Getting out the door tonight will not be easy. You pick up your running log and start to admire your streak of consistency. You have run at least 4 days each week for the past 19 weeks. A run tonight will make it 20 weeks straight a personal record. You have run long on each time out this week and up until today it has been a quite successful run week. You realize that if you could somehow manage to get in 6 miles tonight, it will give you a total of 23 miles for the week, the most miles you have ever ran in a week. Another personal record on top of your streak of 20 weeks! When you get home you can record two records in your log!
#2. Lie to yourself. On the days the numbers in the log dont stir your soul, this is the time to lie to your body. Promise it that you just want to go out for a 10 minute jog and that if it still wants to go home and lay on the couch after that you will let it. Actually you arent lying because once you have gone through the trouble of getting on the running gear and are heading up the street 10 minutes will pass and your energy level will rise. After the run you will be saying to yourself, "I feel great, what a great run, Im sure glad I got out the door". Its strange how many times I have gone through this scenario. I just cant seem to remember how great I feel once I run until I am actually running. Just get out the door and the run is licked.
#3. Visit a Running Store. This suggestion might sound like a sales pitch but... Stop by a running store at least once a month to pick up a new running magazine, book or some race applications. It helps to visit an environment that supports your effort. The running shop folks live to run and are happy to hear about your training, answer questions, and give suggestions. Need sympathy? Its here. Not to mention, new shoes always get me out the door! #4. Find a training partner. Knowing some poor soul is out there waiting for you at 6 AM will force you out of bed and out the door. The guilt associated with blowing off a run date is strong motivation. Where to find a partner that runs your pace and fits into your schedule? It is tricky and you might have to make some sacrifices to make it work but it will be worth it. Go to running clubs, running store weekly runs or even local races. Strike up conversations with those around you at your pace. Get to the important question, where do you live? Running partners are not easy to find but the right one can challenge you, keep you consistent and add to your running experience line nothing else. Thanks Chris, John and especially my wife Kathy!
#5. Read about running. Motivational Running books and magazines can also get you out the door. The trick, pick up a running magazine or book and after a few pages the guilt will set in, you will soon be back in the training mind set. (Notice how guilt is a reoccurring theme?) Movies can do the same thing. Go rent the video "Without Limits", "On the edge" (If you can find it an old Bruce Dern movie) or "Chariots of Fire". Book choices, I like running novels like, "In the long run". The book is fiction but the story is about a first time marathon experience. The setting is the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. It even has a love story going on in the plot. Other fiction, The Long Road to Boston or my favorite book of all time, "Once a Runner" by John Parker, now out of print but go find a copy! OK, are you ready to put down this Magazine and get your butt out the door! Go run.
Randy Step
