How to Successfully Run at 6:30 A.M.

Some people have questioned me about how I motivate myself to exercise, and how I get up early in the morning to run. So I'll give some tips about what works for me.

The first question I will address is, "How do you get yourself motivated to get up/out and exercise?"

Let's say my planned workout is a 4 mile run on Monday morning. It is Sunday night and I feel zero motivation to go do the run in the morning. The first thing I do is get out all my running stuff for the next morning so that when I get out of bed my shoes, shorts, and tech shirt are staring at me accusingly. In the morning I get up, get my coffee, some water, and a light breakfast, or "pre-breakfast", and get on my running gear. If I'm still not feeling motivated, I go tell my wife I'm going for a run and go outside and start running anyway, hoping that when I get to mile 1, I'll be feeling motivated. If I get to mile 1 and I don't feel motivated, (I usually do by then) I keep going, hoping to feel motivated by mile 2. If I still don't feel motivated to run my 4 miles, the good news is I have to get back home somehow, so I just turn around and run home.

So the short version. I don't always feel motivated, but I still get up and do what I need to do. Sometimes I don't feel motivated to make dinner, but I'll get hungry, then sick if I don't, so I do it anyway.

Often, people follow that up with, "OK, but how do you get up and run at 6:30 in the morning?"

Step by step:

1. Get running gear ready the night before.
2. Set alarm for 5:00 planning to run at 5:30.
3. Hit snooze at 5:00, 5:09, 5:18, 5:27, 5:36, then get out of bed at 5:45.
4. Eat a quick "pre-breakfast".
5. The dogs are awake, I'd better walk them.
6. The daughter is awake and wants to help walk the dogs, tell her to get dressed quickly.
7. Walk the dogs, as soon as I get outside the daughter says she needs to go potty, send her back inside.
8. Finish walking the dogs, get another glass of water.
9. The daughter wants milk, get her milk.
10. Geez it's almost 6:30 I need to run.
11. Let the wife know that I'm going to run and that the daughter is awake.
12. Go run at 6:30.