Morning or Night....Which is Right?

8:43AM


I did 16 miles on Sunday. Hadn't done that much since the Disney marathon. It went great. Even better than my 14. I had some great podcasts and tunes to listen to so that helped. But I ran the whole time and felt great the whole time. I love it when runs go that way. I'll do 14 this Sunday as I start to slightly taper for the half-marathon in a little over 2 weeks.

I'm still not back to where I want to be with my running. I think it's because I've just been so busy lately. Besides teaching school (which has been very busy in itself with a lot of extra activities) and working up at our church, I've also been helping coach my son's basketball team. I'm now head-coaching his baseball team which just started. I've been taking my other son to his basketball practices. We've been remodeling our basement and painting our upstairs hallway and baby's room so our house is crazy. And to top it all off, we're preparing for the birth of our 3rd son in 6 weeks. So needless to say, it's been a little crazy. We're managing and I'm happy, but my time is just limited and I have been more tired at nights and in the mornings then I've ever been. I know I'm not getting enough sleep, but there's not a whole lot I can do about it. And I know when this baby comes that I won't be getting any more sleep, only less. By the way, I don't mean all this as a pity-party for Albert....just statin' the facts.

So I used to always run at night except for my Sunday morning long run. I had tried running in the morning but I just didn't like getting up any earlier. I was already getting up at 5 so I hated to move it into the 4's. But like I said above, I've recently been so tired at nights. There have been many nights when after our boys go to bed around 7:30-8, I would crash then as well. Some nights I have looked forward to going to bed that early because of how tired I felt. So I've started running some mornings now. I usually like it once I get started. I think it's a great way to start off the day. But it's the getting started that I still haven't worked out. It's so easy when that alarm goes off to lay the head back down. I often use the excuse that I'll run tonight instead. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. So I haven't decided which one I like better yet. I guess it just depends on how I feel. Here are some pros and cons:

MORNING
Pros - no/little traffic, quiet, get it done for the day, no extra shower (would shower anyways before school), everyone else asleep so not missing family time
Cons - waking up even earlier, colder in morning ( I know this will change), too easy to go back to bed

EVENING
Pros - Don't have to get up earlier, a little warmer, tend to sleep better
Cons - often too tired, traffic sometimes an issue, means a 2nd shower for the day, miss time with my wife (boys already in bed)


So I guess I'll keep playing with it until I figure out a good routine. It may take a while. The good news is I can take a couple days off and still feel great running. I have no pains or injury right now so running typically feels really good right now whenever I do it.

Feel free to comment on which you prefer. Would love to hear some other opinions.

Keep runnin',
Albert