Early Morning Runners -Support Group ( :
Then summer was over and I had to shift my jogging to the 4PM heat and humidity. It was almost unbearable, but I made it. Then winter arrived and I had to deal with a host of new issues ---- never been an exerciser, let alone one who ran in the ice and snow, so how do you keep your glasses from fogging up or avoid bronchitis in the cold???? Made it through that too.
This summer (up until yesterday's close), I taught summer academy but did not have to be there so early as with regular school, so I was able to return to my morning workouts. HALLELUJAH --- I had forgotten how incredible cool, peaceful, and invigorating it is to run in the early morning hours. It's as if my dog and I are the only living beings..... I love it.
My body clock is pretty good at waking me up and I try very hard to just make it happen every day --- for me to be done with my workout in the cooler weather and because my dog needs the exercise, but my friend Tamar who lives in a VERY HOT climate is having a hard time getting up to run.
How do you make it happen for yourself? How do you get up and get going???????
Other deep thoughts that cross my mind in the morning..........
1) my knees are beginning to be an issue even with new shoes, stretching, ibuprofen, etc, anyone here an OT or sports medicine guru? I know I supinate/walk on the outsides of my feet and that is why my knees hurt ---from being torqued too hard side to side, so what do I do to strengthen whatever quad/ham muscles to stop/help my knees?
2)am I the only person stricken at times with almost emergency bathroom situations while jogging before "voiding"?
3) anyone find now the mp3 player that first motivated you to keep going is now just a distraction from the road and your pace?
4) what about runner's etiquette ??? -- I always get out of oncoming car paths -- even if it means running across the road or getting my running shoes wet/dirty, but still the people in this town are hateful.
5) what about this --- the same routes I have been running (I have a range of 2-5 miles mapped out) are getting too easy/too short/I feel like I could run more, but I like to do a loop, you know? start at my house, make 4 turns, I am home. do I just try to pick up my speed (yuck) or do I do two trips?
This is long, but I hope to hear lots of good advice and get a support group going for all us early morning slaves of the shoe! Are you out there?????
Hi, everyone. I'm a recent convert and I cannot wait until I get to run tomorrow morning. :)
manta - anytime. I hope whatever watch you pick works out well for you. i hope i can get up to go run. like you said, i hope i can ger enough momentum going that the cold wont stop me from running. i am a HUGE wuss when it comes to cold. i have a blanket on the couch at all times because i am always cold.
cfeltontufty - good luck with the half. dehydration setting in is no fun when you are deep into your run (especially if you are about halfway, twhich means that you have to run whatever amount of miles you just ran before you can rest).
i had t cut my run short on saturday also. my fiance and i went to Ikea on Friday and bought a table and some accessories for our entry way. We were up until 2:30am setting it up. i could not get up to run saturday morning. i decided to run around 5pm. there was overcast, and it was lightly sprinkling, so i thought i was set. SO NOT THE CASE. it just got so humid once the sprinkling stopped that i had to take more walking breaks than i had anticipated and i finished my run early. i was supposed to run 12 miles, but i ended up with about 11.
today was a bit better. i ran on the treadmill during lunch and i was able to get 5 miles in, rather than my usual 4mi. tomorrow morning i can hopefully get another 5 miles in. we are supposed to have some heavy thunderstorms through Wednesday, se we will see.. i might have to settle for the gym.
Khooder - you sound like me, I walk around my office with my scarf and jacket on all the time and have a blanket that I keep over me on the couch at all time. I HATE HATE HATE the cold. I lived in Thailand for 6 months about 4 years ago and LOVED it, the heat, the humidity, the WARMTH EVERY DAY! The coldest temp it ever got to in the middle of winter was like 70C! Thats my kind of weather. Like I said, most of the girls here would probably laugh at what i call cold since my morning temps are probably close to 50C (sometime mid 40's and those are the "bloody cold" days that i refer to!). It doesn't reach freezing where I live because of the ocean. Out west of where I live away from the ocean it CAN get close to freezing temps and the moutains west of here it SOMETIMES snows (light dusting, where they have no idea what to do or how to deal with it!)
I did 12 miles on Sunday, up at 5:30 and done by 7:30! It was GREAT. My legs got really heavy about 8-9 miles into the run and I thought the last few miles would be torture, but that feeling went away fairly quickly and the last 2 miles felt fantastic! Then yesterday I did 4 miles, but not until like 4 in the afternoon, and while the run was good and I felt strong, I just didn't enjoy it nearly as much as my morning runs. I almost skipped it, I think thats the danger of me not running in the morning, I tend to want to skip runs.
