Morning Runs

Have you ever gotten home from work and dreaded going out for a run? Having to come home and cook dinner and do other ‘chores’ around the house, a lot of times we don’t feel like going for a run. As a matter of fact, most of my excuses for not running come from just being worn out from the day and just wanting to relax a little bit. I think we have found the solution. This isn’t ground breaking or earth shattering, but it’s new to us. We have been getting up to run early in the morning.



Obviously this is going to take a little more will-power than making yourself run in the afternoon/evening. I also need to go to bed earlier than usual, and that is difficult for me since I am a bit of a night owl. When that buzzer rings at 5:30 am, it makes us angry, but we make ourselves get up anyways. It’s all worth it once you get up.


Let’s look at some advantages to running in the morning….


1. Especially in the summer, it is usually a lot cooler. Last summer we would run right after work and some days it was in the 90’s. That is pure torture. The brisk morning air is refreshing, which makes running a TON easier.


2. It’s done. You don’t have to plan your evening around your run. You now have all night after work to do whatever you feel. We hate when we get home and have to do yard work, cook dinner, clean the house, and do whatever…. there isn’t time to run. By the time we are done with everything, it’s time for bed. With our running done in the morning, we can come home and work on our ‘chores’ and also have time to relax.


3. It’s easier to run in the morning. I speak only for myself here. We wear heart rate monitors when we run so that we know when we are in the ‘zone’. In the afternoons/evening it doesn’t take much for me to get my heart rate up. In the mornings I have to sprint to get it up and I have way more stamina. I’m not a doctor, but I assume that is true because I haven’t had a long stressful day and/or eaten yet. It’s probably easier for your heart to respond to your morning workout than your end of the day workout. It just feels like you can get more of a workout in the morning than when you are dragging in the evening.


4. It changes our whole outlook on the rest of the day. We feel great about getting that workout done in the morning. Knowing we did something good for our bodies also brightens the spirit. It’s almost counter-intuitive. You would think that a workout would make you tired for the rest of the day. But for us, it almost charges our batteries and gives us more energy for the rest of our day.


5. I’m not much of a morning person. I don’t like to talk to people in the morning. However, my job requires that I do so. A lot of times in the morning I really have to fake it. When I run, I obviously struggle with the first couple of minutes but by the time I am done, I am wide awake and ready to go. It almost transforms me into a morning person (which sounds horrible because I hate morning people).


6. Summer/spring mornings are beautiful. The other morning, the sky was a pinkish purple color. The birds were all chirping and rabbits were frolicking on the trail as we ran by (ok… that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point). When we sleep in, we really do miss the most beautiful part of the day.


Running in the morning does take some serious determination to get out of your warm comfy bed, but in the end it really is worth it. If you are having a hard time running in the evening, try it in the morning.