It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere!

The Weather is Here, I Wish You Were Beautiful, but that’s not what I’m talkin’ about. Put away your pirate flag, dancing parrots and hula girls in grass skirts.

No, I’m not referring to tiki bars, toes in the sand or even a cheeseburger in paradise.

It’s… not… that… 5 O’clock I’m referring to!

The other 5 O’Clock. The one that comes and goes, like a thief in the night, unbeknownst to most of us. The 5 O’Clock that I typically only saw, if I was leaving on a jet plane first thing in the morning.

The same 5 O’Clock that the doctor requires you to check in for early morning surgery.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen too many 5 AM’s, at least since high school. In high school, I was on the cross country team, and it wasn’t uncommon for us to run five miles before school started.

But until recently, I just slept right through that time of the day.

I always considered, "The early bird gets the worm" more of a cliche than actual motivation. In fact, if that was true, then what about the poor worm, why didn’t he sleep till noon?

And what about that second mouse, you know the one that actually gets the cheese instead of the first one that gets decapitated.

In fact, I would venture a guess and say that since high school, of all the 5 AM’s that I have actually witnessed, most were more likely a result of me still being awake from the night before, rather than any extra effort on my part arising.

The transition from dusk to dawn is one of the more fascinating times of the day. Just like its counterpart “sunset,” it’s a fantastic time to reflect on life, but this is the 5 o’clock without a margarita or PBR in hand.

About three months ago, I joined a running group and most of the time they start running at five in the morning as often as 3-4 days a week. Since we meet about 25 minutes from my house, I need to get up at 4 AM to get there on time.

In fact, one-day last week, I actually got up at 3:30 AM. Although, I went to bed at a quarter to five (no, not really). Due to the extra long mileage and to try to finish before it got hotter in the day, our running group took off at 4:30 AM for our 18-mile run. I finished before 8 AM.

When I first joined the club, I thought to myself, ok, I can do this. I can make the sacrifice one day a week to get up that early, and I’ll just run the rest on my own. However, when we began intensive training for an upcoming marathon in September, the practice became much more intense, harder and longer, but the worst thing was battling the Texas heat.

Until recently, I’ve never run more than about 5 miles in the summer. Fun runs in Houston are few and far between from the end of April until September. The summers are brutal between the heat and humidity. I’ve literally gotten back from a run and found myself 5 pounds lighter than when I left.

What I quickly realized was that I needed to get as many miles before it got light since the temperature rose soon after that. I began running approximately 4-5 time a week with the group most of the time starting at five.

I was utterly exhausted the first couple of weeks, I thought I was going to die. As long as I can remember, I’ve been a night owl. It wasn’t uncommon for me to go to bed at midnight, or even one or two AM, but I had to do something to compensate for the early mornings on the other end, and I found myself going to bed earlier and earlier each day - one night I was even in bed before the sunset.

But then, amazingly I didn’t die and the opposite of what I thought was going to happen, actually started to happen. I begin to have more energy, as energy produces energy.

I realize that early in the morning there are much fewer distractions. Life is peaceful, calm and relaxing. I can get more done, and if I really challenge myself, I can accomplish great things before most people even wake up.

Also, by getting things done early, then they will not continue to hang over my head all day & all night long like a vulture circling it’s dying prey. By doing so, I will not be forced to deal with things when I have little or no energy and decide to put it off another day or fail to do them all together.

For example, let’s start with exercise. Who loves to exercise? No, really, who enjoys exercising? Yeah, pretty much what I thought. Who intends to exercise at some point in the day, but for some reason things get busy? You know, you oversleep and get off to a rushed start, things get busy, and you work through lunch and by the time you finally get home from the office you merely don’t have the energy to do what you planned.

Before you know it, you are repeating the activities day after day and week after week until you realize it has been over a month since the last time you visited the gym. Until your life is a real-life Groundhog Day!

Now, what if, you had structured your day the night before. You laid out your workout clothes, packed your work clothes and towel so you could shower at the gym, and set your alarm for 5 AM? You could be done with your workout, showered, spent time in prayer or quiet time, enjoy breakfast with your family and still be at work before 8 AM.

Now that’s progress!!

The philosopher Aristotle said it best, "It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom."

Benjamin Franklin said: "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”