Only started running relatively recently so it's not first thing in the morning but it's a habit. I needed a way to "warm up" for the day and be physically active.
Aside from the general hype of "it feels great" "healthy" yada yada, it gets to a point where you feel uneasy not running. Like after training my legs, they want to go for a run and be used.
You need to account for having time (sleeping early and getting up early with naps during the day) and slowly conditioning but the most important thing is consistency. Only evaluating based on your previous efforts rather than comparing to others.
I can run a full 5k in the afternoon, morning is impossible, I've tried it. It's like my body needs to get rid of the sleep juice in my body. These people must be running a half mile or something.
"sleep juice" feels startlingly accurate for how I feel in the morning. When I was young people would say you need to "de-dormir" - de-sleepify yourself.
For me that was hunching over a bowl of porridge with a blanket wrapped around me.
I like running, but doing that in the morning - foof
I am just home from a run. I just set myself a time by which I'm out of the house and I move fast when clothing up so doubts don't have time to kick in. I might do a few stretches too once I'm out of the door so my leg muscles aren't that cold.
I do it because it’s the least worst option available to me. If I hit the gym at lunchtime it’s usually fairly packed and I have a hard time getting the machines I like. But if I go in when the gym opens before work, then I can get in, get my sweat on, then shower+change+etc before work.
I wake up at 6, am dressed and out the door by 630, rolling into the gym parking lot at 655, and waiting by the door when they unlock it at 7.
I don’t enjoy it for intrinsic reasons. I’ve always been a night owl. But I do like the effects of it - in the last year since I started going before work, I have needed a sleep aid fewer than five times.
Do you schedule to sleep at 10? Your cycle seems pretty neat actually.
I attempted similar morning exercise before but I found myself nodding off quite violently to sleep by lunch. Like flat out drooling if I shut my eyes. Maybe the trick is moderating workout intensity.
And for that, I appreciate night owls. Night shifts killed my health. I would have stayed like that penguin if it wasn't for lockdown resetting my rythmn and abolishing night shifts.
It’s like diving into cold water… the act of getting there can often be done better when your brain isn’t fully engaged.
So you run before your mind starts making excuses and before your body starts getting too insistent that you’re hungry and tired. And then it just does it and it’s over.
Exactly this. It's sort of like cheating in that you just get going before your brain is fully awake, and before you know it you're already done exercising for the day!