Days Eighteen & Nineteen - Running and Working

Work kept me from updating yesterday, and kept me from the gym today. I had an early meeting that required preparation, so I decided to just get up and come to work extra-early. Still, it would have been nice to have the early-rise habit so ingrained that rising even earlier would have been as easy as flicking on(off?) a switch. Alas, I'm not there yet.

Yesterday, I made it for a morning run. The new gym shoes are working out great. I ended up working late, missing a company happy our(open bar!). I completely forgot about updating the blog in a haze of work.

So, at the end of (almost) two weeks, the results are mixed. Through nineteen days, I was successful fifteen times. Not bad, but not my goal. Perhaps I was aiming too high.

With that in mind, I have a new goal, of going five straight days next week. A step down from four consecutive weeks, but considering the last two weeks I went four then three days, that's where I'm at right now. If I'm successful next week, I'll try for another.

No new gym bag yet.

Day Seventeen - Sleep In

I was up too late, and this morning I paid for it: I didn't get up on time, and I missed the gym. I was up late because of Helter Skelter, my book club's current selection. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it(especially if you enjoy the "True Crime" genre, though if you do, you've probably already read it). It's helped that going into the book, I knew only the most superficial things about Charles Manson - I was virgin territory for the shocking nature of the crime, the man, and his followers.

ANYWAY, I've already failed at my original goal of twenty straight weekdays getting up early and hitting the gym. Then, last Friday, losing my apartment power(which has been going off and on since, in an unrelated note) made me miss another day. And now today. So, out of 17 days, I've made 14. Not bad, not terrible, but not what the goal was. So, I failed.

However, even on the days I've missed, I'm still getting up earlier then I was a month ago. I've managed to move my wake-up "window" to earlier in the morning. Plus, when I was getting ready this morning, I knew I wasn't going to "make up" for missing the gym by working out at lunch. Now, if I don't go in the morning, I'm not going. That definitely will help me keep doing. Sure, when I was going at lunch I was going Monday-Friday, but I'll trade five lunch workouts for four morning workouts.

Yesterday I found out that I'll (probably)have to move by May. One my top criteria, in my apartment search, will be proximity to a New York Sports Club. The closer I am, the easier this will be.

I'll be back on track tomorrow morning.

Day Fourteen - Epic Apartment FAIL

Yesterday morning, I woke up shivering. During the night, my building lost power. The heat stopped. My iPhone had died from running the Sleep Cycle app. I checked my laptop to see what time it was: late, way too late for me to make the gym. I'd overslept, because of a god-damned power outage.

Plus, no hot water for a shower.

Plus, the L train I was on was taken out of service before I even got out of Brooklyn.

Next week will be better. That's what I'm telling myself.

Day Eight - Bump In The Road

I was out late, the weather sucks, the bed was comfy, morning sex - all reasons I failed to get to the gym before work this morning. Broke my early-riser streak at seven days. So, my original goal of uninterrupted 20 say streak won't come true(at least not in the original time frame), but, tomorrow morning, I'll get back on track.

I still got up earlier than I was prior to this experiment, and I still think I can cement this as a habit. Have to bear down for the next two weeks and two days. 

Day Seven - Sleep FAIL

If I don't adjust the time I go to sleep, even if I make it through the next 13 days, I'm afraid this habit won't stick. The thought of missing a day(and the threat of being called a slacker on Facebook) gets me up as much as the motivation of forming a new routine. Will it stick, or will I sleep in the first day I don't "have" to do this?

Last night, I was in bed around one in the morning, which would be fine if I wasn't trying to get up at 7:30. Tonight, I have pool, so I'm not sure what time I'll get to bed, but it has to be earlier. It's been easier getting up but the lack of 7-8 hours sleep every night is starting to catch up to me; I get really tired late in the day before hitting a second wind after six. I met a friend for drinks last night. Waiting at the bar, I felt like collapsing(this was around ten o'clock). Then I hit my third wind;it's funny how social drinking does that. Talking, drinking, laughing - they all serve to keep me going. 

The Sleep App failed this morning, but it's at least partially(fully?) my own fault. Here's a graph(I do love that it generates graphs, such a stat geek!):

I slept for about six hours, but the big spike right before 7 is when I woke up at 6:30, an hour before my alarm was set. So, I went back to sleep, into a deep sleep and the app had no choice but to wake me up in the deepest sleep I was in all night. So, not really Sleep Cycle's fault, but I was really groggy, so at least it(seems) accurate.

At least pool starts at seven tonight, and not nine. These late nights are killing me.