Slower in the Mornning.

Its all in your head dude.

You\'ve just woken up, you\'re tired, still stiff and tight from lying down for 8 hours, maybe dehydrated because you haven\'t had anything to drink in a while. Just a possible combination of a bunch of things, and maybe some of it is mental, if you\'re tired you don\'t feel like running your ass off. Fast morning workouts do happen, but in general it\'s easier to feel good after you\'ve been up for a while.

it's really not all mental, there are physiological reasons why your body isn't capable of performing at 100 percent of maximum. As mentioned, things like the fact you've been inactive for so long and slightly dehydrated all affect your capacity to pump blood. Water helps increase the elasticity of arteries and capillaries.

You can never quite remedy the situation in the morning, but by a proper warmup, with more intensity (ie going slightly into O2 debt (for a brief amount of time)) you can force the blood to move into areas it would have no problem getting to later, and thereby. you'll have a better workout.

Another factor is your Circadian Rhythm, which basically describes a fairly consistent up-and-down change in your heart rate and body temperature. It is generally lowest around 4-5 AM, and peaks around 4 PM. Your body is just naturally more primed to run in the afternoon.

You also haven't eaten for 10 hours or so. Blood sugar is low. If you can time it and your gut can handle it, eat 2-3 hours before your workout in the AM and see the difference.

I am a twice a day runner, and do all my hard workouts in the morning. It's too hot when I get home from work and, besides, I'm usually too tired anyway to do anything hard. I've always been a morning person and have never had trouble running intervals or Tempo type workouts at 5:30am.

Grow some balls.

With the heat and humidity we've been having in the NY metro area, I've shifted most of my running to the early AM. Now this may sound crazy, but I get up a half hour earlier than I plan to run and shave and take a shower. This wakes me up and I'm good to go. The first mile or two aren't the easiest, but after that I can cruise and I've been able to do the same or better tempo runs at 5:30 AM than I can in the afternoon.

Its not running in the morning that is a problem. I can do it just fine and still leave for work by 5:45. The times are just slow. I don't know if I could wake up much earlier, I already wake up between 4:15-4:30 and really can't do much more. Anyone found a way to improve this? JK?

I'd try getting up an additional 20 minutes earlier and soak in a 100 degree bath whilst giving the legs, abdomen, lower back a gentle massage. This would be a nice wake up call for your muscles, though 20 minutes extra sleep at that time is quite a hefty tradeoff.

I generally go to the Tubs place downtown about midnight, take in a nice soak and a pleasant rubdown, and I'm feeling great by 3 or 4. I give myself an hour or two for hormones to recharge, and I'm doing some serious intervals by 5:15 or so. Works for me. Though I do get dishpan feet.

These two references seem pretty self-explanatory. It is not really important to understand the more technical info, it is just included in case you start asking questions like, "Yeah, but how good were these dudes in the test?"


J Sports Sci 2001 Dec;19(12):969-76
Comparison of physiological responses to morning and evening submaximal running.
Martin L, Doggart AL, Whyte GP.

School of Sport, Performing Arts and Leisure, University of Wolverhampton, Walsall, UK. [email protected]

