Loosening up for morning runs

stretch? Walk around a little?

run slower, easier, they are just meant to loosen your legs for the afternoon session

i've been doing alot more morning runs before work this summer and i cant go quick at all...i decided to let them be my really easy loosen up runs. i think the only thing to make them feel like the do later in the day is to wake up a good bit before your run. when i do doubles at school i'm usually up for an hour or 2 first and i can go alot quicker if i need to without a problem.

make sure that you get enough sleep and eat before you go to sleep

Morning runs are always a chore at first. One day it will suddenly click and your legs will function properly.

It took me several months for this to happen.

Oddly the effect seems to last so that if you don't do them for a period of time you don't have to go through that painful transition again.

It is probably not a bad idea to pick it up for the last half of some morning runs to get the idea of moving your legs a bit faster when they don't really want to. Particularly if you are going to run road races with an early start.

I read somewhere that morning runners have an injury rate that is twice as high as evening runners. I run twice a day but I have the same problems you do in the AM. I dont fight it. I just run very slowly, especially in the first 15-20 mins. and then gradually I work up to a decent jog. Essentially I'm just running in the AM to get the metabolism up and to roll up more miles, both very valuabe things. So dont fight it, just run at a slow pace and save any speed work for later in the day when your body has warmed up properly. Dont stretch at any time, it causes injuries and adds nothing to your performance.

Thanks for the advice. I think one of my problems is that my pride just won't let me take it out really slow. I'll try starting out slower and see what happens.

Frizzle Fry wrote:

This summer I've been increasing my mileage. Consequently, I've needed to do some morning runs. However, I find that whenever I got out for one, my legs are always tight and I can't open up my stride. I did 7 miles this morning and they were the slowest, most painful miles I have run in a while. Is there anything you do before hand to get your legs to wake up before you head out in the morning?

Morning runs are pretty tough to get used to; a lot of people don't want to hear this. I honestly believe it depends on the person. Last summer was the first summer I had to start doing my longer run in the morning (to avoid heat, and because I at night). Make sure you are getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep. Preferably 8 hours. Drink PLENTY of water before you go to bed. If you get up to pee, since you are awake take a few sips of water. Maybe eat a small snack an hour before you go to sleep like crackers or something. It honestly helps a LOT to wake up for an hour before you go running, but obviously this isn't always easy because you have work/school during the day and want that extra hour of sleep. It's hard enough to get up and go running! If you can wake up, good, but if not, try to start out slower on your run. Don't make yourself start off at some exact pace or fast. It's going to take a good 15 maybe 20 mintues to warm up properly and get your heart rate up. (No I'm not a certified coach or anything but this is what I have found to be the case with myself at least). There isn't anything you can really do to feel awake and perky when you start off. It took me almost all of last summer to finally get used to running early in the morning and now I honestly enjoy it because I have the whole day left to myself afterwards. Yesterday I did 16 miles starting at 6am and I felt great after about 20 minutes. Again, if you start of slow and gentle you will warm up better and your muscles will react better later in your run. You'll wake up eventually.

Sorry i didn't realize the person before me had similar advice to what i said,but definitely good advice. A lot of runners think they need to keep the same pace or go faster for their runs than the previous day. I think it's natural within us that we just want to keep getting better; but overtraining can be just as bad as undertraining. If you follow pacing charts (like Jack Daniel's) you'll see that your easy run pace is only recommended and that you can go within a good 1 minute range of this pace. For example if your easy run pace is 7:30 you should go NO FASTER than 7:30. Most of the time you can run 20-30 seconds slower than this and still see GREAT benefit. Sometimes, when I'm feeling exceptionally tired/sore I allow myself to go up to a minute slower/mile. Chances are that you aren't even going that slow, maybe only 20 seconds /mile slower at most but because your body feels sluggish it is mentally nagging you that you're running slower than you really are. Just try to keep the same comfort zone you normally would on an easy run and after 15-20 mins your heartrate/body should respond positively.

sound, honest practical advice.

So be patient and with time it will get easier and times faster. Listen toyour body and mind!

Frizzle Fry wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I think one of my problems is that my pride just won't let me take it out really slow. I'll try starting out slower and see what happens.

Do you want to be proud and overtrained/injured? Or do you want to actually benefit from running twice a day?

I find the first few times you're getting into morning runs (for a few months) you should run so slowly it feels like you're actually not really moving forward. That will mean, yes, you don't do much distance. But, until you get used to it, you're better off learning how to incorporate two runs per day than trying to force the issue.

If you have the patience to use heart rates, try to stick to 65-70% on am runs. It takes time to get your body ready for more than that. Run at a pace where you can comfortably breathe. I find that when I am doing doubles, am runs go well for me when I can do at the fastest a 3-3 breathing pattern, though I really like more of a 4-3 or 4-4 pattern, in spite of the fact that it doesn't even really seem like running at those effort levels at all. Remember, increased volume is a stress in and off itself. If you put in too much volume at regular intensity, you're overloading the system. Maintain volume and decrease the intensity or you will short circuit.

Perhaps you should flog the dolphin.

I find it's best to shuffle slowly for about 7-10 min., then stretch the warmed-up muscles for 10 min. After that, I feel much more ready to go a more "normal" pace.

For each of my morning routes, I've found a place about a mile out where I can stretch, so works well for me.

i always hated running in the mornings, its so hard to get those legs moving. i try to get up an hour beforehand, and eat right about then too. a small peice of toast w/ jam. thats atucally been the key for me, once i started eating before i ran in the mornings i felt much better.

p.s. to help wake up extra, would a sip of a caffinated drink not be good for oyu if you were about to run?

Good advice from others, especially anything about starting real slow. Hell, you could even walk a few blocks before breaking into a jog. As long as you don't run first it doesn't count as Gallowalking.

As an older (39) guy with a tendency toward stiffness and inflexibility, I do some things to wake up / loosen up the legs first:

(a) coffee!

(b) work quads, hams/glutes, calves with "The Stick" - it helps warm/loosen those muscles and also gets your heart rate up, great little warmup

(c) no static stretches but I do just a bit of dynamic stretching. The Whartons (http://www.whartonperformance.com/index2.html) have this elaborate routine of a zillion stretches but I just do a few, for gastroc, soleus, groin, hams. The idea is to do 10 x ~2 second stretch - the claim being, anything over 3 seconds triggers muscles' stretch reflex so keep it less. I'm too half-assed to even learn the specific forms of the exercises the Whartons preach, I just adapted some static stretches (e.g. calves = wall push) with this timing.

The Stick & the dynamic stretches combined take me just a couple minutes and help noticeably. I know some my age who can just tie their shoes and bolt out the door at full speed every time but that'd spell injury for me pretty quick.

Along these lines...I altered my schedule for this very reason. I have an hour commute to work, so I set up the timer for the coffee pot and grab my coffee and a banana in the car...listen to some music, get the early morning commute out of the way, beat the traffic, and am ready to roll once I get to work.

I do all of my running in the morning 80-90 miles a week worth. Ive been running in the morning for the past two years or so. Once you do it for a while it will get easier.

please dont squeeze the garmin wrote:

(a) coffee!

Maybe you can take the coffee; I can't. Makes me have to "go" both ways ... that seems to be no matter how much I've already "gone" or how long I've been up. Coffee has that effect ... but to each his own.

The tough part is when you have a speed session scheduled. You pretty much have to accept the fact that you won't be as fast as you would if you waited until evening.

Fortunately, it's a good 2-miles to the track, so I do have time to get warm.

For daily runs, I just let the run come to me. If the pace is fast, that's great. If it's not, so be it.