Civil twilight is defined when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. It’s the time just before sunrise when trees and buildings are still silhouetted against a deep blue sky but it’s just light enough that maybe you don’t need your headlamp, but take it anyway. Sunrise wasn’t until 6:29am this morning. But Civil twilight was at 6am and I was at the tennis courts along the bike path in the 30 degree frost where I planned to meet some folks for an early morning ride into Rock Cut State Park. Perhaps the wiser, certainly the better rested, no one else showed. So I headed up into the park in my winter gear and headlamp to watch the sun come up over Pierce Lake.

I’m not a morning person. I started riding at dawn a couple years ago mainly because, with work and a busy family schedule, the only time I had to myself was betweek 5 and 7am. My friend, John, joind me on a couple of rides. Then last year the word got around and my wakeup ride became a regular early morning group ride. On occasion we’d have 6 to 10 people show up.

The most difficult thing about an early morning bike ride has nothing to do with bikes. It is simply getting out of bed. I have the same conversation with myself every morning and have to convince myself not to climb back under the covers. I admit I’ve given in to the temptation more than a few times, but I know if I can suck it up and do a ride I’m better for it. Here are some things I do to take the egde off the morning.

• Plan ahead. Check the weather for the next morning. Call me obsessive, but I use both AccuWeather and Weather.com because sometimes they’re a little different. I’m not sure which is more accurate, but the main thing is to look at the hourly forecast for the time you’re going to ride.
• Check the sunrise time. SunriseSunset.com lets you create a customized printable calendar showing the twilight times, sunrise, sunset and other times for your area for any month and year.
• Set out your stuff in advance. It’s dark and you’re tired. Don’t scramble around in the morning to find all your riding clothes, gear, hydration pack and bananas. Put a pot of coffee on the timer the night before so it’s ready when you wake up. The smell of fresh brewed coffee is often enough incentive to get out from under the covers.
• Go to bed early. 9pm for me. 10pm at the latest or forget about it.

The season is early and the days are still getting longer. 6am sunrise is on Saturday, April 22 (in Northern Illinois) when we’ll have full daylight for our early morning ride.