20150515MorningEvening
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Morning runs are the worst … apparently?

Since I’m commuting on running shoes (a detailed lookback on this is coming…) I seem to be able to confirm a hunch I’ve been having for quite some time now.

My weekend long runs always start in the early hours (6-8 AM max) and it seemed my body always needed some waking up. It’s often that my heart rate/pace ratio only seem to normalize after about an hour of running. Often frustrating as it skews my training analysis, but I guess it’s part of the deal of doing long runs…

As I do the same run now often early in the morning and in the evening I can clearly see that my heart rate is a lot higher in the morning than it is in the evening.

Evening run may 08
Evening run may 08
Morning run May 08
Morning run May 08

You can see that the morning pace is slower and the heart rate always higher…

Evening run may 15
Evening run may 15
Morning run May 15
Morning run May 15

I don’t know whether this is due to ‘waking up’ or digesting (although I don’t always eat before my run) or hydration…
Googling the issue doesn’t really help much.
Most hits just babble about timing vs sleep etc.

http://running.about.com/od/motivation/f/Whats-The-Best-Time-Of-Day-To-Run.htm
http://womensrunninguk.co.uk/training/early-morning-evening-runs-best/
http://www.shape.com/blogs/ready-set-race/when-best-time-run

So I guess I’ll just have to live with it. Although nothing life threatening nor really important, it can be frustrating at times (especially when I get out the door just in time ;-))

 

Does anyone have the same experience? Or maybe just the opposite experience?
Can you explain it?

7 comments

  1. I find morning runs are better. I suppose it might make a difference if you are a morning or night person. I always liked to exercise in the afternoon, but my time forced me to switch to mornings. I hated it at first, but now I feel good that I get it out of the way and don’t have to worry about it at the end of day when I am tired. And I get better times in the morning. I guess it is all individual. Good luck!

    • ignace_s says:

      I enjoy a morning run as well, it just annoys me sometimes my timing is “off”.
      But it’s a fact you feel energized and can be happy you at least had some exercise in, whatever the day throws at you 🙂

  2. aimeelanter says:

    I’m not a morning person and my morning runs always start off sluggish. Takes me about 4 miles to get into things, and even then I’m still not happy about being out there. If the temp is okay, I can typically stay very consistent at night.

  3. I haven’t compared my heart rates between morning and evening runs. Probably because I tend to do long runs in the mornings and tempo runs during day or evenings. Since I don’t normally eat at mornings before run, I’m feeling very light. During day temperature might also be higher, which certainly doesn’t affect my performance positively. So my feeling at the mornings for slow tempo runs is probably better than it would be during day or evening. Might be totally different for tempo runs.

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