Morning Vs Evening Workouts

Dubh Geannain

Just curious as to peoples preferences. I think I'm inherently a nightowl but have become used to getting up early every... single... day due to the kids.

Running in the morning is a different beast though for me. Sometimes I've managed to get going good and early (I even managed to set a PR on a 7:30 am run once for example) but I think predominantly when I've tried early sessions I'm just not at it.

Years of training GAA has probably conditioned me more to evening runs though. I've been in the habit of doing my sessions between 20:00 - 23:00 lately.

A couple of things have come to light in the locality in the last couple of days that makes me more nervous about leaving the house late at night (not my own safety mind you) so am going to have to rejig my clock a bit. Afternoons might be the way to go as a halfway point to eventual early morning running.

I'll miss the late evening runs and the peace but I won't miss the the smokey smell off my clothes on the winter evenings due to fires and boilers burning - a nice reminder of what I'm inhaling :eek: I think that's another positive for trying to shift to the mornings too. It has to be better in terms of air pollution conditions and possible long term health.

I've thrown up a poll too and I'm sure the groups are highly debatable but you can start your own thread if you take enough umbrage :pac:

Edit: Just to clarify I'm more curious about sessions/workouts and not specifically everyday runs or easy runs. But if all you're doing at the moment is easy then select away.

Nidot

I've put my vote into afternoon only because that's when I'm getting most of my runs done at the moment - not necessarily my favorite time to go for a run.

For myself anyway my runs are planned around what works for the entire family. Currently with everyone working from home/homeschooling/nap times etc. going for a run at lunch time is what works, but that will change as the circumstances change.

Ideally I'd like to head off on a mid distance run (i.e. hour +) at 9/10 o'clock in the morning. I feel that I get the best benefit from it then and I enjoy it the most.

shotgunmcos

A bit all over the place at the moment, just trying to do a run when I can. Late working hours are having a rolling effect on everything.. :cool:

Early morning for me as I like to get back for breakfast with my kids. That might change in years when they are teens. I also value the time in the evenings and I'm usually not bothered about training late in the evening/night.

Early morning because it energizes and organises me for the day and in an urban environment its often the only time to get a bit of peace.

I tend to prefer to be fueled for sessions though and those are the runs I'd generally favour lunchtime or early evening.

FinnC

Hard to beat getting up early and going running before most people are awake. I’ll run at any time but I love a morning run be it on a frosty winters morning or a humid summers morning watching the sun come up.Great start to the day.

Dubh Geannain

I can clock easy miles any time of day but my easy pace is much slower early doors with the knock on effect that I seem to struggle with pacing for any sessions I try in the mornings also. I guess that's at the crux of my query. Stuck an edit on the first post now.

opus

Prefer to run later in the afternoon but sometimes if I wake early in Summer time will head out before work.

jrosen

I usually work out am. I tend to be the type of person that has to get it done at the start of my day and when the gym is quieter. But at the moment im all over the place and have been working out at any time of the day. When the mood takes me I just put the earphones in and go otherwise the moments passed. Finding it hard to motivate myself if im honest so when I have a kick of energy I run with it. Literally.

6run28

I prefer running in the daylight. In the dark months I run at lunch time and the brighter months I run in the morning. I really enjoy an early run in the summer months.

token56

For me it depends on the time of the year. During the winter/dark mornings I tend to go in the evenings but once there is daylight around 7am I switch to try do all my running in the mornings.

TFBubendorfer

Thing is, if you run in the evening you have all day to come up with an excuse not to run. If you run first thing in the morning, that's not an issue.

That aside, I found it so much easier to fit morning runs into a family schedule. My wife would not have been too enthusiastic about the idea of me leaving for an hour or two every evening and leaving the kids to herself alone.

MY BAD

Every 3rd week I've to do my sessions before work so normally on the road at 6am. I don't particularly like AM sessions or races either. Its just a matter of getting through the session at that time. Your body isn't fully awake going into a session straight away after getting out of bed compared to the evening time after 8 to 10 hours of moving about. I look forward to my sessions so I'm never looking for excuses to get out of it in the evening.

jlang

Usually it's late these days. I'm typically heading out at 10pm or so. I've had a nice lunch hour run window thing going for a few years but working from home and home schooling and feeding kids etc have destroyed that. I occasionally get out at 6/7 in the morning for an easy run or a long run at the weekend but always find it hard to warm up and motivate myself to run well or fast at that time. Late night after the kids settle is what I'm left with and stubbornness gets me out the door. Working out OK actually.

