0515 hours

That is the time that I have been waking up to do my early morning runs before getting into work. And I am proud to say that I can still get into office before 8am!

For the longest time, I jog in the evenings after work. That is because I have never been a morning person – I hate waking up early in the morning and I love sleeping in. And I feel that it is “easier” to jog after I have had the chance to drink water and eat food during the day to fuel my body, to get it ready for the run.

I decided to try jogging in the mornings for a change. To be totally honest, it was indeed really tough to drag myself outta the bed when the alarm goes off at 515am. But once I am awake, it gets easier as I drink my energy drink, take a banana, use the toilet and change into my running gear.

Stepping outta the house when the sky is still dark and knowing that half of Singapore is probably still in lala-land gives me a strange sense of fulfillment knowing that I am “seizing” the day! Its probably just a self illusion. Ha!

The air is cleaner, there are fewer vehicles on the road and there are less people staring at me when I jog (although those who did stared at me harder with weirder looks than those who stared in the evenings – those who stared in the morning must be thinking that I am a lot crazier than those who stared in the evenings!).

The chirping of the birds, the singing of the crickets, the cries of a hungry baby, the flushing of the toilet, the ringing of a musical alarm clock – these are some of the sounds of the morning that I experienced. The stillness of the morning, the quietness before the sounds of Singapore stirring into consciousness, the rhythmic tapping of my feet hitting the ground one after another – it’s very refreshing. I have not had to use my mp3 player on my morning runs.

Depending on my workout for the day, some mornings are a mad rush to shower and get ready for work after the run. Some mornings are not so bad. But the euphoria feeling after the morning run is definitely so worth it….:)

The sacrifice/trade-in for early morning runs: I hardly have a social life on weekdays anymore because the zzz monster would normally attack me by about 930pm. So I have been adopting the "Sleeping early, Rising early is good for the body" practice :P

Unfortunately, I have had to stop my 0515 morning runs for two loooooooong weeks because of a mild ankle sprain I got from stepping into a pothole. :( Darn! Just when my lazee body was just getting used to waking up early...