Freaked out during early morning or late night runs!

I don't know what it is, but whenever I go for a run in the morning or at night and it's starting to get dark it freaks me out. I live in Arizona and it's starting to get hot during the day now. It's to hot for me to take my dogs for a run after work and I've been wanting to do it in the morning a few times during the week. But I'm not gonna lie, I get so freaked out when I do. I haven't seen any recently but I do live next to the open desert and there are always coyotes around. I havent seen any in my neighborhood but I'm worried that I might. The plan so far is to just stop and go the oposite direction and hope that we're not followed. I also run with a knife... just in case. Does anyone else have this problem? I feel like such a dork for being frightened. ughh