Why We Run?

You’ve made the commitment to start running and signed up for a race.  Congratulations! Now the work starts.

Hopefully as you embark on your running journey towards your goals, you will be excited to lace up your shoes and head out the door.  The reality is that there will be times when the motivation is lacking. Whether it's bad weather, family or work responsibilities taking up time and energy, something in your life will affect your desire to want to get your run done.

How do we stay motivated? Having a goal like a race is great, it’s in the calendar, and you have an exact timeframe to work towards.  You follow a plan, stay committed, and follow through until race day.  You did it! You’ve become a runner!

Now what?  

Some people will continue to sign up for the next race and continue to put goals in the calendar to work towards.  While continuing to participate in races and the sport is a great thing, it is important to give your body and mind time to recover and reset between races and training blocks to reduce the risk of injuries or burnout.

What if signing up for multiple races in a year is not feasible? How do you stay motivated to run?

One approach might be to rewire the way you view running.  If running has always been related to training for a race, look at your relationship and evaluate how it served you versus how you need it to serve you.  This might be easier running, taking a break from speed work, or training for something different such as a 5 or 10K. 

Think about some of the benefits that running consistently has provided.  Maybe you have more energy to keep up with your kids, or you have become a morning person due to all those early morning runs.   

The consistency of showing up for yourself when pursuing a goal is a change worth holding on to.