Skip to main content

Morning Runs: A Pros/Cons List

It's that time of year when the weather is so oppressive that even waiting until after 7:00pm offers little relief from the heat and humidity. So I have switched my weekday runs mostly to mornings. This week, I have completed an astonishing three runs all before 8:00am (I know, that's not terribly early, but I don't have to be to work until 9:00am). I did two six-milers and a nine-miler. Here are the pros and cons, as I see them, of running in the morning versus the evening:

Pros
  1. My workout is out of the way for the day.
  2. I'm more energized going into work.
  3. My evening is free. I can do household chores that often get neglected, cook dinner, go to yoga--the options are endless!
  4. I get some solo running time.
  5. I get to see the sunrise. 
Cons
  1. It's more challenging to get started.
  2. I'm likely to eat more throughout the day at work (more than necessary).
  3. I'm too tired in the evening to do productive things.
  4. I (sometimes) miss running with friends in group runs.
  5. It can still get hot quickly, and the humidity is pretty much full-on 24/7 this time of year.
Obviously the list of pros outweighs the list of cons for me, or I wouldn't be making the change; but I do hope to spend my evenings doing more productive things. I'm just excited to have the free time right now. 

I've also added a protein mix into my diet for those days with morning runs, as my weekly mileage is creeping up and only getting higher in the coming weeks. I'm using the Garden of Life RAW Protein mix, which is vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, and soy-free. What's left, you ask? Grain, bean, legume, and seed protein. It doesn't offer as much protein as the whey and soy formulas, but that's okay with me. It's still 17g per serving that I wasn't previously getting. I have the chocolate flavor, and I won't go as far as to say it's delicious, but it's not bad, for a protein mix. It's also very low in sugar--less than 1g per serving--so it's unsurprising that the flavor isn't great. Ideally, I would make this into a smoothie with a banana, some raw honey, and almond milk. But I'm too lazy to get out the blender and then deal with the mess in my limited morning time, so I just add a little bit of almond milk and some water, stir it up, and call it a protein drink.

I'm off to Ohio this afternoon to visit family and friends. I'm hoping to get in an 18-miler while I'm there. The lows are currently in the 60s up there, so I'm very excited about running in the cooler temps!

Comments

People Liked to Read...

Play of Summer

Even though it is still technically spring time, the summer college semester begins in one week, the weather is consistently sunny and mid-80s, and baseball season is in full bloom. I embrace this time of year as a time to extend my outside activities beyond my nightly walks, to bike rides, benefit runs, beach days, and a newfound interest in softball. Yesterday Joe and I began the day with a 7:25am 5K run to benefit the Child Abuse Council . One of Tampa's largest and most regular 5Ks, the Gunn Allen Financial May Classic brought out over 1,500 of Tampa's athletes and do-gooders. Since it was a last-minute decision for us to register, we did not have a a chance to train, but we had both been keeping a somewhat regular exercise schedule in the weeks leading up to the run. Our goal was to finish, preferably to finish running. And we did. 36 minutes of concrete pounding, rhythmic breathing, and humanistic awareness, and we had completed our first 5K together, having run th...

My Ulele Feast with the Tampa Bay Bloggers; Or, That Time I Ate Alligator

Monday night, I had the delightful opportunity to be among the  Tampa Bay Bloggers  on a tasting event* at  Ulele  (pronounced yoo-LAY-lee), a newish restaurant along Tampa's River Walk, which is in a revitalization phase. The restaurant, which opened this past fall, has already received several significant commendations:  One of the Top 100 Restaurants in the U.S. (by Open Table),  One of the Best New Restaurants in Florida (by  Florida Trend ); Best Overall Restaurant (by Yelp Tampa Bay); and, its most recent achievement,  the  #7 spot for Top 50 Restaurants in Tampa Bay , as scored by Laura Reiley of the  Tampa Bay Times .  So I felt honored to eat there, and I'd been wanting to go since it opened, but reservations were always difficult to get. When I saw the call for bloggers to attend this event, I jumped at the opportunity! Fortunately, I was chosen--among may others: That's a lot of hungry bloggers! A...

Homemade Almond Milk

I've been wanting to make almond milk from scratch for some time, but it always seemed like too much work. But when I came across this recipe on Oh She Glows , I thought, this is doable. As always, I made a couple of exceptions: I didn't have a nut-milk bag, and I didn't use vanilla, because buying dried vanilla beans is expensive! I thought the flavors from the dates and cinnamon would be plenty. I soaked my raw almonds--and dates, which is suggested if they are not very soft to start with--for about five hours. The recipe doesn't say how much water to soak them in, but I just made sure they were well covered with water. (You can also soak them over night.) Then I drained and rinsed the soaked almonds and dates. I then blended the almonds and dates with 3.5 cups of water on high for about a minute.  Next, I thought I would use my fine-mesh strainer plus a cheesecloth to strain the liquid from the pulp, but the cheesecloth turned out to be more troub...