The Morning Routine

"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare." - Juma Ikangaa, Tanzanian Marathoner

I’ve found that the best time to get quality workouts is before work so often wake up in the early morning. I find the alarm ringing is much like a starter’s gun. Once it goes off, it’s game time. Either I’m going to go for it, or I’m going to role over and hit the snooze button (and miss the opportunity). Our days are so full that I usually plan at least a week ahead to know the workouts I’ll be doing so I know how early I will be getting up each day.

Because every minute counts, usually the night before I get everything ready for the day. This can be laying out all my clothes, creating a play list on the ipod, setting the coffee timer, placing a cup in the right place, just about anything. Tanya has even caught me to her surprise putting out coasters for my cups in the morning.

I have my routine down as well. Grab water, coffee, some yogurt and head to the TV to check a few things. First every single day is flip to channel 500, CNN. I half-jokingly call this time “Making sure nothing has blown up overnight”. From there Channel 505, Weather Channel and after that I’ll flip for another minute or two before starting to get dressed. This all goes fairly quickly and I’m out the door.

All this planning and routine helps get ready to give my best on that day. It’s nearly as important as the time spent on my feet. It feels a bit obsessive sometimes, to be slave to that routine, but I do get strength from it.