Friday, February 12, 2010

Morning Runs, Please?

"When you run in the morning, you gain time in a sense. It's like stretching 24 hours into 25. You may need to sleep less and get up earlier, but if you can get by that, running early seems to expand the day."
- Fred Lebow, founder of the New York City Marathon

It may be far from the best of quotes that I've received via e-mail from Runner's World, but it's probably one of the most relevant to my running lifestyle. :P

Most of my lone runs are usually done at night. After a long day at work and at least 2 hours after an early dinner, I either drive myself to BHS (or McKinley) and run up to McKinley Hill and back, or if I'm lazy to drive, I go for my 2nd option...running from my place at Pioneer Street to Ortigas Center and back.

Convenience would count as a good reason why I run in the dark, cool weather would be another (I hate heat training so running the BDM would be the least of my priorities...for now.), and of course, SLEEP. Ever since I moved from far-flung Marikina to Mandaluyong where I'm only 2km from work, I make the most out of it by sleeping really long--midnight to past 7am. I admit, I'm usually late... :P but I believe that work output is much more important than mere punctuality.

This post & the quote above would just serve as a reminder for me to TRY to do more morning runs than evening runs. (I hate using the word 'try'.) Focus on the thought..."if I do the runs first thing in the morning, I won't have to worry about them during the day." When Jon strongly advised me to do the runs in the morning, with less than a week to go before Condura, I said, 'okay, I'll chip in 1 or 2 morning runs before the marathon.' I did my last 2 easy runs in the morning and I felt refreshed as soon as I got to work (plus I was unexpectedly early at the office).

Lemme just list down a few reasons why morning runs are better...for my own good:

1. All (almost all would be technically correct) races are held in the morning. Save for Kenny's Open Urbanite Run last year, all races that were listed in Takbo.ph were done in the morning. If I wanna improve my performance, I have to get used to getting my rhythm going at the start of the day.

2. Getting it over & done with. When something comes up during the day that prevents you from running on that evening, it sucks. Me & my cramming self. :P "If I just did that run when I woke up..."

3. More productive at work (?). This might be debatable, but if I do morning runs, I'd be finding myself at work earlier. Instead of just output, I'd be doing both output and punctuality. Like I said, this is for validation.

4. Can be cool, or cooler. Depending on what time you start running, of course. I think starting it at 6am would make you feel like it's 8pm because the sun hasn't really warmed up yet, plus there aren't so many cars on the road at that time.

Other reasons?

To 'good morning' runs. :)

Takbo.ph LSD @ Cardiac Hills on July 26, 2009

4 comments:

gerard said...

I hate running in the morning. I love my sleeping time. I have always set my alarm to 5:30 incase I can get to force myself to running in the morning but I always end up snoozing it. Morning run fail for me!

I should train myself to run in the morning more!

daytripper1021 said...

i run 3-4x a week, all morning runs @ 6am except for 1 run wherein I drive to BHS Weds or Thurs after work.

With my 1yr old waking up 6am daily, he serves as my alarm clock. ayun, nasanay na din tumakbo ng umaga.

nice post! :)

truman said...

@gerard believe me when i say i truly understand how you feel. :) hahaha ang sarap lang talaga matulog pa! :P hehe let's try to adjust to morning runs.

@daytripper you're so very lucky you're used to running in the morning! :D considering you're a family man pa! sana mahawa ako sa 'yo, dude. :)

Lucy said...

eeek!!! i don't want to have to wake up so early in the morning just to run...obviously, i'm not a serious runner :P which is fine by me :P i wake up early all the time, but i don't like getting out of bed just yet. the best part of the day is waking up under the cover of your comfy comfy sheets knowing you still have an hour's worth (or more :P) under the covers! i don't want to spoil that with a run! hmph! :P