More on Morning Runs

Despite my adamant assertions to the contrary earlier this week, there are some perks to being an evening runner. Yesterday, for example, I managed to drag myself around Prospect Park after work for the following workout:

3x1 miles at tempo (7:20)
4x half mile hill repeats
1x1 mile at tempo
1x1 mile cool down

3 tempo miles on their own are a challenge for me, and hill repeats in Prospect Park are among those workouts that give me sweaty palms thinking about them because they’re so difficult and I hate them so much. To combine those two workouts seemed impossible. To run another tempo mile after all of that should have been impossible. But after work yesterday, it all came together for me and I got that "I'm a better athlete than you!" feeling, even though it was nighttime.

The New York Times ran an article about all this a few years back, summarizing that not only are your muscles more pliable after a full day of doing whatever it is you do (what I do is sit at a desk all day, but I suppose my hourly trips to refill my water/pee/go to Starbucks/check the mail constitute more activity than sleeping), but your body is also able to generate and sustain a higher heart rate for longer during the evening hours. They go so far as to say that athletes looking for a PR should consider late day event starts. So I’m not the only person who experiences a spike in performance in the evening!

And yet. The trick for me is the actually going running after work. Whereas I feel morally superior to other athletes by running in the morning, I feel morally superior to the girls featured on Teen Mom 2 by watching it in the evenings. (And also by not getting knocked up at 16. Or 27. Fingers crossed!). I had to remind myself all afternoon that I was running after work yesterday, and spent the train ride home dreading it. By the time I reached my apartment, I was telling myself “forget the hill workout; just run for 20 minutes and then come home and watch mindless television.” By 7:30pm, there was about a 10% chance I was actually going to tackle my workout. Last night, I may have beaten the odds, but generally speaking, Teen Mom wins.

So what’s a runner to do? The honest answer is: run whenever you’ll actually do it. Running takes a certain amount of sacrifice, but unless you’re going to the Olympic trials to win it this weekend, it’s okay to be realistic about what you’re willing to give up, and more importantly, what you’re not. If you need your beauty sleep in the morning, you don’t have to sign up for a 5:30am spin class. If you orchestrate your company happy hour, then don’t join a running group that meets at 6:00pm. Find what works for you. And then find a way to be smug and superior about it.

And if you’re 16 and Pregnant, maybe now isn’t the best time for you to take on marathon training.