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of time of day on physiological responses to running at the speed at the lactate threshold. After determination of the lactate threshold, using a standard incremental protocol, nine male runners (age 26.3 +/- 5.7 years, height 1.77 +/- 0.07 m, mass 73.1 +/- 6.5 kg, lactate threshold speed 13.6 +/- 1.6 km x h(-1); mean +/- s) completed a standardized 30 min run at lactate threshold speed, twice within 24 h (07:00-09:00 h and 18:00-21:00 h). Core body temperature, heart rate, minute ventilation, oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide expired, respiratory exchange ratio and capillary blood lactate were measured at rest, after a warm-up and at 10, 20 and 30 min during the run. In addition, the rating of perceived exertion was reported every 10 min during the run. Significant diurnal variation was observed only for body temperature (36.9 +/- 0.9 degrees C vs 37.3 +/- 0.3 degrees C) and respiratory exchange ratio at rest (0.86 +/- 0.01 vs 0.89 +/- 0.07) (P < 0.05). Diurnal variation persisted for body temperature throughout the warm-up (37.1 +/- 0.2 degrees C vs 37.5 +/- 0.3 degrees C) and during exercise (36.2 +/- 0.6 degrees C vs 38.6 +/- 0.4 degrees C), but only during the warm-up for the respiratory exchange ratio (0.85 +/- 0.05 vs 0.87 +/- 0.02) (P < 0.05). The rating of perceived exertion was significantly elevated during the morning trial (12.7 +/- 0.9 vs 11.9 +/- 1.2) (P < 0.05). These findings suggest that, despite the diurnal variation in body temperature, other physiological responses to running at lactate threshold speed are largely unaffected. However, a longer warm-up may be required in morning trials because of a slower increase in body temperature, which could have an impact on ventilation responses and ratings of perceived exertion.



Int J Sports Med 1997 Oct;18(7):538-42
Circadian rhythms have no effect on cycling performance.

Dalton B, McNaughton L, Davoren B.

Centre for Human Movement Studies, University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia.

The aim of this research was to determine if circadian rhythms have an effect on time trial cycling performance of 15 min duration. Seven males (Mean+/-SD): age, 22.3+/-4.9 yr; height 179.0+/-7.9 cm, body mass 74.5+/-15.5 kg; VO2max 68.0+/-5.7 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) who were all competitive cyclists or triathletes with previous experience in laboratory testing procedures volunteered to participate in this study. Each of the seven subjects underwent a series of four tests; one VO2 max test, and three 15 min maximal performance tests, at varying times during a 24 hr period. Testing times were at 08.00-10.00; 14.00-16.00 and 20.00-22.00 hours. Heart rate was recorded during the last 10-15 seconds of each minute and blood lactate levels were taken at 5 and 10 min during exercise and again immediately post-exercise. O2 consumption was measured continuously using open circuit spirometry. RPE was measured using the Borg scale at 5 and 10 min during, and again immediately following the completion of testing. Resting oral temperature was the only variable to show a significant time of day effect (p<0.05). Oral temperature during the afternoon was higher than both morning and evening results by 0.76 degrees C and 0.09 degrees C respectively. Total work (kJ) and average power output (W) were recorded at their highest during the morning session and reached a trough during the afternoon session, but these differences were not significant (p = 0.9997 and 0.9972 respectively). The results obtained in this study indicate that while certain biological rhythms are present, they appear to have no effect on this type of cycling performance. Although athletic performance may be enhanced by training programs that are compatible with an individuals body clock, the ability to perform and train at various times has an adaptive response which appears to over-ride these naturally inherent rhythms.

Bottom line: It certainly FEELS harder to run fast in the morning, but physiologically, it isn't. Try a longer warm-up to raise your core temperature, and stick with it a while as there seems a need ("adaptive response") to simply "get used to it".

Certainly many top athletes will pay attention to doing some of their training at race time in their preparation build up. Doesn't make sense to be only used to running hard 6pm if your race has a 9am start time.

You guys don't understand the key to good base training...when you feel good, run fast; when you don't, consult Iron Mike; he'll tell you, in the words of Wejo, run as slowly as you need to recover. If a 28:10 guy runs 7:00 pace sometimes, then no one else should be ashamed of running slower...ever...

Iron Mike

I don't think it is the time of day rather than running so close to being asleep for a long period of time. Maybe its just a personal issue, but I am a morning person and I do like being up early. But on tempo runs my times are always 10 seconds slower per mile and believe me I am trying. Also, it is the same course as the PM. Just a mystery I guess.

Thanks, Hadd. Appreciate the effort of putting the references up.

Yeah, right are these the same "scientists" that say 60 miles per week is the limit? Comm'on!! Running in the morning is tough and much slower. Everyone knows that!!!! I've have never run well in the morning even when I wake up early to eat and take a dump. Its just not the same as the PM run.

OUt