DH running with dd(8) at 5am

Unhealthy... not good for s growing child.
Professional athletes need rest days. Of course children do too.

It's too early for her and she needs her sleep. He's an idiot.

Horrific to have two to three hours of exercise a day??

Sounds like you’ve got an Olympian in the making! Congrats!

Say no. It’s too much.
Explain to her about growth and skeletons and tell her no, it’s not happening.

This is a nuanced article

15-20 hours? What?
We don't let our teen boy do that! That's so unhealthy. When does she rest?

Sounds like someone just asked AI and ran with it. In reality it's far more nuanced, and the same article AI used as a source said children aged 9 are fine up to 5km.

The runner's world article seems a much better guide.

I think you should be happy that your daughter is cultivating healthy habits and is spending quality time with her dad. Her father can keep checking in with her. If and when she is too tired or bored of the activity, then he can reduce the intensity etc. You don't have to do all the thinking and anticipating, as if her father is being irresponsible in some way.
And sorry, there is going to be at least a little noise when there is activity of people in the house. It is impossible to have total silence. As long as they are being reasonably quiet, why can't you just go back to sleep?

@foreveror is she going every day?

Dad's can't win sometimes can they? Just leave them be OP .

Personally I would limit it to 2 mornings a week.

Running every morning isn't great for most people - you need cross training and rest days.

I would explain about her body needing time off and that Daddy will help her pick 2 days each week.

Suspect your H will be glad too!

However some kids are just like this. My son is almost 8 and routinely gets up at 5.30 to do additional homework, entirely his own doing. It doesn't always need to be a parent pushing - some kids do just graft!

I'd introduce a rule. She makes enough noise to wake anyone up, she skips the next session. I think she will soon learn.

I'd also be checking whether running 15k a week on concrete is good for bone development

You first said the issue is that she wakes you up. Then backtracked that you're up because you're thinking of her out there etc.

As long as she isn't overdoing the amount of exercise and is getting enough sleep (which it sounds like she is) then the only issue left is that you are miffed about missing out on your sleep.

You need to invest in some noise cancelling headphones or learn to get back to sleep or whatever. The runners aren't the issue.

What about only doing Fridays and Saturdays? She still gets time with dad but not doing too much on school days.

https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/health/a39925104/how-far-should-children-run/

You might find this article interesting. It even mentions getting enough sleep.

If he was keeping her up past 9pm to go running would this be OK? I suspect not. My 10yo does loads of exercise and would love it if he could go running at night (early or late) but he does need sleep and usually sleeps 9pm to 7.30am most nights. I would let him as a one off or maybe as a regular thing on a weekend if he didn't already have football training and matches to go to.

I think an 8yo running 5k for the sake of it at 5am is probably detrimental to her sleep.

You should be glad you aren’t a swim parent, I don’t miss 5am!

I think the part where you are disturbed is unreasonable but it’s fine for her to go out running then. It will be much lighter soon as well.

Sounds like DD may be on her way to the one hour of daily vigorous exercise NHS guidelines recommend!

Seems her father may be setting her up for a healthy life and love of exercise. And the 'risks' can be managed - specialist websites specifically deal with running for children and adolescents, the benefits, risks and management of such risksn

Way too much - she really shouldn't be running 5k at her age. They need to cut the length to about half the distance. (UK athletics limit cross country to 2k for 9 year olds as do Junior parkrun) It would be better if he took her out after school a couple of times in the week and once at the weekend (perhaps a junior parkrun on Sundays?). Would also solve your issue.

Also the rule of thumb on exercise is the same number of hours a week as their age and that should include pe etc at school and it sounds to me as if she's already at this level before the running with all her other activities.

A cautionary tale - during lockdown my very active sporty DD lost all her activities and chose to go out and run - at 15 so much further along in her skeletal development. She overdid it, ended up with a stress fracture in the base of her spine and had to have a gap year to have the operation to fuse it. She has been told to never run again. I would like you to really think about the level of physical activity your daughter does to ensure she doesn't have any similar problems.

It might die a natural death - doesn’t DH have to slow down.

@FaintingGoats shes already doing quite a bit of exercise that is putting strain on her growing joints before you factor in the running