As the days get shorter and the mornings get cooler, staying in bed becomes a greater temptation day-by-day and week-by-week as opposed to getting out and getting your trail run in.
Getting your trail run in early as massive benefits especially if you have the tendency to procrastinate like I do what I’ve often found is that if I leave my trail run until later in the day later in the day invariably becomes not at all.
Prepare Properly
Be sure to check the weather the night before. Log the route that you planning to do and set out everything that you will need in terms of your shoes clothing Etc. based on what the weather conditions are forecast for the early morning.
Have A Plan
I mentioned earlier about logging your route. Besides knowing what route you intend to be running on, have a plan as far as what you will be wanting to be getting out of that early morning workout run.
Having a clear plan will help you to eliminate things to think about when you wake up early in the morning.
Find A Way To Be Accountable
Maybe you’ve got a trail running buddy, somebody that you’ll be hitting the trails with. That way you will feel committed to not leave your buddy waiting and that will help you to get out of the door in the morning.
Maybe you’ve got a goal race that you busy training for and so you need to get in your necessary workout in order to be fit and ready when the big day rolls around.
Getting going early in the morning is a really big struggle for you then maybe start with two or maybe three early morning run workouts a week and build up from there.
Prepare Nutrition The Night Before
Set out any nutrition/hydration that you may need for your run the night before.
Years ago is I did some product testing using Tailwind and Hammer Nutrition. Both of these required me to mix up my nutrition with water relatively soon before consumption. What I would do is I’d set up my drink bottle with a bottle of water and the sachet of nutrition next to it. That way I could mix up my nutrition just before heading out to the door in the morning.
Long story short, neither of those two particular nutrition plans worked very well for my gut. But that was a different learning curve.
In this instance, the point is that even though I couldn’t pre-mix the nutrition, having everything laid out still helped me to get out of the door really quickly when I woke up in the morning.
Have The Right Gear
If you’re going to be heading out before sunrise then a headlamp is a vital thing to have on you.
Be sure to check out the page that I have put together on what I consider to be the best headlamps that I found around at various different price points.
Something that you need to do especially when heading out in the dark early in the morning is to make sure that you stay safe out on the trails. The good news for you that is that I’ve written a detailed article on exactly how you can be safe out in the trails you can find that by clicking here.
Remember Why You Do This
Maybe just like me you have a tendency toward procrastinating planning an evening run often turn into no run at all.
By getting out early in the morning you are able to be getting your day started in a far more productive way. What I noticed when I started doing early runs was that I could reduce the amount of procrastination I did across the rest of the day because I had some sort of momentum and going first thing in the morning.
It is also a really great feeling to be finished your run at a time in the morning while the rest of the people around you as to only starting to get up out of their slumber.
As opposed to making me feel tired, my early morning runs tend to energize me. After my early morning run, I’m more than ready to start the day.
Where before I was just like my co-workers in the office and be super sluggish first thing in the morning, now I’m finding that my mornings are my most productive time of the day.
Make Morning Runs A Habit
There is a very well-known theory within psychological circles that states that it requires 66 days to create a new habit.
Therefore don’t expect your new morning run routine to be feeling superb right from the get-go.
It will likely be a period of time before it becomes second nature for you to be doing an early morning run out of the trail.
I remember a friend telling me once about a strategy she used for getting up and out on her run early in the morning. She would set out all of her clothing and gear right by the bed the night before. That way she was able to get out of bed in the morning get dressed for her run, have her shoes on, and be out of the door before her brain had a chance tell her to turn over and go back to sleep.
There has been another way that my early morning trail runs have been helpful. I carry a notebook and pen in my hydration pack. Early morning runs are great for new creative ideas. Stopping at a natural spring or fountain for a drink of water is an opportunity to jot some of those ideas down.
That’s what happened this morning and the result was the blog post that you have just finished reading.