FinnC

jlang wrote: »

Usually it's late these days. I'm typically heading out at 10pm or so. I've had a nice lunch hour run window thing going for a few years but working from home and home schooling and feeding kids etc have destroyed that. I occasionally get out at 6/7 in the morning for an easy run or a long run at the weekend but always find it hard to warm up and motivate myself to run well or fast at that time. Late night after the kids settle is what I'm left with and stubbornness gets me out the door. Working out OK actually.

Do you not find it hard to sleep after running so late? That’s what I find anyway.

Swashbuckler

For me I prefer to run weekday sessions at lunchtime. It's a habit at this stage given I run on my work lunchbreak.

At the weekends everything works around family. I run when I can. I always find early morning sessions harder but will do them if I have to! The ones where I literally crawl out of bed and onto the road are worse than when I get a bit of a chance to wake up first.

I always prefer to get my long run done earlier in the day as its looming over me otherwise.

It's a fine balance with the sessions. Too early and my body is still asleep. Too late and I'm weary from the day.

dickidy

I find it much harder to run before 9 am then any other time. legs and head just not awake so its a zone 2 run if anything.
If im doing intervals or speed work i have to to it directly after work (before dinner)
Long bike rides are early morning weekends so have the rest of the weekend with the family and hard turbo work around 7-8 in the evening when the kids are in chill mode.

event

My preferred time is as early as possible.
Up out of bed, run. If I wait to the evening the motivation might be gone as had a bad day at work etc.

For my LSRs Ill be on the road for 8 at the latest

Dubh Geannain

Swashbuckler wrote: »

For me I prefer to run weekday sessions at lunchtime. It's a habit at this stage given I run on my work lunchbreak.

At the weekends everything works around family. I run when I can. I always find early morning sessions harder but will do them if I have to! The ones where I literally crawl out of bed and onto the road are worse than when I get a bit of a chance to wake up first.

I always prefer to get my long run done earlier in the day as its looming over me otherwise.

It's a fine balance with the sessions. Too early and my body is still asleep. Too late and I'm weary from the day.

I've never had that experience with running a session nice and late.

This mornings session though was a whole different story. Couldn't hit the paces needed. Fading during longer reps. Ended up skipping one long rep altogether and walked some recoveries instead of jogging them. It couldn't be fatigue and I've been nailing similar (plus harder) sessions lately and had had 3 unplanned days off. 25 minutes warming up just didn't prove to be enough. Got back home and was fit to sleep.

I think I'll try workouts at lunch for a while (if I'm able to get out of the house) but do some early morning easy runs. I might get used to them that way.

Dubh Geannain

Actually even my watch didn't wake up properly . I had to manually log the first 3 kms as that's how far I'd gone before it got a GPS signal. That's never happened before.

Sacksian

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

Edit: Just to clarify I'm more curious about sessions/workouts and not specifically everyday runs or easy runs. But if all you're doing at the moment is easy then select away.

My preference is the morning, for the same reasons as others have suggested, particularly in the current climate (weather and COVID). I'm just much more likely not to bother if I don't get it done as early as possible.

All things being equal, I think you will be slower for the same effort in the morning. And I think it's worth accepting that, particularly if you're doing something fast, otherwise you run the risk of a) missing the intended stimulus or b) doing some damage. Which is another good reason for having effort as the focus. When it comes to racing in the afternoon or late morning, you'll find the same effort will return a faster pace.

I just found with evening sessions, especially longer club sessions, that I was wired for a good few hours afterwards, which made it hard to sleep afterwards. Definitely faster than first thing though.

I wouldn't worry about pace sessions where you're a couple of seconds off per rep - just presume that, in a race, rested, in good conditions, you'll be ok.

The important thing is the consistency + consistency of effort.

Dubh Geannain

Sacksian wrote: »

My preference is the morning, for the same reasons as others have suggested, particularly in the current climate (weather and COVID). I'm just much more likely not to bother if I don't get it done as early as possible.

All things being equal, I think you will be slower for the same effort in the morning. And I think it's worth accepting that, particularly if you're doing something fast, otherwise you run the risk of a) missing the intended stimulus or b) doing some damage. Which is another good reason for having effort as the focus. When it comes to racing in the afternoon or late morning, you'll find the same effort will return a faster pace.

I just found with evening sessions, especially longer club sessions, that I was wired for a good few hours afterwards, which made it hard to sleep afterwards. Definitely faster than first thing though.

I wouldn't worry about pace sessions where you're a couple of seconds off per rep - just presume that, in a race, rested, in good conditions, you'll be ok.

The important thing is the consistency + consistency of effort.

That's the sort of feedback I was hoping for. As in can you judge the effort level properly if you're body is not fully awake?

