Anyone else run hard workouts in the very-early morning?

But how do you run workouts without food in your stomach? Or do you just do your workouts slower than normal?

Supposed to be working wrote:

I have to run my intervals on an unlit track starting at 5AM, requiring me to wear a head lamp. It's very tough to get out of bed and do this. Just wondering if anyone else does this insanity.

I have been running at 4:45 to 6:00 a.m. for many, many years. Once you get used to it, it really is not too bad. I sometimes take a 100 mg caffeine tablet right before to wake me up, especially when it is a track workout that I must do.

The only times it is a chore is when it is raining and windy. But then Pat Porter's quip comes to mind. Asked what he did in Alamosa when it was 15 degrees and windy outside and he had to do 6 x mile. The response was "I put on another layer and do the workout."

Lynn Jennings had a great quote, too, that comes to mind: "Determination is like a muscle. If you do not use it regularly, it fades away." I always feel as if I am getting some kind of extra benefit to running early as compared to those who have the luxury of doing it at 5:30 p.m. when they are fully awake.

chinocochino wrote:

But how do you run workouts without food in your stomach? Or do you just do your workouts slower than normal?

it really doesn't make that much of a difference once you've been running first thing in the morning for a while. as i said previously, the first interval is generally slower but once i'm warmed up, it's not that much different.

i also tend to race way better than my training shows. i gotta wonder if training on empty makes being awake, fueled, and caffeinated, a performance enhancement when you aren't used to it.

ok, did 3 x mile at 6:30 this morning at goal 5k pace (2 min rest) - my best workout of the year.

for what it is worth, this thread helped me push for it.

OP here. I did an 11 mile progression run starting at 5AM, in the rain.

I do all my runs in the morning as well. I used to hate workouts, but got used to them. If I have a hard set of repeats, sometimes I do a few short hill sprints (30 seconds or so) before the workout, but after my warm-up. They help get the legs going. Just a thought...

Tougher than that is a hard workout between shifts. For example at 3am. That's what I used to do.

for what its worth wrote:

...If I have a hard set of repeats, sometimes I do a few short hill sprints (30 seconds or so) before the workout, but after my warm-up. They help get the legs going. Just a thought...

that's a good call! i've done striders before intervals in the morning but hill sprints are a much safer bet. you can get the HR up without risking pulling something striding out when you aren't completely awake.

Some guy just keeping it real wrote:

It's a freaking privledge not a "hard to make myself do" type of thing. You've been given a gift, be grateful and a good steward of it.

you're a meat head douche. The OP is still getting up every day at 5am to workout. I'm sure most soldiers would say what he is doing--by choice and for free--is no fun or hard too.

By the way, all of those guys and girls who have died any time after the initial fight in Afghanistan in 2001 have not done anything for our freedom, and in the end they won't even have earned freedom for the Iraqis or Afghanis. Good thing we're firing teachers so we can afford to dump hundreds of billions into those shit holes.

gkas wrote:

[quote]chinocochino wrote:

But how do you run workouts without food in your stomach? Or do you just do your workouts slower than normal?

it really doesn't make that much of a difference once you've been running first thing in the morning for a while. as i said previously, the first interval is generally slower but once i'm warmed up, it's not that much different.

i also tend to race way better than my training shows. i gotta wonder if training on empty makes being awake, fueled, and caffeinated, a performance enhancement when you aren't used to it.

I run better without food sloshing in my stomach. I've read that the quality of your morning run is to some extent influenced by your previous morning's breakfast anyways. Thats why I view breakfast as not just recovery for that morning's run but also as refueling for the next morning's run.

OP - I do all my runs (6 days/wk) at 5AM, workouts, tempos, long runs, everything, because just like you, I have a life, job, wife, kids, etc. It does take getting used to, and like others have said, the first interval is usually slower than planned, but the 2nd one comes and everything feels good. Go for it!

Supposed to be working wrote:

OP here. I did an 11 mile progression run starting at 5AM, in the rain.

Supposed to be working wrote:

I'm lucky -- I do my intervals on an old cinder/dirt track at a school. No lanes or exact marking, but I don't care. It's 5AM and dark, after all.

You are lucky! I love old tracks like that. When I was in junior high school in the late 60s in Texas our track was a worn dirt path around the football field whose curves were marked off by half-buried car tires.

There's something righteous about making due with what you have.

Supposed to be working wrote:

I'm lucky -- I do my intervals on an old cinder/dirt track at a school. No lanes or exact marking, but I don't care. It's 5AM and dark, after all.

I love dirt tracks. The towns I grew up and went to college in used to have dirt tracks that were mostly vacant and I could run on them any time. Now all the schools in this town have hard tracks and then entire schools are prisons, surrounded by 8 foot tall fences. The problem nowdays is finding somewhere to run. I have taken to hiking up mountains now instead of running cause of this. If I have to drive a ways then it needs to be worth it.

This thread is inspirational to me. I love to see stories of people running and training in the middle of the night.

chinocochino wrote:

But how do you run workouts without food in your stomach? Or do you just do your workouts slower than normal?

Harry Wilson used to take Steve Ovett and other top Brits to training weekends in Wales, where they had a 200 foot high sand hill.

The newbies ate breakfast, and wondered why the old hands didn't. But only the first time ;-)

There is a good track in lincoln park and another on the river in weehawken...

Guess you never served a day you shit hole...

Rbyrne wrote:

Guess you never served a day you shit hole...

Good for you serving your masters, the idle rich that live in their castles far away from us peons.

I used to do this for years and had to put up with nausea. I would always feel like puking when I got up and did hard workouts. I finally quit going because I'd get so sick.

I did like having the track to myself. And I also love running on the track in blinding thunderstorms.

Ever since college I've lived in places where it is hot most of the year and especially unbearable in the summers. Just got used to running before dawn. I run solo for 99% of my training, and can still hit workouts in the dark that keep me competitive on the national scene. I feel the biggest perk is getting to eat a full breakfast afterwards and not worry about any GI trouble on an afternoon run!