(Not) Running in the Dark

Under our current sleep regime, I wake up at 4am and have a meeting at 5am (at least on weekdays).

I've been trying for a while to think of a productive use for that first hour. It's too early to have breakfast. It's too early to do any housework that involves noise (plus I'd feel like a tool getting up at 4am to do housework). The gym doesn't open until 5. We're too tired to do anything mentally taxing (monophasic or polyphasic, the first hour of my day is never going to be my favourite). Our options are somewhat limited.

So currently, we sit at our computers at feel like crap for an hour.

Yesterday it occurred to me "Hey, I don't need the gym to go for a run", and figured I'd just go for a run in the park instead. This even had some advantages for my interval training regime. Doing weights would be out of the question that early, but I don't mind doing cardio as being tired during cardio is the whole point. Plus it wakes you up and sets a good mood for the day once you're done.

So at 4:15am I strapped my iPod on and head out the door, knowing Tina would be following soon after. And, quite abruptly, I realised that I was going for a run in the middle of the night.

At 5am it seems like early morning when you walk outside. It's dark, but light is beginning to bleed in around the horizon and you see the occasional car or person. You feel like you're experiencing first-hand the rare and solitary world of the early riser. You feel wonderfully motivated and efficient for going about your day at a time most people are asleep.

At 4am it's just night-time. You're going for a run in the middle of the night and it's weird.

Standing out there in the dark and cold I also realised that despite living in an area whose slogan should be "Safety Through Boredom", it probably wasn't a wonderful idea for Tina to be running around at that time. And so with that noble excuse in mind I chickened out and went back inside.