What is the best time of day to exercise?
In this article, Coach Kevin looks at scheduling and the tricky question of when is the best time to train? Everyone has a preference, some prefer first thing, others swear by doing evening sessions, but when is the best time to train?
When people start their triathlon (or any endurance sport) journey, they need to find time for training sessions. As triathletes have it more difficult than most, with three disciplines to contend with rather than the usual one, this can be pretty challenging. For most people, the first question has to be ‘before or after work’?
You probably already know if you are a morning or evening person. When do you seem to have the most energy, when do you feel the most alert and ‘on your game’? It naturally follows that if you are a morning person, it’s best to work out early, and vice versa if you have more energy in the evening.
Interestingly your exercise patterns can affect circadian rhythm – which is your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. This study showed that exercise at 7 am shifted circadian rhythms backwards, and exercising between 7 – 10 pm did the opposite. This means that if you choose to exercise in the morning or evening, it’s a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Early exercise delays your circadian rhythm, meaning that you are more likely to wake up early and feel raring and ready to go for subsequent days. Late exercise pushes it in the opposite direction, meaning you will be slow to wake and sluggish but really getting into the swing of things later on in the day.
This brings us to the next consideration – when is it most convenient? If your work and life commitments mean it is complicated to exercise early, then later in the day or after work is probably your best bet. Trying to force things to happen when you really don’t have time for them either means compromised workouts or additional stress as you run around in a panic, late for whatever you should have been doing. There is good news based on the previous point, though, as if you are a morning person with a space in your schedule for evening workouts, for example, keep at it. Eventually, your circadian rhythm will shift, and it will all become much easier.
Another trick is to think, ‘how can I make the best use of my time?’. Perhaps that means a work commute a few times a week, or maybe lunchtime sessions? Of course, to do this, you’ll likely need changing and preferably shower facilities at work or a gym in a convenient location. Or create a home set up that allows an express workout at whatever time of day suits you best, with minimal ‘preparation time. TTH runs weekly Zwift sessions, and I’m very sure that some of the attendees roll out bed, throw a pair of bib shorts on and get pedalling within minutes on some occasions (you know who you are!). This is much quicker and easier than either losing travel time to get to a gym, getting layers on (and then off again) for a cold run or bike ride, and maybe even having to wash your bike after a wet or muddy ride.
All of these points lead towards making things as easy and convenient as possible. The better you feel, the easier it is to fit something into your schedule, the more efficient you can make it, the more likely you are to get out there (or ‘in there for some workouts!) and actually get it done. Consistency is one of the big factors in making successful endurance athletes, so anything you can do to help create exercise habits that you can stick to, month in month out, year on year, will slowly but surely build up your performance. After a while, you won’t be thinking, ‘how do I fit this in?’ - it will just be part of your daily life as a triathlete.
Kevin opened a B&B for cyclists in France in 2014, & then a year later decided to start a cycle coaching (level 3) qualification. This was mainly in order to be able to better support his guests (but also to make his own training more effective too). At the B&B he runs the odd training camp for cyclists but mainly offers coaching advice while guiding guests. An engineer by background, he happy diving into all sorts of training data, but also understanding that coaching is about much more than just the numbers!
After being introduced to triathlon by a good friend & then taking part in races for a couple of years he decided that a level 2 coaching course with British Triathlon was the way forward, completing this in 2019.
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