They say ‘the early bird gets the worm’ but I’ve not ever been a morning person. In fact, I’d say I was the distinct opposite: a night owl, so this challenge was one that did not come naturally to me at all.

Since April 2015, I had to start work at 7am so waking up earlier had become more normalised. Often I would wake at 06:00 and then rush around to try to get into work at a reasonable time but more recently, driven by wanting to training in the morning, I realised that I would have to get up much earlier if I wanted a chance of stopping sweating by the time I got into work!

Since mid-2020 I was setting my alarm for 04:40 between two or three times a week, to go training before work or at the weekend to allow enough time to travel to a place to train before it got too warm. In any case, I wouldn’t wake up this early every day because it would tire me out and I would need at least one lie in a week!

However, when the Holy Month of Ramadan came along and I decided to fast and abstain for 40 days it became essential to wake up at 04:40 to eat and drink before the sun rose and have a acceptably challenging amount of time fasting throughout the day.

So from then on, I set my alarm for every day at 04:40 and with only a few reasonable exceptions for travel for example (often I woke up before 04:40 or in the case of being on board the Dream Master Boat in the Red Sea I woke when the engine started) I stuck to this time.

In all honesty, I went back to bed a few times, largely because of a late night the evening before but this typically would be at a weekend but always having eaten. There were only a couple of days in the 40 day period where I slept in but I punished myself for doing so by not eating or rehydrating until 18:30 the same day, at the earliest.

Will I be carrying this on? Yes, I really enjoy being able to train before work and not rushing around every morning to get to work on time. That said, will I be getting up every day at 04:40 for the rest of my life? Hell no!