Need Advice on how to deal with 12 hr shift work

[Royce]

I work 12 1/2 hour shifts and find it hard on those days to squeez my runs in on work days.  Lucky for me I only work 3 days a week usually, but still have to run on work days. My hours are usually from 6:45 am to 7:15 pm, once in a while I will work 10 am to 10:30 pm or 11 am to 11:30 pm.

I would like some advice or comments from anyone out there dealing with a similar situation. 

[allie]

I occasionally work 12+ hours with 80-90% of that time on my feet. On those days, I have to get my run in before going to work, or it won't happen. For me that means super early mornings, but then I can go to work knowing that no matter what the day brings, I have completed my run. If I sleep in and don't run before work, it is much harder for me to find the energy after, and the run is slow and draggy. So my advice is get the run in while the world is still sleeping, then you can focus on other things (work, family, nap ) throughout the rest of the day. 

You might get some better insights on this from JulieC (http://juliec.fastrunningblog.com/). She is a nurse (plus a full-time mom) and works long shifts on her feet but still manages high mileage weeks.

[April G]

I agree 100%.  You will have to join the 4am crowd.  It's actually not too bad if you don't do it too many days in a row.

[Royce]

Thanks for the advice.  Sounds like I will become a super early morning guy, gotta get to bed sooner.

[Dave Holt]

Going to sleep early is a key.  I am up two to three times a week at 3:30 and the other days at 5:00.  Another thing that I do is reward myself with one sleep-in day if I have hit all my workouts throughout the week and am schedule with my mileage.  So on Thursday or Friday I will sleep in until 5:30 - and it is heaven!  Speaking of sleep, it is bed time!