Finding Ways on How to Keep Motivated to Run
How to Keep Running When TiredThis is by far one of the greatest challenges any runner faces: how to keep motivated to run?
It does not matter the level of skill or the length of running experience; all runners must motivate themselves to run.
After one has been running consistently for six months to a year, the physical advantages of running become much more pronounced and visible.
Your physical body will look different, and you will feel different.
At that point it will be easier to maintain what you have worked to achieve.
The question is how one stays motivated to get to that point.
There are a number of ways on how to keep motivated to run.
The simplest and most critical way to stay motivated is to set goals and rewards for achieving those goals.
For example, you may have invested in a pair of running shoes before you could run a full 30 minutes without stopping.
That investment probably was a good initial motivation to exercise consistently because the cost of your investment was enough of an encouragement to prompt you to remember to go running for at least two weeks.
But as the motivation of the initial running shoe purchase wanes, it is time to figure out a goal and a reward.
For example, deciding that once you want to run for 30 minutes without stopping as the next benchmark that you would like to accomplish in the first 30 days of your training is a reasonable and attainable goal.
To help encourage yourself to meet the goal you will have to determine a reward because the physical alteration and outward benefits you achieve by attaining 30 consecutive minutes of running power are fairly minimal.
Perhaps you may decide that 30 minutes of straight running is proof that you are serious about running and you will reward yourself with a new runner’s watch.
Make Your Goals Attainable And Specific
Your goals should be attainable and challenging.
If you make your goals too difficult or unrealistic, they can actually turn counterproductive toward your efforts to advance your fitness.
Your goals should also be successive in order to promote steady and continual progress in your fitness.
A really good way on how to keep motivated to run is by rewarding yourself.
Saying you are going to run every week is not the same as committing to run four days each week.
Additionally, saying you are running to shed some pounds is not the same as committing to lose 10 pounds through running.
The more specific your goals are the more likely you are to succeed.
By being specific, you can chart out a direct path to your goals and increase your chance of attaining them.
Partner Up
Another great motivator is to team up with someone that has a similar fitness level and goal.
Promoting and encouraging each other is an extremely powerful motivation tool because it uses constant tangible reinforcement and companionship to strengthen the commitment of both participants.
There will always be days when you do not feel like running, and it is at those times that a supportive training companion can be most crucial to encouraging you.
Finally, the greatest way to prevent burnout and how to keep motivated to run regularly is to avoid the extremes of training.
Steady consistent training on a slow building schedule will help encourage you to keep running because it will help you to minimize the discomfort resulting from the training.
If you push too hard too soon, you will most likely cause serious exhaustion and you may even cause an injury.
Slow and steady is the key to developing a lasting routine that will reap the long term sustainable benefits.
Running is not a sport that will transform an individual overnight, and pushing too hard may actually discourage you from wanting to continue.
Instead, try to focus on incorporating the motivational techniques that are going to help you stick to your schedule and achieve your goals in the reasonable time frame you have adopted for yourself.
