Question about running in the morning......

Stretch better before going to bed. If you get up in the night to take a piss, have a bottle of sports drink and down some.

All my running is in the morning by necessity and I like to get up 30-40 mins before the run, drink some coffee to loose the bowels and drop a brown trout before I run. It makes the difference for me.

if you ever get an easy solution to this, please post again but I don't think there's any way of avoiding being really tired/stiff/slow on your morning runs unless you hang around the house for 2 hours first.

I always put it down to low blood sugar, general tiredness and some sort of DOMS (delayed onset muscle syndrome).

I think you're going to have to Live with it!

The deal is your muscles are the shortest when you're sleeping, up to 10% shorter than normal (normal being during waking, up and walking around hours). When warm and stretched out, muscles can be up to 10% longer than normal. So, if you jump out of bed and go out the door, you may be dealing with significantly shorter muscles= stiffness, less power, etc. This may lead to injuries for some morning runners, depending on the person, training load, etc.

i hear ya, i hate the shit in the legs in the morning, in fact yesterday i was in a halfthon with a start time of 830. I got up at 5:15 to go for a jog and stretch. I generally dont to workouts in the morning so i dotn worry about it, but maybe try taking a quick hot soak in the tub. Just something i thought right now.

Is there anything in this world that you do better in the morning right after waking up than you can do in the evening??? Nothing that I know of...it's like everything else...you gotta live with it in the morning.

You can usually warm up sufficiently the first few miles of a run to get in a good quality workout, but the low blood sugar will never allow it. You have to get up an hour early at least to eat something (not likely for many). On mornings where I HAVE to get in some quality, I'll set my alarm for about 3 hours earlier, and quickly eat about 200-300 calories and down some drink, then go back to bed. It doesn't seem to interrupt my sleep much. I then do a good warm up and I'm typically able to get in some good work. If I'm racing, I get up 3.5 hours earlier, take a shower, eat/drink, etc. You have to jump start the body.

thanks for all the insight, i guess there is really no single answer but rather a combination of factors that goes into it all. Thanks.

I too do all my running in the morning. First, I just prefer it that way. Second, it's the only way to survive summer in Texas.

I get up 45 minutes before I plan to start running - it does help to wander around a bit. Stretch, a little easy running and then I'm pretty much ready to go.

If I have to run at the end of the day I:

1) dread it for the entire day

2) usually end of feeling like crap because of 10 hours spent worrying about how the run will go.

I too do all my running in the morning. First, I just prefer it that way. Second, it's the only way to survive summer in Texas.

I get up 45 minutes before I plan to start running - it does help to wander around a bit. Stretch, a little easy running and then I'm pretty much ready to go.

If I have to run at the end of the day I:

1) dread it for the entire day

2) usually end of feeling like crap because of 10 hours spent worrying about how the run will go.

ACTUALLY, I think I do almost everything better right after waking up than i do in the evening. I'm always so burnt at the end of the day. Just lots more energy, mental and physical, in the morning.