Early to Bed, Early to Rise?

As I mentioned last week, my new workout partner Dana and I have established a Monday/Wednesday swim date at 5:30 a.m. 

Last week the swimming went great for us.  The first day, I did my swimming and then went home and slept for an hour and a half before Nathan got up.  But the rest of the day, I loved that feeling of knowing that my workout was done for that day. 

Last Wednesday, the weather was so pleasantly warm, and I felt so great after my early-morning swim, that I went home and set up my laptop and coffee out on my back porch for some early-morning web-surfing before Nathan got up. 

Morning exercise FTW!

This week, though, I became a big fat flake. 

Dana had to go somewhere for her job early Monday morning, but I swore I would still get to the pool without her.  I needed to get into the routine of Monday/Wednesday swims.  But then I stayed up too late Sunday night and didn't even bother setting my alarm for 5 a.m.  I mean, I did go to the pool later in the day, but by then my swimming session really broke up the day in a very awkward way.  I really liked the way early-morning swimming streamlined my day and gave me large chunks of time to get things done. 

So then today I had planned to go to the pool at 5:30 a.m.  But stupidly I drank two Diet Cokes right before bed and could not fall asleep, and I was up several times at night worrying about getting up in the morning.  (I know, if that's not the dumbest thing, I don't know what is.)  And then at 5 a.m. when my alarm went off, I texted Dana to tell her I wanted to flake. 

This week I failed at getting up early. 

Next week I have to do better. 

Besides the minor infraction of drinking too much caffeine before bed, I think my failure can be attributed to two major mistakes.

Mistake #1: Not getting up at the same time every day.  Every single tidbit I've ever read about healthy sleep states that you should go to bed and get up at the same time every day.  When you force yourself out of bed at 5:00 a.m. one day and then sleep until 8:00 the next day, that's really forcing your body to adapt to an unreasonable schedule shift.  In my ideal world, I would love to be up and exercising at 5:30 most days, and I think the summer is a good time to get myself into this schedule, what with the earlier sunrises and all.  I like the idea of going out on a morning bike ride as the sun comes up.  Seems like a very life-affirming way to start the day. 

Mistake #2: And this is more like an explanation than an actual mistake, but I think I need to come to terms with the idea that I have to shift my whole daily schedule if I want to work out in the mornings.  Because while working out in the morning might streamline my day, it cannot perform the miracle of adding extra hours to the day.  What I mean is, if I'm going to get up earlier, I have to shift my thinking to a life where most of my free, alone-time hours are before Nathan wakes up, rather than after he goes to bed.  Realistically he doesn't fall asleep until 8:00, and I really need to go to bed at 9:00 if I want to get up at 5:00 a.m.  It's hard to get used to only having one hour after Nathan goes to bed, and that's not even considering the all-too-frequent times where the boy is still carrying on at 9:00 p.m.  Again, I think it all goes back to the issue that I need to fully convert to the early-morning schedule, so that my daily life has a different flow to it altogether. 

There's also the side issue that I may be married to the worst night owl in the history of the universe.  Last night he went to bed at 3:00 a.m., and had I gotten up at 5:00 a.m., that would have only been two common sleeping hours.  Not that I think shared sleeping time is some important cornerstone of a marriage or anything like that, but I just mention it to illustrate that obviously we will now be on completely different life schedules. 

But I really think that if I'm going to use my time wisely this summer, I need to become a morning exerciser.  I need to get my workouts done before taking Nathan to camp, so that I can use my three camp hours to have uninterrupted writing time.  Seeing as I have to write two play scripts this summer and all. 

It all sounds great on paper.  But we all know that every argument that sounds really sound and rational in the light of day completely goes out the window when the alarm goes off first thing in the morning.  How many times have we stayed up late, thinking it seemed like a great idea at the time, only to regret it in the morning?  As Jerry Seinfeld says, Morning Guy and Night Guy are two separate people. 

Anybody have any suggestions on how to become a better morning exerciser?