Why do elites wake up early to train?

Training times vary amongst elites just as much as they vary amongst non-elites. For reference, refer to this interview with Kim Smith:

http://www.womentalksports.com/items/read/685/460887/interview-with-kim-smith

The one thing that people would be surprised to find out about me is: sometimes I’m so lazy I do my morning runs at midday…like today

Up at 4:15am for 4-7 miles, work 8 hours, hit the trails at 4:00pm for 7-11 miles. One 17-20 miler per week. 95% soft trails.

FogRunner

I have a morning ritual that I need to share. I call it "the terminator". First I crouch down in the shower in the classic "naked terminator traveling through time" pose.

With my eyes closed I crouch there for a minute, visualizing either Arnold or the guy from the second movie (not the chick in the third one because that one sucked) and I start to hum the terminator theme. Then I slowly rise to a standing position and open my eyes. It helps me to proceed through my day as an emotionless, cyborg badass. The only problem is if the shower curtain sticks to my terminator leg. It ruins the fantasy.

I found tonight that it is more successful to progressively humm it louder as you perform the ritual.

Blastocist wrote:

When you have things to do, you have to manage your time effectively. When I am training for an Ironman, I get up at 4 am to get my swimming done, with runs to and from the pool to my home. Go to work, go to a nearby gym at lucnhtime. Get home at 5.30, train until 8. Dinner, and then a nice bike ride from midnight to 1am.

I think you need to bike more...and sleep. 2/10

I wake up to run at 3:30 each morning, because I'm the most dedicated person ever.

6 AM is early?

bitch please, i wake up at 10 PM to run

Ron Clarke (one of the greatest distance runners of all time who used to train 3 times a day) said that if you want to get good you have to do "more of the things you want to do the least" That is true you have to get out of your comfort zone as much as possible. Some of the top runners that I have meet over the years have told me that exposure to harsh conditions and training during the AM or late PM hours, the body and the mind eventually adapt and get stronger.

early bird early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.

hard training wrote:

I hear about the best runners rising at 6am and running. Why is training hard always correlated with waking up early?

discuss!

Right now, in the dark, in the rain, in the cold, through pain, through fatigue, through loneliness, someone is training. And when he meets you in head-to-head competition, HE WILL DEFEAT YOU.

hard training wrote:

I hear about the best runners rising at 6am and running. Why is training hard always correlated with waking up early?

discuss!

Right now, in the dark, in the rain, in the cold, through pain, through fatigue, through loneliness, someone is training. And when he meets you in head-to-head competition, HE WILL DEFEAT YOU.

Joseph Kenny wrote:

hard training wrote:

I hear about the best runners rising at 6am and running. Why is training hard always correlated with waking up early?

discuss!

Right now, in the dark, in the rain, in the cold, through pain, through fatigue, through loneliness, someone is training. And when he meets you in head-to-head competition, HE WILL DEFEAT YOU.

Is there an echo in here?

I have a pretty stressfree job that allows me to wakeup antime of the day and there were times when I did wake up at 1pm.

If I do not discipline myself to get up at 6am, I find myself having horrible insomnia that takes awhile and discipline to cure.

Early to bed and early to rise seems to put my hormones and life in balance.

Sage,

I just read your book. Good work.

Best of luck in the trials. You are not "sub-elite" at all.

My son and I are going to the trials. We'll be rooting for you to suprise quite a few folks.

Greg Hill

"Early" is relative. If you get up at the same time every day, it doesn't really matter what time you get up. Your sleep schedule adjusts. If you get up at 10am every day you'll just go to bed later and your whole day will be shifted up. The guy who gets up at 10am every day won't feel any different from the guy who gets up at 6am every day.

If you're in it to win, you do what works best.

Malmo referenced a saying to live like a clock. Good advice.

Exact times of day depend on circumstances, and they may change during the course of a career. I remember reading in Liquori's autobiography that he would run at 10-11 a.m. in Florida during the early stages of his company.

Steve Scott would run intervals late at night in Arizona to beat the heat, according to his biography.

WINNING

They don't. I don't see any elites training when I'm out running on my lonesome @ 6 am. Training hard, my a$$. I'd be able to run triples every day for years on end if given an opportunity to sleep in daily until 8 am and focus my energy on eating/cooking nutritious foods vs. living the daily grind. What a life that would be!

hard training wrote:

I hear about the best runners rising at 6am and running. Why is training hard always correlated with waking up early?

discuss!

i think training hard correlates with rising early because they both push us outside of our comfort zone. rising early and working out is perceived as difficult because it involves certain sacrifices (family, social) and requires some discipline. they both get us out of our comfort zone and push us.