Motivation to Run

Marathon runners practice on ‘Road of Death’ (www.msnbc.com)

Jamal Osman, Channel 4 Europe, spent a week filming Somalia’s 5000 meter runner Abdinasir Ibrahim and his fellow athletes, who dream of competing next year in London. The athletes have to dodge bullets and navigate armed roadblocks to get to training.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42979117#42979117

Some days you find yourself seriously lacking the motivation to run. I stumbled upon this video a couple of months ago on MSNBC, and it had a profound impact on me. It’s kind of hard to come up with excuses for not running after watching this short video clip. I will admit, I was in tears by the time it ended. My mother used to say to me all the time, “There is always someone who is worse off than your are.” Like a typical adolescent, I used to roll my eyes and continue moping. Fast forward 20  years, and I now understand completely what she was saying.

It’s completely normal to have days when you feel like your motivation is completely lacking, even elite athletes have them. However, when you find yourself in a motivational funk, there are a couple of things you can do to help yourself out.

1. Tell yourself that you are going to go out for 1 mile, and that if you still don’t feel like running, you will give yourself permission to turn around and head home. This is a great strategy because a) you will probably find at the mile marker that you are feeling okay and are able to keep going b) even if you do turn around, you feel good that you got out of the house and logged a mile.
2. Sign up for Daily Mile or another type of program that tracks your workouts and mileage, so you will be accountable. When you use Daily Mile, you can add friends and you can see each other’s training and races. Knowing that other people are going to see if you miss a workout can give you that extra little push to get out there. If you sign up for Daily Mile, feel free to friend me!
3. Revisit your playlists. Is it time to add some new music that will keep you going during workouts?
4. Sign up for a race. Having a goal to work towards will definitely encourage you to lace up when you might not feel like it.
5. Try running somewhere you have  never run before- maybe a trail?
6. Run with a partner. It’s a lot harder to hit the snooze button when you know there is someone waiting for you in the dark at 5:30!