One of the difficult aspects of trying to get in running while working at the job that I have is balancing what time I get up in the morning. I’m looking to get back to a 50K distance race next year, and that means that I need to start getting in a lot longer weekday runs.

Currently, I start work around 7am. This means that to get in a solid 7-10 mile weekday run, I’m looking at getting up by 3:45-4:00am. Once I get ready to run, do the run, cool-down and get cleaned up, it’s time to head out to work. Usually, I’m rushing, even with such an early start time. I’m fine with getting up early to exercise, but the issue is that my body starts to expect those early mornings, even on days when I don’t need to get up early.

Just this past Friday I was wide awake at 4:20am, despite being a rest day. I fought getting up for a while, but eventually, I just went into work early. I could switch my running to after work, but often times I just want to get home as my brain and body are pretty taxed from working all day. I miss the lunch run club that I had at one of my other jobs, however, I had a much more flexible schedule at that place and could take big chunks of time off in the day.

So, I’m at a dilema. Do I start going in to work later? Do I shift to being an afternoon runner? Do I try and work some magic to get in a long mid-day run? Or, do I just suck it up and start going to be early all the time and accepting that I’m going to be up and at ’em early every day? Not sure what the answer is yet, but I know it’s something that I’ve fixed before. I just miss some of my work flexibility that I had which made it easier to deal with.