Morning Running Log | Monday Series
Why Is Monday Always This Hard? — One Thing I Learned From Running
It was early in my working life. My father was still commuting every day, and I asked him something that had been on my mind.
"Dad, when does it stop feeling this hard to go in on Mondays?"
He smiled without missing a beat.
"That one stays with you."
Surely it gets easier. It has to.
That's what I told myself.
Then, without quite noticing, I became the same age my father was then.
He was right. Monday is still hard.
· · ·
I. The Same Monday, But Different
Some Mondays are heavier than others, even when the calendar looks identical.
On the bad ones, I've hit snooze three or four times before dragging myself up. My body feels dense. The commute stretches. I get to the office, pour a coffee, and it doesn't help.
Just get through today.
That single thought is how the day begins.
Then there are the other Mondays.
I still wake up reluctantly — but instead of heading to the office, I head to Anyang-cheon.
The first few minutes are rough. Feet aching, breath catching. Then something shifts. The body finds its rhythm.
And only then — the stream comes into view. The morning sky opens up. My mind follows.
Why do I feel so low?
Is it that meeting? That person?
Or is it just… Monday?
The questions don't last long. The body gets harder to push. Thinking starts to feel like too much effort.
And by the time I finish —
The worries are still there.
But somehow, they've gotten smaller.
· · ·
II. Understanding Myself for the First Time
Something I've come to believe more and more:
When you understand something, doing it becomes easier than you expected.
For most of my life, that understanding was always directed outward. How work systems operate. What drives social trends. How the world turns.
Running changed the direction. For the first time, I started turning that curiosity inward.
Why does my body respond this way? Why does the same situation feel manageable one day, and completely overwhelming the next?
And then one morning, a specific question surfaced:
Why is Monday harder than every other day?
· · ·
III. Monday Blues Isn't Just a Feeling
The research was more interesting than I expected.
· A disrupted circadian rhythm from weekend sleep patterns — the body still thinks it's Saturday
· Elevated cortisol levels on Monday morning compared to other days
· Anticipatory anxiety that starts Sunday evening — burning energy before the week even begins
There are real, physiological reasons the body and mind struggle on Mondays. It's not weakness. It's not laziness.
Knowing that made the weight of Monday feel less like a personal failing and more like something I could actually prepare for.
So I kept reading. The research pointed toward a few consistent interventions:
Signal to your body that morning has arrived.
Manage stress before it accumulates.
Don't hold worry longer than it needs to stay.
Build at least one thing into the day that you chose.
I laughed when I read that last one.
My morning run was already doing all of this.
I just hadn't known why.
· · ·
IV. Running Doesn't Fix Monday
Looking back clearly: running doesn't make Monday go away.
Going out at dawn tells the body: morning is here.
The sweat releases the tension that had been building.
The worries drift in during the run — and then drift out again.
And above all:
I didn't get up because I had to go to work.
I got up because I wanted to run.
The first choice of the day was mine.
That small fact — I think it's what takes the edge off the feeling of being pulled along by Monday rather than moving through it.
· · ·
My father's words came back to me.
"That one stays with you."
He was right. Monday doesn't disappear. Not with more experience, not with age, probably not even with retirement.
So I get up at 5:30 in the morning.
Would I rather stay in bed? Of course.
But I lace up anyway.
Today's first step belongs to me.
Monday is still hard.
But I'm not being dragged through it the way I used to be.
And maybe that's the whole point.
· · ·
Further Reading
- Monday stress and cortisol research
- Social Jetlag and circadian rhythm disruption
- Sunday Scaries — anticipatory anxiety
- Aerobic exercise and stress hormone response
- Self-Determination Theory and autonomy in exercise
