Finally saying hi — 11 weeks of morning walks

Sep 1 1007 views 12 posts

Hey everyone, long-time lurker finally posting. I'm Sarah, 41, work an insurance desk job, and have two kids who think 6am is a totally reasonable hour, so my walks happen before anyone else is up. About 11 weeks in and the weird part is I actually look forward to it now, which has never happened with any exercise I've tried. Not tracking much beyond whether I got out the door — just trying to keep it going through summer without flaming out like I usually do by June. Curious whether the morning people here found it stuck better than evenings, because evenings never worked for me at all. Anyway, nice to finally say hi.

Welcome. I saw the same lag around week 8-12. For me it was the 4:30 wake-ups, not the workouts. Are you eating later after the walks?

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Eating later was my issue too. Moved dinner 45 min earlier and sleep score came back over 3 weeks. Not magic, just less digestion.

Could be tracker sensitivity, not digestion. My ring did that.

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Not sure I buy tracker sensitivity alone. If waking at 4:30 is real, that's a stress or light issue. Any screens before bed?

Room temp and caffeine timing were my variables before blaming the watch. My sleep score tanked when spring allergies started.

What does your weekly HRV look like? One high reading can skew the trend. I only trust 7-day averages.

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I'm 41 and 14 weeks into a similar morning-walk streak. My HRV climbed first, sleep score lagged about a month, then caught up. The 4:30 wakes stopped when I stopped checking my phone at night. Might be worth a two-week screen cutoff. Also, are you doing the walks fasted? That changed my morning cortisol feel, though I can't prove it. In my case, my weekly averages were much less dramatic than daily scores; daily showed 10-point swings, weekly only moved 3-4 points. I also noticed alcohol on weekends wrecked my sleep score for two nights even when I felt okay. Not saying any of that is your issue, but it kept me from overreacting to one bad night.

Fasted walks made my sleep worse, not better. I need at least a banana or I wake at 3.

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The 3am wake after fasted exercise happened to me too. Adding a small bedtime snack helped, but I know everyone's different.

Data question: are you comparing same sleep window? My score drops when daylight saving shifts my actual selep by 30 min.

Agree on the 7-day averages. Stop chasing the daily score. Track wake time and how you feel for 2 weeks. Your resting HR drop is solid.

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