5 am rise

9/26/2016

It has been a while since my last post and there are several things in my life that have changed and one of them being that my alarm clock now goes off at 5am on most mornings. Why would I do this to myself? Do you know how much one can get done before the rest of the world rises? It is a great feeling and I seem to feel more awake the rest of the day. The rest of the post will take you through my morning as I experience it.

5:00am first alarm goes off and I do hit snooze. I'm not that crazy yet. I can not just rise and shine.
5:09am I hit snooze again but am more awake and prepare mentally for the next alarm to sound.
5:18am The alarm goes off. I am prepared to open my eyes. I scroll through social media for the next few minutes and see nothing has really changed over night. I just really want to wake up to something shocking. So if anyone can post that news between 10pm and 5am that would be great.
5:25am another alarm sounds. This alarm is the hardest. I have to not only get myself out of bed, but I have to get my dog out of bed and get her outside. She is not a morning person. I put her outside, start the coffee pot, and make my oatmeal. I let the dog in, she goes back to bed while I eat my oatmeal and pour my coffee over 2 ice cubes so it is easy to drink and I don't burn all the taste buds off my tongue. While sipping on my coffee, I get dressed into my athletic, Speedo  brand swimsuit and throw on shorts and a tank over it, then quickly chug the rest of my coffee so I can brush my teeth.
5:45am I grab my stuff and run out the door into darkness. I listen to the radio for the traffic to see which route I will be taking into the city. I decide the interstate will work, I will deal with the traffic.
6:10am Who else is there to talk to in the morning than people from the other side of the world? This is one of the only times I can talk to my Australian friend. We try to call each other once a week even if only ten minutes. I love this time.
6:40am I arrive at the gym. I call my mom real quick to tell her everything I need to tell her.
6:50am Finish getting ready for the pool in the locker room.
7:00am Enter the room with the indoor pool. I throw my hair up, put my earplugs in, and goggles on. Sit on the edge of the shallow end, with my toes dipped in. The enter all the way into the pool. It is cool. I warm up by swimming two laps free style slowly. I then stretch a bit. It is now time to hit the swimming hard. I take a sit of my Gatorade. I kick off the end and start my freestyle to one end and back. Then back stroke one end and back twice. Then breast stroke one end and back. Back stroke one end and back. Time for stretch break. I feel my shoulder muscles aching so much at this point. I know I do not have full range of motion in my strokes from previous should surgery. The next four laps will be working the legs only. I start my way down the pool kicking as hard and fast as I can without any use of my arms to propel my forward. I feel the burn in my legs. Time for some Gatorade and one for stretching break. I swim several more laps at a moderate pace without a notice of the outside world. Just focusing on my breathing, my muscles, and sore joints. Going back and forth and switching stokes at the end of each lap to eliminate some joint pain. I stop for a few seconds. Then take one slow freestyle lap to cool down my muscles.
7:40am I exit the pool and enter the hot-tub immediately. I stretch all my muscles once more in the heat before showering.
7:45 Shower and get ready for work.Then head over to work for a productive day.

I hope to eliminate that snooze or at least one of them. I hope to not only improve my swimming, by improving my speed, my endurance, and stoke, but to add on to it by adding another exercise element somewhere in there in the morning or maybe the afternoon. One step and lap at a time though.