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The Number One Rule For Running In The Summer

Wake up early

Ryan Fan
4 min readAug 11, 2021
Photo by Tandem X Visuals on Unsplash

I’m not a big fan of the “wake up at 5 a.m.” self-help advice that we see all over the Internet. But when you live somewhere where it gets to almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoon (38 degrees Celsius), waking up early is a must. Before the sun rises or as the sun is just rising, the temperature where I am is usually around 70 degrees.

The number one rule for running in the summer is waking up early, when the heat is not insufferable, when you can actually run without getting a heat stroke.

To be fair, waking up early is not an end-all be-all. You certainly can still run at 3 p.m. or whenever you get off of work. We all need our sleep above all else, so waking up at 6 a.m. or 5 a.m. might not be an option for everyone. And you might start work early as well, so I don’t want to generalize waking up early in the summer to every person’s unique circumstances.

All I know is waking up early makes my life significantly less painful in the summer. If you do run in the smoldering heat, it’s a great way to build strength and toughness, but you have to be careful. Hydrate well. A lot of times, if I go on a run and it’s over 86 or 87 degrees Fahrenheit, I will bring water.

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Ryan Fan
Ryan Fan

Written by Ryan Fan

Believer, Baltimore City IEP Chair, and 2:35 marathon runner. Diehard fan of “The Wire.”

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