There was a giant ominous cloud in the sky this morning. Normally this would signal something about storms later in the day, or something, but I’m not getting my hopes up. Instead, I’m sure it’s going to be ridiculously hot. AGAIN. Sigh…
So you may remember this quote from my post yesterday: “Frankly, it’s easier to be a lazy bum than it is to train.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently as I start to lay out my training plans for this fall with the goal of PRing at the half marathon at the end of January. What has made me give in to being a lazy bum in the past? And what can I do to prevent it this time around?
On Monday morning, I had to be at work really early and left the neighborhood around 6:45. On the short 2-mile drive from the house to the highway, I must have passed at least a dozen runners, and suddenly I thought: “I should run in the mornings!”
Where did THAT come from?? I have NEVER been a morning runner (well, except for races, since they’re always in the morning) — even on the weekends. I tend to stay up late, and therefore like to sleep in. But as I thought about it, I realized that I could actually do morning runs without a huge impact to my schedule. My work hours are flexible, and over the years I’ve fallen into the habit of generally working 9-5, which means I usually don’t even get out of bed until 7:30 or 8:00. I run after work, and rarely go to bed before 11:30-midnight.
Running in the evening has worked for me for years, but there’s one BIG disadvantage: it’s too easy to blow off a run. Why? Because I had to work late. Or someone invited me out to dinner. Or I have errands to run. Or I’m tired, or hungry, or thirsty and I just don’t “feel” like it.
Running in the morning eliminates all of that. It forces me to get my run in before the day begins, and leaves little room for excuses. As a bonus, it’s cooler outside. (Last night I just about gave myself a heart attack trying to do some informal speedwork in the 100 degree heat.) In theory, I could make the switch to morning runs pretty easily. All I’d have to do is get up an hour earlier — which would be 6:00-6:30. To most people, that’s not actually early at all — it’s normal! The days I have to be at work early are minimal and always known in advance, so it would be easy to plan around them.
The more difficult part is that I would also have to go to bed an hour earlier. Even when I intend to go to bed before 10:30-11:00, I rarely do. Getting into that habit will take commitment. I’ll have to stop letting myself get sidetracked by whatever side project I’m working on. (Or worse, getting distracted by whatever dumb show is on TV.) And I’ll have to accept going to bed while Jose is still up. (We both go to bed at the same time these days. If I start getting in bed earlier, maybe he will too, but he might not.)
Anyway, after all those ramblings went through my head, I’ve decided to give morning runs a try. The daily schedule needs to look something like: in bed by 10:30, up at 6:30, run for up to an hour, and at work by 9:00. They say it takes 3-4 weeks for a habit to stick, so my goal is to run in the morning for at least 3 weeks — from Monday August 23 until at least Friday September 10.
Never fear, I’ll keep you all posted.
How about the middle of the day once the weather cools? That works best for me. I wait for a lull at work, often at lunch, but often in the afternoon if things are quiet, and off I go. I am typically exhausted at the end of the day, so I rarely run at the very end of the workday. It’s even much better for me to run, then work that last hour.
I can’t get up in the morning to run to save my life, personally, and I hate getting into work late.
If you can make a habit of getting up in the morning to go run, the bedtime issue will eventually fix itself. You’ll start getting tired earlier, so getting to bed earlier will become easier (just ask Irwin!). When I was getting up at 5 a.m. on a regular basis, I was always, always in bed by 9 or 9:30. Not because I tried, but because I was just about unconscious by then.
Mornings are and always have been best for me — I am back in school nowso walking is in the afternoons when it is SO HOT outside. It is so nice to come home and know that you have already exercised when it was cooler!
Try it, you’ll like it!
Jen – midday running is something I’ve never thought would work for me. I like the idea, but the logistics seem impossible.
It’d take 15 minutes for me to drive from the office to the JSC gym, change clothes, and get on the trail. After the run, it’d be another 20 minutes to shower, change back into work clothes, dry my hair. Then 15 minutes to drive back to my building. (And I need to actually eat lunch somewhere in there too.) For even a 30 minute run, that’s 50+ minutes of overhead. If I need to run for an hour that day, that’s almost 2 hours out of the office. Sometimes I can’t spare that much time. And on days I do have time, I’d end up either coming in to work at 7 am or staying till 7 pm to get my 8 hours in. I’m not willing to do that.
Overall it’s much more time efficient, not to mention more pleasant, to run from home and avoid gym shower, hair drying, and having to stay at work longer!
Dawn – I’m hoping you’re right! My fear is that I’ll still stay up late (I tend to get a second wind between about 8:00 and 11:00) and just be a total zombie during the day!
@Dawn
It’s true!
blech. i loathe morning running! only on saturdays do i not have a problem. more than likely because i know i can come back home and go to bed
for me to do it during the week it means up at 5 and running by 5:30 and even then I’m gonna be about 30 min late to work…my start time is flexible if i want it to be. i could come in at 8 … but then i have to work till 5. i like getting off work at 4:30…i did it yesterday only because i knew i had to leave from work and go see momma at the hospital… it might be cooler in the morning but not by much. to me the only difference is that the sun isnt beating down on you 
Yeah, I can see how the 15 minute drive would make in impossible. We have our gym / locker room 2 minutes away from my desk, so it works for me. B always wants me to come home and run with him, but the 15 minute drive home and then 10 more minutes to the trail we like to run on makes me say no the majority of the time.
By the way, in terms of motivation, I find it really useful in training to set a goal every week – either a number of days run or miles per week. If I make the goal, I get to buy something for myself that I absolutely don’t need but want. After I do my last run of the week, I’d enjoy shopping around on the internet for my “reward.”
In addition, I find it useful to target running a certain number of days per week. I just promise myself I’ll get out there and run at least 3 miles, no requirements beyond that. Once I get into the rhythm of running most days, even for a short run, things get easier. It seems to me, you should start slowly, given the weather down there right now. If it’s too torturous, you won’t stick with it. I also find having my husband along on my weekend runs is helpful. Maybe Jose would like to be a part-time training partner.
I don’t do morning runs now just because I get to work so early to do 9-80s (out of the house by 6:20 a.m.). But, when I was in Burlington I did them quite a bit when training for my half marathon. To me the best part about morning runs is that you get to walk around the whole day feeling happy about the run (even if you’re not happy while doing it!), and then you can get home and relax.
I don’t think it has to be all or nothing either, so maybe you could pick out one or two days a week to plan on doing a morning run and see how it goes. I almost always run in the morning on weekends (where 9-10 a.m. = “morning”) because that leaves the rest of the day free for other things.
I’ve been working out in the morning for almost 3 months now and I actually like it! It’s so nice to come home from work knowing that you can just relax and spend time with the family. I don’t know if I will do this morning thing forever, but for now it’s working!