Sunday morning run, or lack of.

You know (or perhaps, have heard of) those people who can get up first thing in the morning, at the crack of dawn, pull on their clothes, slip on their running shoes and are out the door in five minutes? And they do something crazy, like a 14k run or something, then come home, shower, have breakfast AND be at work before 9am?

Well, I tried to be one of those people today. And failed. Miserably.

Firstly, it was Sunday. And I didn't get up at the crack of dawn. More like 9.45am. Then, in an effort to actually drag my mind and body out of their groggy, semi-conscious states, I took the dog for a 1k walk around the block. While walking the dog I kept trying to talk myself out of going for a run - it was already getting quite hot (about 28 degrees), there were hardly any clouds in the sky and I could already feel the sun burning on my arms. And I'm so not a morning person.

But no, I tell myself. No excuses. Better to get this session out of the way so that I could have the rest of the Sunday doing what I wanted i.e blob on the couch and watch Fringe.

So I ran. Went home, put on my gear, ate a few dried mango slices and ran. No breakfast, just water.

What a bad idea.

I had a 4k time trial planned for this session. I barely made it 1.5k before I had to stop and physically try not to die. I was already soaked in sweat, and gasping for air. The heat made it harder to breathe and I was light-headed, sweat and sunscreen running into my eyes. What a sad sight. How do people do this?!?!

I walked for a bit, ran for a bit and after about 2.5k decided to cut my losses and go home. I wasn't getting the most out of my workout, I felt really sick and my mind couldn't get into the zone.

So what did I learn? I learnt that I'm not one of those people who can run first thing in the morning. Not yet anyway. And definitely not on an empty stomach.

But I need to be able to run first thing in the morning, as most races start between 8am-9am. So from now on I'll need to build in morning runs into my training schedule.

Now that I'm no longer groggy from sleep or trying not to die from heat exhaustion, I remember that when I was paddling dragon boats we used to have Sunday training sessions at 8.30am. Before training I'd have an Up n Go and a couple of nectarines on the drive there, which served me well throughout the session. I think that's what I need to do with running too. Eat something, walk the dog then go for a run.

Stay tuned for progress (or lack thereof).