5 Ways to Maintain Motivation for Running

I ran my first half marathon on Saturday..WOOHOO! Very exciting. It was part of the Roots 'n' Blues 'n' BBQ Festival, which is just about one of the coolest events in Columbia. I have been training for the last seven months and am pretty proud about it. Since high school and the end of daily, team practices, I have struggled to maintain motivation for working out. I'll get an itch once or twice a year and really go for it...but it doesn't usually last longer than a month or so. But this time I've managed a whole seven months and *fingers crossed* maybe even longer. Based on self-observation, here's how I figure I've pulled it off...


1. Use MapMyFitness
MapMyFitness is a handy little app that tracks your run. Every mile, this lovely little voice pops in your ear and tells you what mile you're on, your pace, split and total time. The app keeps a nice little record of all your runs and a feed so you can see what all your friends have been running. WARNING: every now and then MapMyFitness can be glitchy, inaccurately measuring the milage up to as badly as two minutes per mile (ridiculous). I strongly suggest that you always close out of any other apps you have running, listen to your music through the application and try not to pause/open the app during your run.


2. Make a Running Plan
This is a two part strategy...

First, you have to set a weekly schedule as far as which days you intend to run. I have a theory that you should plan to run everyday...the key is plan to run everyday. This doesn't mean you don't take breaks! It just means that you get in the mindset of working out daily instead of making excuses and skipping workouts when you can't stick to a strict schedule of Monday/Wednesday/Friday. If something comes up, I don't feel bad about missing a day of running since I know I ran yesterday and will be running again tomorrow. It also helps establish the activity as a habit. When you don't question whether or not you feel like working out, you just get dressed and go.

Second, you should consider what your long-term milage plan is going to be.When training for a race, you'll find that most schedules suggest you run lighter, lower miles through the week, leading up to one long run on the weekend. Each weekend, you add one mile to your long run distance and eventually...you can run 26.2 miles! Or whatever. While I fully support this general training schedule, I liked to keep it pretty casual. I would choose the week day mileage about mid-run when I could get a feel for what my body was up to. I am not sure how many miles I'll run on my long days now that I don't have a specific race to train for, so I'll keep you updated on that.


3. Run with Friends
Yay for friends! I was pretty anti-friend-runs before this seven-month fit of fitness. I was not much of a long distance runner in high school, so I couldn't quite wrap my head around the idea that we would be chatting while working out. But a co-worker and I just went for a run one day and it wasn't all that bad. So, we started running once or twice a week for a couple of miles and then talked ourselves (and almost the whole department) into the half marathon and the rest is history. When choosing a running buddy, be sure to pick a talker. It makes it a lot easier when the conversation is split evenly!


4. Find New Places to Run
Let's just all agree that running on treadmills is the ABSOLUTE WORST. I would rather face the cold and the heat and the rain then be stuck inside running in place for an hour. So, once you're outside, don't be afraid to mix it up and explore new places to jog. MapMyFitness has an online platform that allows you to map out routes and shows you the milage as you go. Then you save the route to your profile and select it before you run. Another little suggestion for finding new running routes, is to literally* run your errands. I have run to my grocery store (2.5 miles for onion powder), my mechanic (4 miles after dropping off my car), Logboat Brewing Company (3 miles to meet friends for happy hour) and Menards (4 miles to pick up screws). You are pretty limited as to what you can do, since you have to run home with whatever you buy, but it definitely keeps things interesting!


5. Set an End Goal
Knowing that all my training was in preparation for a half marathon was a huge motivator. It helped push me through busy weeks when it was difficult to make time to run and in the last couple miles of a painful long run. And now that it's all said and done. I am not sure what my next end goal will be, but I think I'll just keep adding on miles to my long run and see how far I can get? Maybe there's a marathon in my future...who knows?


* Proper use of the word literal...YES.