With Coach Kelvin, offering Online Running Coaching for We Run and the We Run Virtual Running Club, and 1:1 Running Coach for Leeds and surrounding areas.
The Challenge of Early Morning Runs
In this little video, I’m gonna kind of answer a question asked by Abby, and that question was about when we have to train maybe quite early in the morning due to a busy work schedule – how do we do this without training fasted?
What Does “Training Fasted” Mean?
Let’s just sort of cover first what we mean by training fasted. That’s when a runner might go out after not eating a meal for a sort of large period of time. So maybe someone has an evening meal at six o’clock, and then they don’t have anything to eat until six o’clock the following morning, and then they go out for a run. That would be training fasted.
And Abby’s got the right idea here. What we don’t want to do is train fasted. We want some fuel in the system, and there’s a number of reasons for this. It’s more on a sort of hormonal level than it is a fuel level.
Why Fasting Before a Run Isn’t Ideal
To do exercise when we’ve got no fuel on board is a stressor. The body sees that as a stress, as you can imagine. You’re asking it to do a very demanding task like running, but you’re not fuelling it correctly – and the body doesn’t like that.
We’re not really specifically – unless the run’s gonna be very long – gonna be too worried about muscle glycogen stores. We do burn some muscle glycogen while we sleep, but it’s only quite a small quantity. So provided we’ve had some carbohydrate the day before, muscle glycogen stores should be fairly full.
Practical Tips for Fuelling Early Runs
If we’re gonna run at five o’clock in the morning, we’re not gonna get up at three to have breakfast. But we do need a little bit of glucose in the system – mainly to fuel the brain and tell it everything’s okay.
One of the best ways to do this is with a small snack, like a banana. Keep it carby.
Personally, I’ll have some coffee – caffeine starts to kick in by the time I’m running. It can make a big difference.
Using Liquid Calories or Gels
Then I’ll probably add some liquid calories. I might take a hand bottle with me and pop a small amount of carbohydrate powder in. Not a lot – just enough to signal to the brain that we’re not running on empty.
Or some runners prefer a small gel just before they train.
It’s not really about topping up muscle glycogen as you would before a long effort. It’s about reassuring the body that you’ve got fuel available.
Final Thoughts
I hope that makes some sort of sense. If you have any questions, pop them in the comments below.
And for now, happy running.