Day off today and then 6-7 miles tomorrow morning. Hit 30 miles this past week for the first time, want to peak at 35 before I taper off for the half.
manta515 it is so nice to hear that other people like warm weather runs. But I hate extremely hot and humid weather runs. To me, it is so much easier to run in the summer than the winter, but my husband dislikes the heat. During the winter, I have to wear so many layers and just drop them along the way. People probably think there is a streaker! But my neighbors know what is really going on, thank god!
Did some of the best morning runs of my life last week, definitely top 5 for me. Took today off, but going out tomorrow morning. Maybe it will rain. :)
Original Post by bettypage4:
During the winter, I have to wear so many layers and just drop them along the way.
As I got warm running during cold weather, when I was young and thin, I'd be peeling off items, starting with my hat. So everything got stuffed in the hat, which was stuffed under my shirt. By the time I'd finish, I would look about 8 months pregnant!! I'd get very strange looks if people who didn't know me saw me.
I'm going to be trying to run outdoors in our Wisconsin cold at least as long as there is no snow on the ground. Most of my trails will be impassable if we get any significant amount of snow. But I'm not looking forward to it; it's so hard to get the layering right and I've been out of that loop for years. I do recall how odd it felt to have my quads feel so cold while the rest of me was warm, usually because of wind. BUT I have several weeks of decent weather ahead so I'm going to worry about that when the time comes. At least nowadays there are things like underarmor and polar fleece, although plain old wool may continue to be my favorite . . .
Hi!
goddess - welcome! i hope you had a good run today.
manta - that is so funny! it is usually like 95 degrees outside in the summer here, but on weekdays i dress for work like it is December. It is always freezing on my floor. i grew up in Cali so the winters were never that cold. Here, it can get below freezing, so it makes running tough.
that is great that you had a good long run and were able to keep going.
running in the afternoons has been tough for me lately also. I would rather just hang out at home with my boys! Speaking of, i wont be running this afternoon because it is my baby Behr's birthday! we are having a doggie cake for him. He is the one in my avatar. He is 3!! There were some intense thunderstorms this morning so i did not get my morning run in. although i love running in the rain, thunderstorms in TX, are a different story. So i will have to run at the gym during lunch. hopefully i can run 5 miles like yesterday, or 3 miles and a bit of weights.
mkculs - i love that you tuck your gear under your shirt! that is hilarious!! i would have never thought of that. i usually just wear a thermal over a tank top that i lose once i get warm and then just tuck in in the back of my shorts. a thermal doesn't provide much warmth though. in winter those first few miles are tough.
Original Post by khooder:
Hi!
goddess - welcome! i hope you had a good run today.
Hey, thanks! :)
I actually did have a good run today. I had a little bit of a mental wall to get through but then I got into a groove. I ended up running about 2-3 miles in 30 minutes. I don't pay attention to distance on this new route so I wouldn't know.
I'm a little bit behind the ball with the conversation, so I'm going to try and catch up and jump in! Hope everyone had a great run this morning/afternoon. 
Ooo ooo, I have a question. My new route is full of hills - does that really help with speed or stamina? Some of those hills are really steep, and I hope I'm not doing them for nothing, haha.
goddess~ hills are great and really good to do. I'm lucky I live in the flattest place on earth, our hills are overpasses LOL.
I have to laugh at all of you cold wimps. If it was up to me I would run in 30*F weather year round, that or in the rain. I love cold weather runs, I don't like to feel hot and sweaty. I typically only wear 2 layers in the cold too, 3 when it's really cold. Where I am at we get some real extreme weather so I have to learn to run in just about every condition. In the winter I will run until the wind chill drops to -10F, in the summer I don't like to run if it's over 90F. That gives me a 100* temp spread to run in, sad thing is there are quite a few days that the temp is outside that 100* range.
The weather was great last night when I went for my run. I left at dusk and the temp was in the mid to upper 70's with low humidity. I ran 6 miles and felt great. Tonight I'm getting a new tattoo so I'm not sure if I'm going to get a run in. I also have a few errands I have to do too. Just have to see how late it is when I get home, it won't be over 5 miles if I do run tonight.
Original Post by cfeltontufty:
Tonight I'm getting a new tattoo
Be sure to post a pic of the new tat for us to admire!
Where do you live? We have that type of weather although over 100F days are few and far between (Wisconsin). We get humidity-like today, it was cool (probably 75F) and humid, but in July it is often hot and humid. We get cold and humid, too, which makes one's bones ache with cold! I grew up in Virginia, however, so I actually like hot and humid! Well, to a certain extent.
Running in the rain is always terrific. I'm going to sweat no matter what the weather is, and the rain is sooooo refreshing! I was just telling my son about running in hot weather and taking advantage of lawn sprinklers when I could!
I had a great run yesterday, did all the hills and have no calf pain today, or other soreness. I didn't do anything on Sat and Sunday after my lousy Friday run, and that sure paid off. I walked today and will be up and running tomorrow, I hope, although I really MUST try to restrain myself from repeating Monday's run b/c I'm just not ready for running nonstop on every run, I think.
