become a morning runner

I don’t really like exercise, and I don’t really like running. But for a time, I was going into federal law enforcement, and this was something I needed to do. Having a goal helps, obviously. But mostly, it was just about creating a habit. Force yourself out of bed in the morning, even if you have to tell yourself that as soon as you run for 5 or 10 minutes that you’ll allow yourself to go right back to bed. More often than not, once you’re up, you’ll keep running as long as you originally intended to. Do this for 2-3 weeks, and you’ll form a habit which becomes much easier to keep. Oh, and don’t forget, get a good nights’ sleep. :)

Honestly, I wasn’t so sure I would ever achieve this goal but I didn’t want to admit to officially giving up either.

After many months off from running, I realized that the only way for me to stick with a marathon training schedule this year would to become a morning runner. As much as I love running in the evening, it’s hard to stick with it when social opportunities pop up.

One of the main barriers to morning running for me is awakeness. I don’t enjoy running when I’m not fully awake and I’m likely to cut my run short. Statistics also show that morning runners are more injury prone, I assume because they’re not awake yet.

So I came up with a 3-part plan. The first part of the plan entailed getting used to waking up earlier for my run. So I set my alarm at an appropriately earlier hour and started getting up at that time, but not going for a run. Once my body and mind adjusted to this new routine, I got up at the new time, spent 30 minutes drinking my coffee and waking up while doing my morning internet surf, THEN headed out for my run. The third part of my plan was ease back into running by not pushing myself to run to hard/long or too often before my body is ready.

This is week 3 of the new plan, and it seems to be working! I’m going to give myself one more week, then call it done.

This morning, I woke up before my alarm AND managed to get on my running gear and head out the door with the dog. Getting out of bed and out the door is the hard part. Running is easy.

The run itself was ok, and I know it’s going to take at least a month of regular running for the fun and speed to come back. In the meantime, I’m wondering where the body that carried my 26.2 miles in November is hiding!