Inevitably we have ebbs and flows of energy and motivation for running, but what can you do to get things back on track?

 

This blog could realistically be far, far longer than it should be so I’m going to skip over most of the psychology and organisational tips like laying your clothes out the night before, in favour of looking at longer term ideas and a few “in the moment” tips.

 

Get to the root of the problem

There’s little point trying to force the issue if there’s a good reason that your mind isn’t on running right now. If you’ve got important work deadlines or pressure, family concerns or anything else big going on in your life, it’s understandable that running won’t be your priority and it probably shouldn’t be. In this situation, cut yourself some slack and allow your focus to be where it’s needed, rather than where you’d like it to be.

If there’s nothing else pulling your attention away from running, but you still find yourself dragging your heels to get out the door, then it’s time to go a bit deeper. When did you start to lose motivation? What, if anything, changed around that time and how did that make you feel? Spend a little time writing down your thoughts or speaking to a friend or coach with the explicit request that they only listen since verbalising your thoughts can be really helpful without feedback.

 

Common reasons for a loss of motivation

  1. Lack of sleep or generally being tired
  2. No goal to focus on/give purpose to training
  3. A goal that’s stressing you out or doesn’t feel achievable
  4. Training not going well, often either a few runs that were harder than expected, or a disconnect between what you’re able to do and what you think you should be able to do
  5. Other people progressing faster than you are

 

Whilst I personally think the last one is a sign of bigger personal issues to address, each of these is valid in it’s own way, and are causes for low motivation that I’ve seen over and over in runners.

 

How to boost motivation

Now that we’ve got some common causes identified, we can tackle the problem head on. The ideas below correspond to the same numbered point above.

  1. Look for common causes of sleep problems including no evening routine, having food or caffeine late in the evening, nutrition as a whole and general health.
  2. Find a goal that will challenge you, or switch focus to a different goal e.g. switching from a time for a specific distance to a goal such as exploring one new area or creating a new running route each month.
  3. Re-assess and decide what’s more important, the current goal, or being happy. This doesn’t mean abandoning all goals or even giving up on ever achieving the goal you currently have, but it could mean a shift of target to something you feel fits you better right now.
  4. Focus on the process rather than the outcome. Your outcome goal might be to run 10k in under 45 minutes, but a process goal may be to transition from running 7:45/mile for 10k to 7:15/mile. It’s a continuum rather than a yes/no answer, and gives more obvious and measurable improvement.
  5. My suggestion here is to look at your value system. That sounds grand and over the top I know, but in my view if someone else progressing faster than you has such a negative impact on your motivation, the problem is at a deeper level. Whilst we’re wired to create hierarchies, we can learn to view other people’s success as motivation rather than something that detracts from it.

 

In the moment motivation

Some of the actions above take time to implement or dedicated time to sit down and think things through. In the heat of the moment when you just need to get up and running, they’re unlikely to be helpful, so common tips like listening to a motivational song or speech, linking the run you’re about to do with your bigger goals (if they’re not the issue), doing some jogging on the spot to start moving or putting on your favourite running outfit can do the trick. 

 

There’s so much more we could go into here but as I mentioned at the start, I’ll leave the in-depth psychology to people in that field. If this has piqued your interest however, I can recommend “The Brave Athlete” by Simon Marshall and Lesley Paterson. There’s a fair amount of colourful language, but the principles they put forward and resources they offer are excellent. 

Written by Kyle Brooks, Running Coach based in Norwich, Norfolk