As the days kept getting longer and longer and my calendar kept filling up quicker and quicker, I knew that I needed to shift my workouts to the morning time in order to guarantee they’d happen. However…I HATE waking up early and knew that dragging myself out of bed before 7am (or, even AT 7am, which isn’t that early to some folks, I know!) was going to be a struggle. I pretty much look at people like this if they ask me to wake up early…
You want me to get up, when?
So I knew it’d be tough transitioning myself to a morning runner, but I’m proud to say that now 95% of my workouts happen in the morning (with the occasional lunch gym trip or after work group run). How’d I do it? In 5 steps:
- Set my alarm earlier than I really needed to wake up. I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that I’m a snoozer. It is VERY rare that I don’t snooze. So in order to accommodate that, I set my alarm about 15 minutes earlier than the time I absolutely have to wake up. This way, I can still snooze and get my morning run in.
- Go.to.bed. Seriously, this is so important. Before committing to waking up for morning workouts, I’d stay up until after 1am most nights. Now, because I’m waking up earlier, I begin winding down around 10pm and am usually ready to turn out the reading light by 11:30pm. Which is still too late, but it’s a process.
- Made it easy on myself in the morning. I lay out my running gear, fix my lunch and make overnight oats before I go to bed. That way, in the morning, all I have to do is step into my clothes. When I come back from my run, breakfast is ready and my lunch is already prepared. Win!
- Don’t push back the wakeup time on days you don’t run. I think this is really important. I set my alarm clock for the same time each weekday morning. I think if I didn’t do this, I’d have a much harder time waking up on running days (and lately, everyday is a running day since I’m streaking).
- ACCOUNTABILITY. I make myself accountable both to my online running friends and to K, and other friends. If I tell someone I’m going running in the morning, then dang it, I will run in the morning, if only to avoid having to admit I didn’t. It’s odd but it works.
Are you a morning runner? If not, have you ever tried it? You might like it!
sometimes a mile is all you can stomach at 7am. and that’s okay!
I love the suggestion to not push back wait time on non-running days! Now even on Saturdays and Sundays I’m waking up that early but it makes the week easier!
Emma @ a mom runs this town
Yes, it definitely becomes harder to sleep in on the weekends…but that’s what naps are for 🙂
Thanks for sharing your tips, I was looking for something like this! I’m normally an evening runner, but I knew I wanted to run today (June 5th is National Running Day). Have plans for the evening, so I got out of bed and did it. I found that although my legs were a bit heavy, it’s nice to have my workout done for the day!
Glad the tips were helpful! I absolutely love having my workout done by the time I’m in my office – it’s just one less thing to think about 🙂
I am definitely a morning runner!! Here in FL, it’s still in the mid 70’s and at least 80% humidity (today was 90% humidity at 6 am) that early in the morning, but my morning run sets the tone for the rest of my day! I find now that “sleeping in” is getting up at 730…on my own. That kinda stinks, since I’m a 22 year old graduate student and no one else in my life is up that early, but it really helps on running mornings!
I was in Miami for work recently and you HAVE to be a morning runner down in FL 🙂 I actually went on a group run at 7pm and the humidity was stifling. Good for you for doing it in the morning!! 🙂
I really need to take your advice with #2. I had a good phase where I was heading up at 10pm and lights out by 11pm for a while, but now I’m up late reading blogs, writing blogs, researching other things like bikes, etc. Need to go.to.bed. I snoozed quite a bit today but still got in a run. Thanks for the tips!
It is often the hardest for me to just go to sleep. But then I stay up later than intended and pay for it the next morning! 🙂
Great post! I’ve found that once you get into the habit of waking up early, it almost comes naturally. Since my wife and I are also getting two kids out the door, I have to get up pretty early to get a 4-5 mile run in (like around 5:30), but for the most part I’m used to it by now.
An interesting byproduct of being used to early rising is that on days I don’t run I have time to do some cross training (eg. push-ups, sit-ups, etc). I’ll still do an occassional evening run, but for the most part, mornings are better for me all the way around.
You are so right — it’s the “getting into the habit” part that is tough. But now, I enjoy being awake earlier and there is no better feeling than sitting at your desk at 9am and having already completed your workout!
i run in the mornings, but mostly because I dont work until 11am (leave at 1030a) so its easy enough to get up at 8 or even 9 and go. I too am a night owl so this usually still works out ok, but I prefer to set out my clothes as well.. def helps 🙂
Setting out clothes is very helpful for me! Sometimes I think about just sleeping in them 🙂
This right here has been my problem:
“Set my alarm earlier than I really needed to wake up. I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that I’m a snoozer. It is VERY rare that I don’t snooze. So in order to accommodate that, I set my alarm about 15 minutes earlier than the time I absolutely have to wake up. This way, I can still snooze and get my morning run in.”
If I set the alarm earlier, I know it. So when it goes off, I know I can snooze. But after the 1st or 2nd snooze, I’m mostly just cranky and want to go back to sleep by the time I really DO have to get up … so I just set the alarm for 7 and go back to sleep.
Not sure what is going to get me out of bed easier but I need to figure it out… the heat and humidity make me sooooooooo unmotivated to run, add in the early hours and it just isn’t happening that often lately!
Do you have a buddy/group you can arrange to meet for morning runs? I’ve been doing speed work at 5:45 on Thursday mornings and waking up that early SUCKS. BUT since I know people are there and I’d hate to miss out, I manage to drag my butt out of bed at 5am. I’m much better about keeping commitments to others than to myself 🙂