Why am I so much slower in the mornings?

Well this happens to me what I do is I walk around for about 10 mins before running or whatever, because it loosens me up a bit. Or you could try eating a little something even if you're not hungry, it wakes you up a bit

Get up at 2am and turn the race into an afternoon one.

wilkins wrote:

Well this happens to me what I do is I walk around for about 10 mins before running or whatever, because it loosens me up a bit. Or you could try eating a little something even if you're not hungry, it wakes you up a bit

Cool, thank you.

That's my plan as of now. Hoping it works.

the sluggishness is due to having just woken up. your body uses the day to "warm up." you fuel up, your heart rate increases and muscles loosen from 7-8 hours of you just lying on a bed. your muscles work more efficiently in the afternoon and overall performance can be increased by ~10%. that means a greater VO2 max and greater max heart rate. also worth noting, most records are set in the afternoon and evening (although that might have more to do with scheduling)

anyways, try to train as early in your day as possible this week to get yourself acclimated. make sure you're eating well at breakfast too. and caffeine will definitely help bring up your heart rate.

For the exact opposite reasons that you perform better late in the day.

Drink something. You're really dehydrated when you wake up.

TAA wrote:

Drink something. You're really dehydrated when you wake up.

How do you guys come up with this? Your body may have entered the state of conserving water but it's hardly really dehydrated.

zante wrote:

the sluggishness is due to having just woken up. your body uses the day to "warm up." you fuel up, your heart rate increases and muscles loosen from 7-8 hours of you just lying on a bed. your muscles work more efficiently in the afternoon and overall performance can be increased by ~10%. that means a greater VO2 max and greater max heart rate. also worth noting, most records are set in the afternoon and evening (although that might have more to do with scheduling)

anyways, try to train as early in your day as possible this week to get yourself acclimated. make sure you're eating well at breakfast too. and caffeine will definitely help bring up your heart rate.

RHR should peak around lunchtime - circadian cycle - then start going back down again.

The main problem I find is how tight my hamstrings are and I hate having to do road races 9am which is when most of my races these days are.

I have one or two cups of coffee before I run in the morning. If I don't do that I notice I'm slower. Also if I'm feeling really sluggish I'll run my first mile really slow and work into my goal pace. My guess is if this is a big race the adrenaline will wake you up and you won't be affected by the morning. Maybe try one or two gu gels with caffeine in them if your stomach can handle the coffee.

I have a product that will fix your morning lethargy. Please send me your credit card for more info.

Curious...what time were you born? Morning? Evening? Night?I am a much better evening runner as long as work day not too stressful. I think it has more to do with brain chemistry set from the time we were born, although this can be managed.Getting up at least an hour before running, having coffee and moving around, getting dressed, a 10 minute walk before even thinking about stretching/running can all help kick the body out of the resting state. A cool morning sure helps too.

water bottle wrote:

TAA wrote:

Drink something. You're really dehydrated when you wake up.

How do you guys come up with this? Your body may have entered the state of conserving water but it's hardly really dehydrated.

Ok maybe not really dehydrated, but going several hours without drinking water is going to make your feel crappy and slower. That's why his runs are better later in the day when he's been drinking.

Personally, I feel better on the morning run. Of course, I get up, drink some coffee, listen to some NPR, check my email, walk around the house a bit...then go for my run.

My evening runs, on the other hand, are usually slower after a full day of work. I'm tired & have been up so long...maybe my calorie intake isn't right, maybe my work day was tough, maybe I'm just feeling lethargic, etc.

I always try to do my workouts in the morning.

I suspect it's a personal thing.

I was the same way, back in the day. To this day, I am not a morning person. Some people are morning people and some are not. You will probably find out that you feel more mentally alert in the late afternoon, evening, night.

If I wanted to be worth a crap at an 8:00AM race, I had to wake up at 5:00, otherwise I was too out of it to be worth a damn. Coffee helped, but it wasn't the same as being at my best in the afternoon.

i'm just like you and never run hard in the morning (aside from races of course)i've had success waking up 3-4 hours before the start of the race (3 hours minimum I'd recommend), drinking/chugging 16-20 ounces of room temp. water, and going out on a 5-10 minute shuffle. literally, just step out of bed, drink water, put on your shoes and jog around in your pajamas or whatever. I usually do 5-minutes at like 9-10 minutes per mile. Sometimes I even check my email while doing this.For me, it does four things:1- guarantees good bowel evacuation(s)2- wakes me up3- shakes off nerves making it easier for me to eat breakfast and focus on getting to the start of the race calmly4- gives me a sense of how my legs/body is feeling (generally based on personal experience but not always an indicator)give it a shot. I've had days where, due to schedule, I decided to wake up ealry to do a big workout and done this routine and it's helped me run what happens more naturally in the afternoons/eveningsfunny enough, as a non-coffee drinker, i have actually had good results in a few races using run gum to wake up then as a boost right before the race. i'm sure coffee would do just as well for though

are you a fast twitcher? Hadd has written that ft'ers tend to be more sluggish in the morning without sugar in them.

Just the way it is. If I go for a training run before work, waking up ~30 minutes before I head out, my pace is slower than usual. Give yourself 2-3 hours to wake up fully for a race.