The Best Time of Day for Optimal Running

Audio Transcript

Hayley: Hey Runners Connect fans. The question for today is, when is the best time of the day to run? Is it better to train in the morning or in the evening? Is there any impact on performance?

That’s a great question and there are lots of factors to consider. Many people feel more sluggish in the morning.

I feel more awake as the day goes on. Science seems to suggest that we perform better later in the day. There’s been several studies. One in swimmers show that they perform better at 10pm than 6:30 a.m., and that was by 2.5%, so that could be substantial for your running times.

These changes were closely related to body temperature, which peaks at 8 p.m. and is lowest at 5 a.m.

The peak is associated with increased blood flow to the limbs, which finds the body to get rid of excess heat. In theory, that could mean that it performs better later on.

However, there haven’t really been any good studies in runners so I’d say the jury is still out on that one.

Levels of other hormones fluctuate throughout the day and could have implications for performance. Testosterone, which is important of strength building and recovery peaks in the afternoon, what’s called also stress hormone is highest in the morning and decreases throughout the day.

Many world record attempts are in the evening, but that might be due to the favorable weather conditions of that time of day.

Your muscles will be more wound up and flexible later on, which could reduce injury risk and meaning you feel better and perform better, but again, science hasn’t really decided this.

I think it’s important to consider what’s going to work for you.

There are plenty of benefits to running in the morning as well. Lots of people find it easier to skip to their schedule if they get out of the way before distractions and work that tend to interfere.

There’s that satisfaction of getting your run out of the way first thing in the morning. I definitely find that doing mine earlier on sets me up well for the day.

If you want to get the benefits of increase fat burning, and teaching your body to run when it’s low on fuel, running before breakfast can do that for you.

It’s definitely a lot easier to achieve this, running before breakfast and try to run at the end of the day without eating throughout the day. I wouldn’t advice that.

Another thing is finding out whether training later on in the day interferes with your sleep.

Personally, if I switch my sessions to the mornings, I found that I could never sleep after an evening session.

I’d be so wired and awake after running in the evening that I just couldn’t sleep. In the long-term, this decreased my performance, because I wasn’t getting the recovery that I really, really needed after those hard runs.

Another thing is that, lots of races are in the morning. If your race is in the morning, you might want to get your body used to running then, and practice your fuel for running at that time.

I think at the end of the day, consider what works best for you, when you feel best, what fits in best of your schedule, and when you’re going to feel most motivated, and how running at certain times is going to make you feel.

We don’t have enough evidence; it’s either you are going to run better at a particular time of day, and that’s probably going to be individual anyways. Do what works for you, as is the case of a lot of things in running.

Yeah, I really enjoyed that question. Thanks so much for asking.

For those of you listening that want to have your questions answered by one of the Runners Connect coaches, head over to runnersconnect.net/daily, and click the record button to send over your question.

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