Happy trails, folks!
goddess, you are DEFINITELY not doing the hills for nothing. You will find they are great for speed and stamina. I live in a area with TONS of hills and have always just had to run them, although I find myself on the lazy days trying to avoid the hills as best as possible. Haven't done one of the big ones in awhile, so will have to make sure my run tomorrow morning incorporates one. They will be hard at first, but you will get better and better at them (I have a love/hate relationship with the hills I run). Then one day, you will get this brillinat idea to do hill repeats on them and realize that hills are evil!!! Ok, not really, but yes, they definitely make you faster without you even realizing it. The only time I realized how good having all those hills in my training are, was in march this past year when we went to Florida for a visit. All of the runs I did there were dead flat (even the things I used to think of as hills were a joke, I would call them barely an incline!), and my speed on my runs was significantly faster than what I could do back home at the time.
cfeltontufty, go ahead laugh away (You would laugh even more if you saw how many layers I STILL had on 5 miles into my runs!) I prefer to be hot and sweaty any day over being cold! I can't wait until our temps get to the 80's and 90's and even above!!! The morning temps will be a little cooler, and I may still be wearing my long sleeve shirts for some time until it gets really warm! Not sure you woudl see me getting out of the house in the morning in 30 degree weather for a run, no matter HOW addicted I am to it!
The only layer I take off during my run are my gloves and even those sometimes end up going back on because my hands get cold again!
Whats the new tattoo of? I have two, although the one on my back is just a small little lizard that I have been thinking of having redone to be a bit larger and be a manta ray. I got the lizard when i was in college with one of my friends and before I got into diving, its alright, but I want a diving related tattoo now and not sure I actually want a 3rd one. Glad I am not the only 30 something mom with tattoos and still wanting more!!!
Did 6 mile this morning and have noticed this past week, my speed has really increased all of a sudden. Not sure why, but I am not complaining. It is so nice to run with the sunrise again, was beautiful again this morning, very pink. Going to hit the beach at sunrise tomorrow (at least thats the plan!).
goddess - hills are great. i wish i had more on my runs. it is very flat where i live so i have to settle for hill training on the treadmill. yuck!
cfeltontufy - that is pretty nuts. -10F? wow. the coldest run i have had has probably been about 30F. yes! you have to post your new tat!
mkculs - sprinklers are great during a run. i run through them all the time!!
this week has been bad for morning runs. Between the crazy thunderstorms and me not getting more than 5.5 hours of sleep, i just cant get up at 4am. my running so far this week has all been at the gym. that also includes today. i will be running during my lunch hour, for what i hope to be 5 miles.
manta~ When I run in the cold I first strip off my coat if it's not windy (which is rare) and then I switch from my hat to my head band. I'm a wimp with my hands so I normally keep my gloves on for my full runs. This was my 6th tattoo.
mkculs~ I live in ND, we don't get many 100* days, I was saying I run in a 100* temp spread. We have had a lot (for us) of 80* days this year and several 90* this summer. I'm a upper mid west girl born and raised, I migrated north (grew up in southern MN) so the cold doesn't bother me as much.
My tattoo is of a blue lotus flower. The artist surprised me when I showed up, I was just looking for a simple lotus flower that was partially open but he took it and ran. What it is is a lotus flower almost riding a wave, it's super cool. I wanted to get it as a reminder of my first marathon, it has the date and my time, that I wasn't the happiest with the time but I finished. Maybe someday I'll have a sub-4 hour marathon and add that time.
Today I'm going to run at least 6 miles. I think I'll be doing my runs the next few days in some real heat and wind. I'll just have to remind myself that training in the horrible conditions helps me run a better race.
Ugh, tough run this morning. I did intervals of 6 min running/1 walking, 5 cycles, plus a warm up and cool down. Considering I was only actually running about 30 minutes total, I burned a lot of cals and heart rate was really up more than usual, esp. since I did one of the less hilly loops. But some days are like that, I guess. It was really awful when I started but by the end of the first interval, I felt ok. It was pretty humid so that may have been part of it. But I stuck it out. I will take a long, leisurely stroll tomorrow, with hills, to loosen up and I hope it feels better on Friday!!
Hi Everyone,
I've recently switched to early morning runs again and this group seems like a great idea! Hope it's ok if I join in.
So, the past several years I signed up for a fall/winter half-marathon or marathon to keep me motivated, but this year I wasn't sure I'd have time for the long runs because of my schedule. I'm trying to focus on bringing down my 10K time instead. Anyone else training for the same distance?
Hi,
I am back from vacation. It was difficult. Husband was admitted to hospital for kidney stone, I got a cold, blah blah...
