Time's passing me by

So I was a tiny bit inspired by Carrie's link to the Couch to 5-K program, which I had actually heard murmurings of in a few other places. I went so far as to bust out my gym card and go get started on the workout. Unfortunately, that was a week ago and I haven't been back. It's painfully obvious that if I am ever going to work out on a routine basis, it will have to be in the morning. My work schedule, traffic, and everything else are way too unpredictable for me to commit to an evening workout, as nice as that would be.

So... I've been toying with a few possibilities, and all of them sound really painful. The one I am the most interested in trying out is getting up at around 5 a.m., either working out locally and driving the hour to my current client, or driving to the gym near my client and working out there, and trying to be at work by 7 a.m. so I can ditch out by 4 p.m. or so. That way I should be home by 5 p.m., with the evening completely free since my workout will be behind me. Of course, I will have the early bedtime to contend with (I'm figuring 9:00 or so) but nonetheless, I will have a good four hours to do whatever, and hopefully more energy to get things accomplished.

I have tried (and failed) in the past to do this early rising thing, so I have been searching out some ideas online and re-read this article, which I had come across before. I'm still not sure I will be OK with this getting up at the crack of dawn business. Does anyone have any bright ideas on how you do it? Carrie? Meredith?