I am not a morning person. I have been a night owl for my entire life; even when I was little, I would stay up late on family vacations watching re-runs of I Love Lucy when everyone else was long asleep, and I would be the latest riser. The only times when I would actually get up early to work out was when I had to rise at 4:30 in the morning to go to swim practice in high school (ugh), and my coaches would always say, "why are you swimming so badly?" ("It's five in the morning, and no one should be awake, let alone jumping in cold water," I wanted to reply). In college, of course, my biorhythm was ideal; I could stay up late studying, wake up late, work out, then go to classes in the afternoon. During the past year, though, I have had to completely change my patterns, since I work from 8:30 am to 6 pm. Getting up at 7 am in order to go to work is hard enough for me, so I would usually work out during lunch or after work. The few high-minded attempts I ever made to run before work usually met a swift end when I cracked a bleary eye at my alarm then hit the snooze button.
Having had too many jaunts on the treadmill and in the heat lately, though, I decided that enough was enough, and I have been getting up at 6 am to run before work. I'm still getting used to it, and I don't always enjoy it, but I'm hoping that my body will start to adjust. I have been having to make sure and turn out the light at about 10 pm, too, which is really hard for me (the night owl in me wants to stay up until 2 am), but with the kind of training I do, getting enough rest is vital.
When I get up, I have a bit of coffee waiting for me (thanks to my delay timer), and I whip up a quick sunrise (literally) smoothie: a banana, strawberries, a couple dollops of plain greek yogurt, a scoop of protein powder and some OJ. I noticed that it gives me a lot more quick energy for short runs in the morning than the toast with peanut butter option I usually have before a long run. I am out the door by 6:30, and the sun is just coming up, so there is still a bit of almost-coolness to the air. Lately I have been riding Capital Bikeshare to work and running from there, but that means that I don't start running until 7 and it's already getting hot (sadly), so I might run from home next time to benefit the most from the coolness.
One thing I noticed is that there is a very interesting crowd running at that time in the morning. I have even started giving them nicknames (to keep myself from falling asleep as I run? maybe), and they are similar to the personalities of the brat pack kids in The Breakfast Club. If you don't know what I am talking about, go and rent the movie right now (or watch it on Netflix, or whatever the kids are doing these days), because it's an awesome movie. Anyway, here are the categories of runners I have seen...
"The Athlete": Obviously, anyone who is out running at this time of day is a kind of athlete, but these guys (or gals) are hardcore so they deserve the title. As I'm running along, trying to keep up a relatively good pace, suddenly one of them grazes by me like an antelope and makes me feel like a snail. They usually have the defined musculature of someone who has about 2% body fat, which I can see because the males are wearing very short running shorts, while the females are in just a running bra and spandex. They all probably are doing a half marathon before work (no big deal). As they go by I wish I could shout, "You go, Glen Coco!" but they are already a mile ahead.
"The Princess": These girls are in their matching, pretty lululemon gear, and don't even seem to glisten while everyone else is sweating bullets. They aren't really running that fast, but they don't look to concerned about it. In fact, I'm surprised they are running at this time of day, but they are probably trying to fit in some "exercise" before their later microderm abrasion and massage.
"The Burnout": These macho guys crack me up; they can also be seen on the Mall during the afternoons. Sometimes a really muscle-y male will blaze by me at a startling pace, obviously trying to look really spiffy. At first glance, this species can be mistaken for an "Athlete," but they are usually not as lithe and have big arm muscles from weight lifting. After about a half mile, I'll catch up to them, because they are walking with their hands above their heads, heaving for air and drenched in sweat. Turns out that lifting weights for four hours doesn't translate so well to running, eh?
"The Brain": These are the over-analyzing runners who have a very expensive GPS running watch, complete with a heart rate monitor strapped to their chest and/or the Nike running chip shoes. They know and record all their splits and pace, and probably sometimes forget that running is supposed to be... fun?
These characters are very entertaining, especially when you aren't the kind of person who wants to be out and about that early in the morning. It's kind of calming, though, running that early- especially since there (mostly) aren't hordes of tourists yet, and after about twenty minutes of sluggishness I usually start feeling more awake. I even ran up and down the stairs the other day on the Lincoln Memorial before a Park Policewoman kicked me off. So hopefully I'll get in the habit of joining The Breakfast Club, at least until the fall!
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