Maintaining your motivation is critical to sustaining your running habit. Try some of these ideas to help you stay motivated to run:
1. Start Your Own Running Tradition
Pick one race that you run every year. You'll look forward to training for and running in the race, and you'll stay motivated to keep your "streak" alive.2. Be Prepared
Keep a bag packed with running clothes and shoes in your car. You'll be prepared to take advantage of any unexpected opportunity to run.3. "Adopt" a New Runner
It's always motivating and exciting to watch someone who's new to running get interested in and enthused about the sport. If you know someone who wants to run, but doesn't know how to get started, offer your assistance. You can provide him or her with some basic training advice and gear knowledge and, more importantly, much-needed encouragement. Consider going on some runs with this person. Although running with him or her may not be challenging physically for you, seeing the sport through a new runner's eyes will help renew your motivation.4. Run In the Morning
Whenever I
run in the morning, I always feel like I gained a couple of hours during the day. I love not feeling pressure to run in the evening, since I already got my miles done in the morning. Finding time to run in the evening always get tough when work and home responsibilities start popping up. Runners who run early in the day are more consistent with their running than those who try to do it later on.
5. Take a Break
Giving yourself breaks in training is important for staying motivated and preventing injuries. For healthy, consistent training, your body needs regular recovery periods. Build
rest days into your weekly running schedule, and plan for "recovery weeks" (when you decrease your overall weekly mileage) every four weeks.
6. Be Creative
You'll get bored or burned out if you keep doing the same workouts days after day. Change your runs by finding some new running routes or adding speed or hill repeats to your workouts.7. Place Your Inspiration Prominently
Surround yourself with reminders and stimuli that will inspire you to run. For example, place
running books or magazines on your coffee table, or post
motivational running quotes in prominent places.