About missing the intended stimulus. I found it hard to gauge the effort to be honest but I was thinking I was working too hard hence why I bailed on one rep. I'd need to figure out the equivalent pace which might not be an easy exercise because on some rare mornings previously I've felt fresher.

I can see the benefits of HR based training here to save taxing my brain too much about what level my effort should be at. But accepting that I will be slower in the mornings is a good place to start.

Sacksian

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

That's the sort of feedback I was hoping for.

About missing the intended stimulus. I found it hard to gauge the effort to be honest but I was thinking I was working too hard hence why I bailed on one rep. I'd need to figure out the equivalent pace which might not be an easy exercise because on some rare mornings previously I've felt fresher.

I can see the benefits of HR based training here to save taxing my brain too much about what level my effort should be at. But accepting that I will be slower in the mornings is a good place to start.

HR can be wacky in the mornings too, at least it is for me. When I was doing more sessions by HR, particularly faster stuff, I couldn't hit the prescribed HR ranges in the morning (couldn't get the HR up high enough). So, even with HR, you might find it difficult to hit the targets.

The other point about HR training, for you specifically, is that if you're doing something as short as 200s, the lapse in time between starting your rep and your HR rising means you'll probably be half-way through before your HR starts climbing!

Dubh Geannain

Ah. So I'm probably back to going by gauging the effort somehow.

Using myself as an example again. The problem I had was it was definitely the long reps that killed me (400s but more specifically the 600). The session ended with two faster paced 300 reps which I was able to hit. So I threw a third 300 on to make up a little for skipping one of the 600s.

All that said. I think I'll aim for afternoon sessions in the meantime and keep the mornings for easier mileage.

Murph_D

At the moment just getting out when I can, usually late afternoon. But in an ideal world it would be 7am. Straight out of bed and out the door.

Mind you I don’t think it makes any difference performance wise - I’ve done great sessions and terrible sessions at all times of the day.

Swashbuckler

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

I've never had that experience with running a session nice and late.

This mornings session though was a whole different story. Couldn't hit the paces needed. Fading during longer reps. Ended up skipping one long rep altogether and walked some recoveries instead of jogging them. It couldn't be fatigue and I've been nailing similar (plus harder) sessions lately and had had 3 unplanned days off. 25 minutes warming up just didn't prove to be enough. Got back home and was fit to sleep.

I think I'll try workouts at lunch for a while (if I'm able to get out of the house) but do some early morning easy runs. I might get used to them that way.

To be honest I think you might be over thinking one bad session. We all have them. It's when bad sessions become a regular thing then you should start digging a little deeper. Park it and move on.

Man Vs ManUre

Neither.

Back in Black

On easy runs - earlier the better, get up and out the door and get it done before the rest of the house wakes up. Feel good for the day afterwards. Same with LSRs at the weekend - out early and get it done.

For sessions, it used to be lunchtime when I was in the office. Now since I started working at home, I find the best time for sessions is straight after work.

Have tried doing hard sessions early in the morning but biggest issue for me was the need to have fuel in the system to do a session. I found it hard to get that part right and the pace in the session suffered so avoid early morning hard sessions in the morning unless it is unavoidable.

SeeMoreBut

Morning for me. Out around 6am unless I'm marathon training and doing around 25km it is an up and out the door with a bit of water before I go. If a long run say 10 miles or more I might leave a small bottle out to pick up as I pass the house.

Feel great for day. No session hanging over your head for the day.

Each to their own and what suits you best

ThewhiteJesus

I'm a lunchtime man Dubh, especially for my running in the phoenix park.
I work nearby and my energy is at it highest at that point so suits perfectly.

jamule

It depends on the time of year. During the summer no bother to do a hard sess in the moring but not a chance this time of year. Most sess's done at lunch time. Easy runs first thing in the morning.
I like the long run good and early at the weekend, back before everyone wakes up.

BeginnerRunner

I can run easy at the drop of a hat. Really don't care when or where.

My limited experience tells me any workouts or intimidating runs are best done at the very last minute when procrastination has got to the stage that if I don't do it now, it won't get done at all.

Generally that's when my kid naps between 12 and 2, or if my wife's putting him down after dinner around 6.

Pretty much all my training happens between 12pm and 2pm. I'm lucky that my work schedule is such I can basically train whenever I want and catch up / front load work around it.

(that's also a bit of a curse because it means I can always make an excuse to put it off too)

API

I like running at night when its quiet, come home and have something to eat and a bath and then bed. I also find that the weather is usually better at night time. The wind dies down unless we're experiencing a storm of some kind.