So work’s eight miles from home on roads which are only fairly terrifying. I own (a) a bike with slick tyres and (b) two legs. Therefore, I ought to be riding in more often.

But in the mornings I’m slow & leaden & hence arrive at work in a foul temper.

I’m well the aware the correct answer is MTFU but anyone else? How do you wake your legs & lungs up?

A strong coffee and a shot of EPO

I sort of know where you’re coming from. My ride to station is only 15 mins and I have a choice of three routes. 2 have a down hill start and then flat, route three has a gentle rise for about the first 5 mins. If I do that route (all road) at 06:20 I find that rise (and I do mean rise, not a hill by any stretch of the imagination) V hard work, surprisingly so in fact. After that though it’s a big downhill then a little flat and I’m fine by then.
The other 2 routes I have an almost immediate 3 min coast then canal and tiny bit of road. I find this much better. The easy spin on the coast down is obviously enough to get my body up to running temp and I find the rest pretty good.

Still doesn’t help you if you ain’t got a hill to ride down.

Do you have breakfast and a hot drink before you leave. Since starting this job I have been doing so and I think this helps too. Give it a go if you don’t do this already.

Going in I have two decent climbs and a long draggy stretch of imperceptibly uphill why-aren’t-I-going-faster (past the sewage works, unfortunately).

On the way home in the evening – when I’m ready for a proper blow – it’s just a quick spin back down the hills.

Maybe need to get up earlier, wake up properly and give the caffeine time to kick in…

Yep, know what you mean. My route to work, when I’m warmed up takes me about 17 mins easy pace. But at 7.0a.m it’s about 2 ins slower and I feel like I’ve just TT’ed it. I’m pretty sure it’s because you metabolism is not yet awake, i guess the only thing to do, is get up earlier and get yerself going. A mate of mine did the London tri last year, once he found out his start time was 6.00 a.m her had to start training at that time because otherwise he was just struggling.

I cycle about 6 miles to work. Alarm goes off at 6.30 and I snooze till about 6.50, then get up and get ready, make sarnies etc. I leave the house about 7.15 and I’m lucky in that the first mile is downhill / flat. arrive at work around in 25 minutes feeling *great*. At work I eat breakfast while I cool down, then go get changed, I can’t eat before setting out.

Oddly, I’m fine in the mornings.
I do 7.5 miles, and I start off before 6.30am, about 10 mins after I get out of bed. All I have is a quick slug of grapefruit juice to wake me up, and brekkie at work at 8-8.30
Although let me tell you, in mid winter when it’s -7 degrees it can smart a bit on the old lug ‘oles for the first 3 miles! I’ve arrived at work with a Slush Puppie in my waterbottle when I started off with water a couple of times…
🙂

morning rides / run / swimming or any form of exercise is ace. I think it helps if you are used to being up early. I find my performance no different in the mornings to the evenings… so long as Im fed 🙂 If you only do it once or twice a week your body may take a little longer to adjust and may never like being up for an early ride to work.

Kev

Some people are just not morning people, the rest are bloody annoyingly perky and should be slapped whenever they smile in a morning! (I guess Keva is one of those perky ones 🙁 )

Think everyone is different, I need a couple of cups of caffine and a couple of slices of toast before I think about leaving the house but then fine for the 4 miles of either running or biking ahead of me.

Without the caffine I wouldn’t leave the house, without the toast I would do reluctantly. I think it is a case of getting the metabolism fired up and working again??

heh heh… I was running round the park at 07:00 this morning doing burpees, press ups and sit ups at intervals, all before breakfast. Nothing like a zesty start to the day… then I went home for brekkie and a cuppa before getting on the bike to ride to work.

I think loving the sport you do also plays a fairly large part… do I deserve a slap yet ?

Kev

Get a good nights sleep, wake up and have some porridge and a banana, start off easy.

A good nights sleep and a good stretch in the morning sorted me out for my 15miles each way commute everyday…

You will get some days you just have to plod…. still more enjoyable than getting out of a car fuming and bad tempered 😉

Just a thought, are you dehydrated? Otherwise, give it a couple of weeks, your legs will soon catch on.

I don’t eat breakfast, becuase I know I’ll always feel rubbish on the bike if I do. Cup of tea, fill me bottle and off I go.

Commuting is different to racing, you don’t have to go hell for leather from the gun, just spin along at a comfy pace if the legs don’t have much go in them.

I always start my commute (12 miles) saying to myself “I feel a bit sluggish today; I’ll just take it easy and spin along”. Going through town my mind is occupied duelling with the traffic. Then I find myself on the second half of my commute, out in the countryside, mashing on the pedals, and think “Oh, maybe I’m going OK today after all”.

An extra shot of coffee and a bit more patience sounds like the way to go.

Apart from not being a “mornings” type (consider yourself slapped Keva 😉 ) I take a while to warm up. On group rides I tend to spin at the back for the first half hour while the rest of them rip each other’s legs off. Though it usually balances out later 🙂

The time from when I get up to leaving the house is usually 10-15 minutes. I just have a glass of water and then get breakfast when I get in.