Day 3 - Experiment Day

Welcome to Day 3!  It's Wednesday and I'm feeling good.  I'm suprised that I wasn't sore last night after the elliptical machine kick my butt in yesterday morning's 30-minute workout.  My thighs and butt were feeling it after the workout but as the day progressed, I felt great.

Today's workout  - Run /Walk (45 minutes)
* Easy pace walk - 5 minutes (warm up)
* (7) sets = Comfortable Run - 3 minutes & Moderate walking pace - 2 minutes
* Easy pace walk = 5 minutes (cool down)

Today's workout is in the afternoon.  Why the change to afternoon?  I'm conducting a little experiment.
Experiment:  Is there a difference between working out in the morning vs. in the afternoon?
Conclusion:  Mornings are better!

During today's experiment, the first thing I noticed about the rountine switch is that I didn't feel as alert this morning compared to the other (2) days with a morning workout.  I felt a little more fatigued and not as much energy.   It totally sucks getting up at 4:30am each morning, but I like having that energy boost in the morning.  I also noticed that afternoons for me can get a little tricky. In my life, there is always something last minute coming up - last minute meetings at work, last minute baseball practice for my son, etc.  When you have a life of last minute things (that always happen in the afternoon or evenings) it is hard to set an afternoon workout routine.  With a morning workout, I know that it will get done with no interuptions or delays.  With an afternoon workout, you take a big chance that something last minute will come up that will interferre with your workout time that will either delay your exercise schedule to late in the evening or even force you to cancel due to lack of time.  For me, I can't take a chance to miss any workouts. I have less than 5 months to train for this race so I need every workout on my calendar. 

Another thing to consider for afternoon / evening workouts - watch the clock and monitor how close you schedule a workout to your bedtime.  For the best results, make sure you are working out more than 4 hours before bedtime.   Workouts under the 4 hour time slot might cause additional aches, restless sleep, and added hunger in the night.  Today's afternoon workout was set 5 hours before bedtime.  I definitely noticed a surge of energy in the evening.    I just hope I don't have a restless sleeping night.  Looking forward to tomorrow - REST DAY!! 

Workout Stats - Day 3
Type - Run / Walk
Time - 45 minutes
Miles - 2.0
Pace - 22.5 minute mile (Monday's time - 25 minutes)

Trainer Tip:
Stretch after every workout when the muscles are warm to maintain or improve flexibility and prevent injuries.

Happy Running!