6:10am here on the East Coast. Just finished my morning 10 miler. Who's with me?

its all about time management and a burning desire to succeed (or not get overweight)

To the OP: big f$&@ing deal. I START work everyday at 6am which means I do several runs a week between 3:30-5:00am. Also a married father of two. The only difference is I've never jizzed myself on Letsrun.com like you just did.

5 years ago I would have laughed at you guys. I was single, dating 3 women at that same time, bringing in over $250k, working 30 hours per week, running when I felt like it, sleeping to my hearts content, and walking 10 min to and from work. In other words, living the dream.

I'm now married and a Dad. No more casual dates and hookups. More responsibility at work. Longer commute. 80% of my runs at 5:30am. 6 hours of sleep a night.

And yet I'm 8 lbs lighter, my body fat is lower, and I've run massive PRs in every distance.

I'll admit that I train harder now as an outlet for stress and for fear of becoming the fat old Dad. Fatherhood focuses you. Overall I'm happier. Do I miss the good old days? Yes. Would I trade it? Probably not.

pod!

Father of Four wrote:

44 years old, 4 kids and a full time job. Still finding a way to bang out 60-70 miles a week!

27-year-old dirtbag furniture mover who works 20 hours a week with no debt and no family to support. I get my miles in in between episodes of Behind the Music.

Oatmeal and coffee wrote:

5 years ago I would have laughed at you guys. I was single, dating 3 women at that same time, bringing in over $250k, working 30 hours per week, running when I felt like it, sleeping to my hearts content, and walking 10 min to and from work. In other words, living the dream.

I'm now married and a Dad. No more casual dates and hookups. More responsibility at work. Longer commute. 80% of my runs at 5:30am. 6 hours of sleep a night.

And yet I'm 8 lbs lighter, my body fat is lower, and I've run massive PRs in every distance.

I'll admit that I train harder now as an outlet for stress and for fear of becoming the fat old Dad. Fatherhood focuses you. Overall I'm happier. Do I miss the good old days? Yes. Would I trade it? Probably not.

5 years ago I would have laughed at you, but now I have lost my hair, my money, and my speed. My kids resent me and my ex-wife is remarried. I spent all that time making money consumed by my kids and wife and have a bunch of age-group medals to show for the training. Choose your family or your training. You CANNOT have it all, one or the other is suffering, probably both. Choose wisely, but wise people will choose.

man, you can't get away with anything on these boards. God forbid this guy start a conversation about fitting in your running with the rest of your life.

swaggyp wrote:

Serious question: how do you get out the door so quick? I get up at 4:30 but need 45mins to drink coffee and well sh*t twice. I would much rather be out the door in 15 mins if I could

Serious answer. Pick out clothes the night before, set timer on coffee pot for 4:15, crawl out of bed 4:30 drop ice cube in coffee and drink while getting dressed 10 minutes, head to bathroom another 10 minutes and out the door. Like the OP said its all about how bad you want it.

honey stanger wrote:

its all about time management and a burning desire to succeed (or not get overweight)

+10

kadoo wrote:

Father of Two wrote:

I'm a father of two and found this post inspiring. It got my butt out the door this morning, in fact. It is easy to let your running slack once you have children. Seeing other guys out there doing it lets you know you can too. Much more "worthy" post than the 50 relationship posts and hundreds of political posts we see every day.

Because kids are really holding Farah and Rupp back. Clearly slacking.

It clearly has affected Rupp to an extent.

Father of Four wrote:

The obvious answer wrote:

Impressive. 5.15am is very early to leave the house for an easy run.

Ha. I wish! For Wednesday 10 milers I'm usually up at about 4:30 and out the door at 4:40-4:45. Get back around 6:00-6:10--sometimes, if I'm feeling great, I'll finish before 6. Then take 20 min to a half hour to meditate before waking my oldest for high school and starting my day. It is a nice routine, I'll admit.

Why do you have to wake up your oldest for high school? I was on my own as far as waking up and getting to school - I assumed that's how most kids were at that age. Understandable if your kid has a disability, but otherwise, WTF - by high school, kids should be responsible for getting up and out the door.

I'll play!

late 40s, active on my local team, running 40-50 mpw, kid in HS, have my own bizness, doing 5 x 2000 tonight.

I will say I did a good job making my kid self reliant - since he started HS I don't have any real tasks with him other than being home for dinner every night and giving parental guidance on things. He's a great person.

he finds out about college entrance next week - then 8 more months and my wife and I are empty nesters - I wonder how that will affect my running.

38, 4 kids under 7 and a full time job. Had 8 done by 5:45am. Keep it up!!! Make time for running and your family, it can be done.

It takes me close to an hour to get out of the house. Wake up, get dressed, make coffee, bathroom, give the wife and girls a good-bye kiss, drive to run. An avg of 45-60 min for all this for me to feel ready to roll.

Yawn wrote:

To the OP: big f$&@ing deal. I START work everyday at 6am which means I do several runs a week between 3:30-5:00am. Also a married father of two. The only difference is I've never jizzed myself on Letsrun.com like you just did.

Umm, you just did.

I will admit it is very tough as you get older. I felt great through about 37. I am 40 now. Every run is much slower and never feels 100% good. I just finished a marathon build up that had me at 80 miles a week(6days) and I felt decent for some of it but not as good as in my early 30's running 100 mile weeks. Yes, I have three kids and own restaurants, blah, blah blah. It just sucks getting old though. Times are getting slower and each year runs feel worse.

Father of Four wrote:

44 years old, 4 kids and a full time job. Still finding a way to bang out 60-70 miles a week!

Thanks for the post! Inspiring! I know there's some trolls on here, but it's cool that you felt the want/need to share.

It's so easy to blow off running, exercise, etc. because of the 1000 excuses of life. (I'm guilty of this.)

Yesterday, I didn't get a chance to run because of work commitments, but after coming home & eating dinner, then falling asleep on the couch, I woke up & did a half hour of body weight exercises at midnight! Sheez.

I think we're all nuts...but in a good way. :-)

Dude I gotta say this is pretty soft. I usually start my runs by 2:45 am. I meet all of Flagpole's criteria for being a real man and get to work by 3:59 am after my daily training marathon. Get back to me when you can run a 1400 5k while simultaneously scoring a perfect 1500 on the SATs.

Yawn wrote:

To the OP: big f$&@ing deal. I START work everyday at 6am which means I do several runs a week between 3:30-5:00am. Also a married father of two. The only difference is I've never jizzed myself on Letsrun.com like you just did.

Weak sauce wrote:

Dude I gotta say this is pretty soft. I usually start my runs by 2:45 am. I meet all of Flagpole's criteria for being a real man and get to work by 3:59 am after my daily training marathon. Get back to me when you can run a 1400 5k while simultaneously scoring a perfect 1500 on the SATs.

Dude, perfect on the SATs is 1600.

And perfect on trollage is 10/10.

You fell short on both.