Train in the Morning? What's your daily routine?

It depends if I am starting from my house or going somewhere else.  If I'm going somewhere else (YMCA, meeting training partner, etc), I'll get up about 15 minutes before I leave and get ready.  I'll bring water and a banana or something small and eat it in the car when I'm on my way.  To make it less stressful in the morning and decrease the possibility of leaving late, I'll get all my clothes, water, bike rack on the car, etc the night before.

If I go on a ride/run/trainer right from my house, I will wake up a little earlier to let the food settle a bit before I start.

I definitely don't chug water or I'll get cramps.  I'll sip some over the course of 15 minutes or so.

When I get back home, I'll eat the rest of breakfast.  Usually eggs and wilted greens, oatmeal, or granola.

It starts the night before by laying out workout clothes...Wake up...Roll out of bed...Put on workout clothes & shoes...Hit the loo...Head out the door.  I'm usually still half asleep when I start running!  Run 1/2 mile, stop and lightly stretch, finish run, take shower then eat.

I know I will find an excuse not to go if I sit around, drink coffe, eat, get on the internet.

Get basically everything ready or laid out the night before. Make the morning steps as simple and short as possible. Breakfast, lunch and all snacks are as ready as I can get them. Water bottle is full & in the fridge. What I wear for the workout is on the counter to get right into. Gym bag is packed with stuff I may need and work clothing the night before. I know what the weather should be the night before. I'll recheck in the morning just in case. 

Get up with the alarm and run on autopilot. It takes a little practice to get the feel, but get it so everything is just automatic. The less thinking I have to do the better. The routine is the same whether it's a run or a swim. I don't bike before work.

As for eating, maybe a small bar of something, but no more. Sometimes nothing. Breakfast is after. I'll have water depending on what I feel like. This gets better as you learn to gauge your thirst.

I've started working out in the morning just last month and now I've got my routine down. I wake up at 5:15. I don't get anything ready the night before. I make my lunch to bring to work, then make a small breakfast, usually a piece of toast with peanut butter. I get my work clothes together then change into my workout clothes. I'm out the door by 5:45. No email checking. No pets. I don't do anything in the morning that doesn't prepare me for my workout or the rest of my day. 

I tried to get everything ready the night before a few times, but I've found that I'm not all that tired when I wake up, so that extra 15 minutes in the morning isn't a big deal to me. Most of the time, I wake up on my own about 5 minutes before my alarm and feel pretty good. So I just prep everything in the morning. 

I'm not a morning person. I have a hard enough time waking up in the morning at all. Once I'm up, I don't want to go to bed.

When I work out in the morning, I am usually running, and I leave from my house for that. The night before, I make a mug of green tea with some honey or agave nectar. I leave a Cliff bar or something similar next to it. I leave these on the table by my bed. I wake up at about 5:30 or so, drink the tea, eat 1/2 of the Cliff bar, and drink some water, then go back to sleep for 20-30 minutes. I then get up, get ready for my run, chow down 2-3 dates, put in my contacts, and get to running. 

This routine has made morning workouts manageable for me. When I tried it in the past, I struggled for even a short 20 minute run. My pace over a variety of distances averages around 7:00 min/mile and I would struggle to get under 8:00. Since I started getting some food and water in my stomach and in my system before running in the morning, things have been better.  

Good Luck!

Firstly plan what I'm doing the night before.  If it's a long run for example I know i need to be up for around 30-40mins before I go.

Wake up - cup of tea, water, toast with whatever.  Internet facebook for a bit, then get ready and go.

Make sure you have everything ready the night before, get a nice early night if possible, and I take care of my hydration the day before rather than the morning.  Seems to help.

Other times the alarm goes off, I hit snooze and forget all about it!

On gym days, I usually have to budget 45 minutes from alarm to arriving at the gym. Bathroom, take the dogs for a quick walk (I live in the city -- no yard), eat a banana or something else small, fill my water bottle, leave.

I do all the tricks mentioned already: I have my gym bag packed and ready to go the night before, stay off the internet until I get back (except to check the weather on my phone), etc. I usually don't hit the snooze button. When my alarm goes off, I give myself five minutes to get out of bed, and then I'm up.

I do almost all of my workouts in the morning.  Typically, I workout 6 days per week, about 2 hours per day.  Here is the routine:

1. Everything laid out the night before.  If I have a trainer ride scheduled, I set the bike up the night before.  If I am going to the computrainer gym, I put the bike on the car.  If I am going to the gym, bag is packed the night before.

