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10 Reasons to Start Early Morning Cycling Right Now!

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Picture this: open roads, golden light, just you and your bike conquering a climb or ripping down a descent. Sounds pretty great, right? Early morning rides may seem daunting, especially if you tend to wake up with a snarl on your face, head foggy, reaching for the nearest cup of coffee. Mornings may not come naturally to all of us, but there are a lot of things that make grinning and bearing the early morning alarm worth it. Here are just 10 reasons to start early morning cycling.

10 Reasons to Start Early Morning Cycling RIGHT NOW!

You’re a morning person.

If you are a shiny-eyed unicorn of a person that feels alive at 5am, then why aren’t you already doing this? If morning is your prime time, then get on your bike and make the most of it. It’ll be easier for you then it will be for the rest of us.

You’re NOT a morning person.

Seems counterintuitive, but here we are. Mornings may hit some of us like a brick to the head, but that’s actually a great reason to embrace the early morning ride. There’s no better way to make mornings suck less then doing what you love to do most: ride your bike. The first few weeks may be rough, but stick to a schedule and you may just find yourself starting to look forward to those early mornings.

Replace your coffee habit 

You’ve probably heard of magical endorphins. These little guys make us feel all sorts of great, and early morning workouts are known to get them going and give you that natural high (which is way better than coffee). Rather than relying on caffeine to do the trick, you will naturally get the blood pumping, waking you up and boosting your energy levels. Another bonus? You won’t experience the same crash that comes after caffeine, but you’ll find your mood and energy remain at higher levels for hours after your ride.

Quiet Roads

Less traffic means less stress out on your ride. The sense of isolation will allow you to enter a meditative state without the constant traffic noise or honking horns. You’ll also feel a lot safer with less cars on the road.

Cooler Temperatures

During the summer, riding in the heat can become almost unbearable. Early mornings are a great way to avoid the baking sun and heat stroke. Even if it’s still pretty warm, the sun will be less intense than it is later in the day.

Consistency

Over 90% of people that exercise consistently get it done in the morning. It makes sense, as it’s the one time of day that will remain largely untouched by other scheduled events and obligations (it’s not likely you’ll have a meeting scheduled for 5am). If you put it off until later, there’s a large chance it simply won’t happen.

Better Sleep

When you get out there and expose your body to those first few glimmers of morning sunshine, it can have an effect on your circadian rhythm (the internal cycle that governs sleep). Exercise combined with morning light can actually help you kick sleeping disorders such as insomnia. Getting up early will also help you reset your internal clock, making you more ready for sleep earlier at night.

Lose Weight

If you’re cycling to lose weight, the morning should be your time. Get out there before having breakfast, and you will have the added benefit of fasted cycling, which helps your body burn more of its fat stores. It also elevates your metabolism rate for the rest of the day, helping you continue to burn calories through the rest of the day. Keep in mind these should be shorter rides, as your body will not have the fuel for a long jaunt.

Sunrises are pretty

Sunsets are one thing, but sunrises are arguably more beautiful. Those first few rays of golden light are a sight to behold, and will do wonders for your mood for the rest of the day.

Set the tone for your day 

Have you ever noticed that if you start your day off with good decisions, those carry through into the rest of your day? We won’t go into the science, but making those first few disciplined decisions can make the rest of the decisions throughout your day easier. Getting your exercise done first thing can make eating healthy easier for the rest of the day, because the hardest part is already done. It’s a domino effect, and pretty soon you’ll feel like you can conquer just about anything!

Are you convinced to give it a try? Check out “How to get the best morning ride in” on how to plan for those first few early mornings!

How To Get The Best Morning Ride In

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A great way to start your day is with a morning ride. It could change your perspective for the rest of the day and you will feel great while everyone else is slowly waking up at their jobs.

morning ride

Benefits of the Morning Ride

Starting your day with exercise is a great practice. The easiest reason is that you get your ride in before you start the rest of your day. There will not be anything to sidetrack you from your ride later in the day: low energy, extra work, lack of motivation, enticing last minute plans. Life throws all sorts of roadblocks at you as your day progresses. It benefits you to get a jump on the day and avoid the roadblocks altogether.

Waking up early to exercise helps you sleep at night. Early morning exercise, when there is a rush of hormones from waking, lowers blood pressure. The lower blood pressure carries throughout the day, in turn resulting in better sleep (lower blood pressure and better sleep are linked). Once you get this cycle going, you will feel great.

Getting out before rush hour is the easiest way to have the roads mostly to yourself. Most people are still sleeping or getting ready for their day while you are in the thick of yours, doing something immensely enjoyable.

You will benefit longer from the release of hormones related to exercise. The “runner’s high” feeling will jump start your day. Even after the hormones have subsided, your mind will already be used to the good feelings that started your day, continuing on that trajectory. This, along with knowing that you are more in shape already is a great way to start a day.

Plan Ahead

Riding first thing requires planning. You have to have everything ready to go so you can maximize your time on the bike and minimize your time searching in the dark for everything you need while trying to stay quiet so you don’t wake anyone else up.

Lay Out Your Gear

Do this the night before you ride. You do not want to scramble in the dark, post sleep haze and forget something. Put all of the riding clothes you think you might need in one place. The bathroom is convenient so you can do your business, get dressed and brush your teeth all in one fell swoop. Have your food ready to go. Bottles should be full and on the bike. Make sure your bike is dialed and functioning perfectly with a fully charged light if you’re leaving in the dark.

Food

Figure out what you can stomach quickly and comfortably. On rides of an hour or less, you probably do not need anything unless your ride will be very intense. Another possibility is to prepare food that you can bring on the ride and eat it during the beginning of the ride. Some people need coffee to wake up. If that is the case, then have some coffee ready to go. An even better plan is to ween yourself off of coffee so your body can wake up naturally, removing another step in your wake up routine.

If one of your goals is to lose weight, then exercising before eating is most effective. This study shows that even with a terrible diet, participants gained no weight when they fasted before exercise. The other two groups gained significant weight and developed insulin resistance.

If you are looking to boost performance in your ride as opposed to losing weight, then eating is best. You will get the most out of each pedal stroke.

Sleep!

Ensure that you get enough sleep the night before. It is not worth compromising a good night’s sleep to get up early and ride. You will not feel great and it may dissuade you from trying more morning rides. A good tip to ensure good sleep is to turn off electronics about an hour before bed. The blue wavelength that their screens emit cause an alert state in the brain by suppressing melatonin production, a hormone that induces sleep.

Wake Up!

People have different amounts of time they need between waking up and being functional humans. Some can jump out of bed and straight onto the bike. Others need lots of time. Figure out what works for you so you can be fully awake and pedal effectively. You want to feel good on the bike so you can get used to getting the morning ride in.

Standardize Routes

Settle on a route before going to bed. The routes you choose should be familiar; limited duration morning rides are generally not for exploring. You should also know how long you will be out on each one. If you have an hour to ride on a given morning, you take your hour long route. An additional thought is to have a route that has a few escape paths in case you have a flat or other mechanical. It will allow you to fix the mechanical and still get to your first morning destination on time.

Morning Rides are the Best

There are a few challenges to getting out for a morning ride, but they are easy to overcome. A little planning and preparation goes a long way to starting a successful morning ride routine. Once you get the ball rolling it becomes easy, sometimes even necessary when your body is accustomed to the the morning ride.

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