What kind of life do you have if you choose to run at 4:30 or 5am 7 days a week ???????

How do you live like that? That is a horrible life!!! Up at 4:15 am.... That is still night time and people are just getting to bed...

I've been doing it for about 25 years- it's my work schedule.

I was fine- now, I was 35 or so when I started the early morning runs- married with little kids so it's not like I was out partying and all.

430amriser wrote:

I would love to run at 430 am. I get up to get ready for work at that time! If I wanted to double I'd have to go at 330 am. Right now I double just every now and then. OP, people who are dead set on running fast times don't worry about things like "having a life" as they enjoy running above most other things and don't care what you think.

What time do you start work?

My training group started running our runs between 0330 and 0430 because I was a medical resident, one guy was a cardiothoracic surgical nurse, and the other is an early morning person that liked to get his run done early. Not only did two of us have to be in the hospital for work by 0600 most mornings we realized that those early morning hours rarely ever get infringed upon by others. Occasionally there was a heart transplant that required coming in early or I would not leave the hospital from the night before but once we got to work for the day it was much more likely we lost control of our schedules. It was always hard getting out of bed knowing there was a possibility we could all be home by 4:00 PM and run like "normal" people but eventually it became the routine and we felt we would be letting the training group down to not show up. Weekly mileage peaked about 90-105 miles and it was nice to have to 18-20 workouts done by 0530 on a Wednesday. It made all the rest of the work done in the day feel like a cherry on top. It's not for everyone but the world is a different place to run in while it's still morning-dark.

It’s called self discipline. Obviously you don’t have it.

Glad I help answering your inquiry.

DrJ

This is very much not worth engaging in, since you seem to have little experience in a full-time job or with steady relationships, but I'll bite anyways. When your life responsibilities start to pile up, that 4:30/5am time slot turns into the one thing that no one can take away from you. You may get super slammed at work and have to stay till 9pm, your significant other might need you to be home early to pick up the kids from school, or to make dinner, or you may have happy hour or dinner plans that you can't bail on for the sake of your run. Or you might just be so mentally exhausted from putting in a full day of demanding work, that you can't bring yourself to have the discipline to run afterwards. In all of these cases, no matter what happens or how bad your day goes or how busy it is, no one can take away the fact that you got a run in, and you're starting your day on a productive note.

It's really not that bad running that early once you get used to it. What sucks is if you live in a cold climate. The average low here in January is 9F. Imagine having to roll out of a warm bed and be out the door in 15 minutes to 9F with a gentlest of winds making it go below 0F windchill. Oh, watch those icy spots you can't see in the dark cuz it's dark until much later.

The what people do to force them to run that early is not as important as WHY they do it. Hard core mofos.

kipchoge does it. He seems pretty cool with it..

I have a little kid so run from the get-go so as to not upset my family. So, I get up at 4 AM regardless of what nowadays and honestly appreciate getting exercise early. It stimulates me for the remainder of the day and allows me an hour or two to appreciate being separated from everyone else before poop hits the fan at work.

This.

+1 to what everyone else said about family responsibilities. It's just easier to get up and get it done. With that said, for all of you 4:30am dudes, has getting up early positively or negatively effected your running performance? I'm a 40 year old middle of the packer and my Strava timeline is full of high 8:50-9:30 pace runs at 4:30am. The few times I run in the late morning, early afternoon or afternoon, my paces is much much quicker. So is there any benefit or point to getting up ass early to do a track workout or tempo workout ? Or is it counterproductive.

I think it all depends on whether you're a morning person or a night person.

I'm a night person and almost never run in the morning. Have the following schedule on the weekdays:

6:45 AM - Get up

7:30 - 8 AM - Commute to work

8 AM - 5-6 PM - Work

5-6 PM - 8 PM - Drive to a park or track, get those miles or intervals in, go back home

8 PM - 10:45 PM - Shower, eat, check the news, etc.

10:45 PM - Go to bed

If the weather is really bad or I have to stay late at work, I just hop on my treadmill. If I have to stay really late at work, I'll skip the run, but that only happens a few times a year.

Weekends are for doing chores, grocery shopping, hanging out with friends, and so on.

The only thing I don't quite get is the people who wake up super-early so as to have some time between post-run and work. I personally like staying up for sports games and the like so doing early-morning runs doesn't appeal. If I wasn't a sports fan, I would wake up 2.5 hours before work (max) and getting everything done efficiently. If you start work at 7 it is understandable to do the 430 thing or if you have a kid or some other responsibilities I also get that. Seems like there are some people though who start work at 8:30-9 but proudly like to wake up at 5 and go to sleep at 9. More power to them, if they want 90 minutes post workout to shower and get ready for work/nap, but I'd rather have that time for sleep OR use that free time after work.

adulting wrote:

This is very much not worth engaging in, since you seem to have little experience in a full-time job...

You may get super slammed at work and have to stay till 9pm,

...

Or you might just be so mentally exhausted from putting in a full day of demanding work

I'm not the OP, but I do work a full time job that is not always stress-free.

Running after work is a great way to clear your head. A 10x400 session doesn't take much time, and you're not going to be thinking of office politics or your next meeting during those last 2-3 intervals. It doesn't solve all your problems, but it's definitely good stress relief.

I have stayed at work until 9 PM and was still able to get in a 6 mile run and 8 hours of sleep that night without showing up late to work the next morning. You just need to be efficient with your time. Prep your meals in advance, do your chores on the weekends, and don't even think about browsing the Internet or turning on the TV that night.

adulting wrote:

Or you might just be so mentally exhausted from putting in a full day of demanding work, that you can't bring yourself to have the discipline to run afterwards.

You don't have the discipline? But I thought a morning person had more discipline than the rest of us.