Darkness is Falling... Here's How to Stay Upright
Quick tips to help you navigate running in the dark
I can picture my 4-year-old son saying just how dark it is at night.
Damn right kid, now go to bed so mommy and daddy can get to bed.
My wife and I take different days of the week running in the morning so that we can do our runs before the kids even wake up. Is it fun? Hell no. But it’s productive to be done with our run for the day before the small humans inhabiting our house wake up.
But since we’re getting to the darker (and soon to be even darker with Daylight Savings Time) mornings, I need to remind my runner friends how you should prep for and complete these early morning or post-work runs.
Because hey, not all of us get the chance to run during the day during the winter months, so for the majority of us, dark running is the only time we get to run.
Limit and/or avoid headphones. While music is good, not being able to hear something coming AND not being able to see things is potentially really bad.
Run on the left side of the road - cars should be able to see you coming and you should be able to see cars.
Run in light colored clothes - like highlighter yellow or white - or even better wear a reflective vest or light up vest and a headlamp. Sure, you might look ridiculous, but if you can be seen, that’s what matters.
Getting to bed early is the best predictor of getting in morning miles. Lay off the phone and the YouTube and get those extra zzz’s.
Pre-pack your gear the night before. In our house, our clothes go downstairs so we can go from bathroom to dressed to out the door. It saves time and it’s quieter when clothes are already picked out the night before.
Do we sometimes struggle with motivation to get out early in the dark and run? Absolutely.
We do our best to have friends join us for morning miles/workouts. It absolutely helps knowing someone is waiting for us. Besides that, knowing that the morning is our time helps tremendously.
I know that running in the morning isn’t for everyone and I know some of us can’t avoid the post-work hours either, so we do what we can.
At the end of the day, if running in the dark is the worst thing that happens to us, we’ve done alright.
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