2. Alarm goes off at 4:30, usually up at 4:45.

3. Drink 1 serving MLM nonsense Spark, 8 oz or so of water.

4. Feed dogs, empty dishwasher or dryer, or other stuff around the house until I am coherent.

5.  Start workout by 5:30.

6. Shower by 7:30 or 8:00.

This.  The most preparation I *might* do the night before is make sure I have some clothes that are at least sorta clean...  

I almost never run in the morning so I'm either going to the pool or getting on the trainer.  If it's the pool, I need to be there at 5:30 and leaving my house by 5:15 which makes for a 4:20 wake-up time.  If I'm getting on the trainer, I usually try to get on by 5:30 and I just wake up at 4:20 so I don't have to bother changing the alarm.  

I stumble out of bed.. pull on workout clothes drink some water and out the door for my run. 

It's 4 a.m. and the dogs are too lazy to get up that early.

Most weeks are the same.  I sleep in-betwen morning and night workouts.

MON
7a Get off work
7:30a Group strength
Run ~3-5 mi  After strength or before work at night depending on length of run and intensity of strength, outside/track/treadmill (but try to do this on treadmill or inside track, tempo mostly


8:15p Go into work

TUE
5a Get off work
6a Group swim

5:30p/6:30p Winter/Rest of year     Group interval trainer class
10:15p Go into work

WED
7a Get off work
7:30a Group strength

Long run Before work outside/track/treadmill
8:15p Go into work

THU
5a Get off work
5:30a Group swim

Before work - Long bike outside or trainer (try to do outside)
8:15p Go into work

FRI OFF WORK
5a Get off work
Rest Day

SAT  OFF WORK
10:15a Group swim
After swim, ~Noon  Group strength

SUN 7a Group track
10:15p Go into work

Alarm goes off at 5.

Get up. Put on clothes. Fill water bottle. Get on bike.

It's about 10 minutes from getting up to riding.

I do a 2nd workout over the lunch hour at work. If I need a third, it's after work.

Alarm goes off at whatever time it's set for (depends on length of workout and when I have to be at work).

Hit snooze a bazillion times until I'm now late.

Scramble around the house finding workout clothes, feeding the dogs, shooing said dogs out the door, packing my lunch, etc. etc.

Grab a larabar on the way out the door and eat it in the car enroute to the gym.

Arrive at the gym later than I planned thereby having to either adjust the workout or shower faster afterwards.

Get to work and eat second breakfast while checking out BT.

Yep, that about covers it.  I'm not exactly a model for pre-work workouts.  But I typically get them done.

1. Know what workout/schedule is for next AM. Lay out appropriate work out gear & work clothes.

2. M/W - up at 4:40 (swim day); Tu/Th/F up at 4 AM (run/bike); Sa/Su up at 5 or 6 depending on day's schedule (bike/run). Usually eat/drink nothing other than a small glass of water unless its a long workout (1+ hr run/bike). Even then its a small amount.

3. After workout, head to shower, dress for work, and out of the house. Snack/drink in car on way to office. If its a swim day, I just get up, grab clothes, and head to the pool.

I'm wondering if everyone that does early morning workouts live in southern areas of the country?

Since its so dark out early in the morning, I'm worried that I will slip on ice that I can't see.

I live in Indiana, so I ride indoors. 

5:30am wake up.  Grind beans, turn on coffee pot, hit the head, drink coffee, look for clean running shorts, cuss because all the socks are dirty, find a shoe, spend 5 minutes looking for other shoe, hit the head again, head out the door to run, turn around because forgot watch, now go run.  Finish run, cook eggs, cook black beans, eat.  Then it depends on what else is happening in the day.  If it's a pool day it's something like:

Find least wrinkled dress shirt and pants as possible, throw in dryer for 5 minutes to de-wrinkle best as possible.  One more pot of French press so I have a to go cup.  Throw on Speedos, grab pool bag, toss fresh out of dryer de-wrinkle-fication awesomeness process work clothes into pool bag, search for dress shoes, cuss because I still have to make lunch and snacks for work, hurry through food prep, load it all up and hit the road for the pool.  

Other mornings it's kind of the same but I'll ride.  On ride and pool mornings it's a bit like the Tazmanian Devil but it all works out in the end.  

I'm in Boston --- ride inside; run outside (year round). Yak Trax are your friend.