I started doing my runs at night during college. I would wake up at 7:55, and my 8 am begins in 5 minutes. Throw on a dirty pair of pants and run to class. From then on, my day felt nonstop- between fraternity meetings, other classes, a random intramural soccer game, and my occasional 7-minute hallway nap, the only time I knew I had to myself was like 11:30. So I’d get through the day, eat as much pasta as possible, and hit the campus. It was great, the campus was lit entirely, and it had a perfect loop I could do with an available bathroom late into the night. That is how my night runs started.

    Then I graduated and started working an EMT job while working some soccer games. EMT started early, up at 5:45, out the door by 6:15, and back home close to 8. Waking up at 4 am felt insane, and I knew if I tried to get up any earlier than that to get some carbs in before I would be throwing myself into a sleep debt hole. So I’d carb load during work, get home, procrastinate my run for 30 minutes, and then hit the road. If I felt good and had the time, I’d go to the gym first, usually 3-5 days a week. Started doing this and then just couldn’t stop. I was living the single life when I started, so there wasn’t anyone for me to give my time to after work, so I poured it into training. Helped avoid the late-night blues of getting out of a relationship, too. These are all great, but why did it possibly give me a leg up?

    They always say to do the hardest thing first thing in the morning, so you know you’ll get it done. I get the reasoning behind it, but  I think there is an equal side to doing it at night. The mental reps of checking my calendar and seeing a 13-mile track workout needing to get done after working a 12-hour shift and hitting a push day reinforced the idea that I was going to put the work in when I was the most tired, and it was the biggest inconvenience. I’d be hungry, ready for my hot shower and fresh sheets just from my shift at work. But telling my body repeatedly, “Not done yet,” helped me push through during my 100-mile race. 

    I know everyone has different sleep schedules with kids and whatnot, but try it at some point. Don’t crunch your total sleep time; you just move the hours around. So if you normally sleep from 10-5 that 7 hours. So a night run might look like sleeping from 11:30-6:30. During those long ultras, you are going to have to run in the dark, regardless, so that it can provide some practical practice for that as well. 

Just trying to get a little bit better every day.