5AM...the Miracle Hour?

The first week of Sweet Spot training was tough, but I kind of enjoyed it.  I feel like I'm finally starting to get back in the groove of working out consistently - and the whole 5AM Miracle thing is starting to get easier too.

Monday started with a 5AM wake up followed by a short yoga practice, and a full day at work.  After work, I scurried home, changed clothes, and hauled ass to the gym to get a run in before my training appointment.  I didn't have as much time to run as I wanted, but I made the most of the 20 minutes I had by running hard.  10 minutes into my training session, I was on the verge of fainting.  After a couple of questions from my trainer, it hit me...it was 6:40pm and I hadn't eaten a thing since noon...so my body was running on fumes.  After we finished our session and I hightailed it home for dinner. Note To Self: There's no such thing as being to busy to scarf a banana before a workout!

I'm never too busy for a banana!

After the near-fainting episode, the rest of the week went well. All workouts were done, yoga was practiced, and getting up on time happened every day but Thursday.  We swim late (starting around 8:45pm) on Wednesday nights, so I didn't get to bed at a reasonable hour and my brain decided that this was a good excuse to thwack the snooze button...until 6:30AM.  I skipped my yoga practice that morning, but still made it out the door on time. We'll leave a discussion of my really poor food choices on Thursday for another day.

I don't think I'll ever love getting up before the crack of dawn, but I am starting to see the benefits of going to bed at the same time every night and getting up really early.  Since I've started trying to follow the 5AM Miracle, I've had time for yoga, books, and breakfast before leaving the house every day.  On the day that I overslept, I felt completely out of sorts.  Eventually, I'd like to find a way to fit in my bike workouts before work too.  Am I on the verge of becoming a morning person?

I think I'm still in the Ostrich Stage

I may have made some poor food choices on Thursday, but can we talk about some of my good choices for a minute?  I was starving when I got off the bike on Friday night and talked myself out of going out for dinner. Instead, I put together this lovely concoction in under 30 minutes.

In the bowl:

• brown rice
• cuban style black beans (from Trader Joe's)
• shrimp cooked in hatch chili salsa
• a little shredded cheese
• salsa
• sour cream
• guacamole (not pictured because I forgot to throw it in there before taking a picture)

I'm pretty sure that these messy 'meals in a bowl' will become more and more common in the Rabbits and Runs household as tri training really gets under way.

I'm also getting reacquainted with my crockpot since it's a hands off way to make a bunch of food. Both Mr. R&R and I have been craving red meat for the last few days so I pulled out the crockpot to make Beef with Mushrooms and Red Wine Sauce.   I threw everything into the crockpot around 9AM (I used 2 packages of baby portobella mushrooms because I really like 'em), set it and walked away until dinner time.

I closed out Week 1 of Sweet Spot Training with:

Swim:    1200 yards (0.68 miles)

Bike:      40.3 miles

Run:       6.55 miles

Yoga:      5 practices (ranging from 10-50 minutes)

Strength: 1 session

Total Time:       7 hours, 11 minutes

Total Distance: 47.53 miles

Cumulative Distance: 68.86 miles (that's roughly the distance between my house and Madison, WI!)

What's your morning like?  Are you an early riser or do you prefer to snooze until the last possible second?