training in the 5 and 6 o’clock hours. You may think that training earlier would require longer to warm up, because you’re coming out of sleep, however, keep in mind that training in the afternoon or evening is training with the fatigue of the day, too. In the most aggressive light, it’s worth noting that if you do two a day workouts, one will almost certainly have to be done in the morning, anyway. It’s also a way to be ready for those races that start in the morning. If you’re accustomed to training at 5 or 6 o’clock, those 7am, and 8am start times are even easier.

Conclusion: Unlocking the Power of Morning Cycling Sessions

It can take a bit of time to adjust to it, but it is usually a case of folks sticking to going to bed at the same time and trying to get up earlier on less rest. Give yourself some time to adjust, or perhaps start with just two days per week until it becomes routine. Thanksgiving day is a great day to give this a try, if you aren’t typically training in the morning on a weekday! It won’t likely conflict with much, and if you’ve got a full day of festivities planned, getting that workout done early might be the only way that it realistically happens.

- Christian Williams