Only got in one run. It was 5.5mi and I did it in 45 mins. It is definitely different timing running on the roads - much faster - I was surprised. Zipped off 750 cals.
Looking forward to getting into a running schedule now that we are back and school is starting very soon, yeah!
Janalee~ give yourself time. ALL of us started out struggling to run a couple miles. Just give yourself time and don't be afraid to slow down in order to reach your 4 mile goal.
mkculs~I have had those tough runs too. I really dread intervals, for me the first 2 are hell, then they get a little bit better. Let yourself have a nice easy day today as reward for a job well done.
trijem~I was welcomed into this group not so long ago and I only get 1 morning run in a week. I ran my first 10k on July 4, they say it's one of the toughest races to run.
cawilder~ sorry to hear your vacation wasn't great. Man you had awesome time on that 5.5 mile run. Some day I'll be that fast....someday, lol.
I had a tempo run last night. I felt good about it considering all the wind (30mph) I had to deal with it. Guess you could say I had resistance interval training, lol. When I plug my garmin into my laptop I realized I could have pushed myself more. But I was really trying to focus on my form so I can give myself a little slack. Tonight between my kids back to school night, the in-laws picking up the kids for the weekend and my daycare association meeting I have to find time to run 6 miles. Saturday is going to be a 13 mile run, my longest before my half in two weeks. I feel like I'm going to be ready, :D
Original Post by cawilder:
Hi,
I am back from vacation. It was difficult. Husband was admitted to hospital for kidney stone, I got a cold, blah blah...
Only got in one run. It was 5.5mi and I did it in 45 mins. It is definitely different timing running on the roads - much faster - I was surprised. Zipped off 750 cals.
Looking forward to getting into a running schedule now that we are back and school is starting very soon, yeah!
Yuck, kidney stones! That is the vacation from Hell!! I've had female friends report that KS are almost as bad as giving birth . . .
Great time on that run. I guess the cold wasn't interfering too much!
I'm definitely going light today--as in, no exercise! A day off. AND I'm eating out tonight; a total "vacation from program" day. I'll even eat dessert! I haven't done a day like this in about 6 weeks so I figure it is time.
Tomorrow I meet with a trainer; we had our "talk" session yesterday and I'll get a routine this time. I want to focus on strength training since I feel like I handle the cardio pretty well on my own.
Happy trails!
mkculs - my hat off to you. i loathe intervals. my "interval" trainings consist of me jsut running on the treadmill and increasing my speed every .5 mile or so until about the last 4 mins. of my workout where i increasre the speed every .5 mins. but i need to start interval training becuase i know that is the best way to improve my speed. an easy stroll will be a nice change for you.
mmmm...dessert! that sounds awesome. Enjoy! i hope your training session goes well tomorrow.
cawilder - sorry about your vacay. i hope that your husband is recovering well. nice time on your 5.5 mi. though! Roads are easier to run on than other surfaces, that is for sure....it is just harder on your joints though.
i could not get up early today, so i ran 5 miles at the gym. it was a bit tough though. my fiance and i started the P90X workout (not sure if any of you have heard of it) to help us get in shape for our wedding. I am also replacing my regular strength ttraining with this as a supplement to my running. it is a pretty intense program though. it is an hour a day, everyday, for 90 days, alternating between upper body strenght training, lower body strength, yoga and ab work. yesterday we did upper body. i had never heard of so many different types of push ups...let alone had the capacity to perform them. needless to say, my shoulders are quite sore today. i had to keep shaking my arms out while i was running to keep them from stiffening up. we'll see what workout we have in store tonight when i get home!
Original Post by khooder:
i could not get up early today, so i ran 5 miles at the gym. it was a bit tough though. my fiance and i started the P90X workout (not sure if any of you have heard of it) to help us get in shape for our wedding. I am also replacing my regular strength ttraining with this as a supplement to my running. it is a pretty intense program though. it is an hour a day, everyday, for 90 days, alternating between upper body strenght training, lower body strength, yoga and ab work. yesterday we did upper body. i had never heard of so many different types of push ups...let alone had the capacity to perform them. needless to say, my shoulders are quite sore today. i had to keep shaking my arms out while i was running to keep them from stiffening up. we'll see what workout we have in store tonight when i get home!
Sounds intense!! When's the wedding? Where? What a good idea to plan ahead and give yourselves this much time to work out. Too many people decide to "get in shape" 3 weeks before the big event (whatever it is) and I just want to smack them upside the head!! You should see quite a difference after 3 months, however, because working with weights really does show pretty quick results, although not MIRACLES in 10 DAYS as so many want!!
I can tell who is a true athlete by how realistic a person's goals are. Anyone who has done little to know serious training has no idea how much work it is!! (Not that I'm much of a serious athlete anymore, but I sure know what it takes!!)
With Groups - you're not alone.Get the experience and support
of others who succeeded.
