As one ignorant non-runner said, running is unexciting, exhausting, and quite often painful. Yet today, running has become the most popular individual sports in the world, counting millions and millions of supporters.
This number won’t even include yet those who are engaged into serious competitive running. How do they maintain their selves motivated and stay at that?
Lack of motivation
Since it is a solitary performance at most, jogging occasionally CAN be uninteresting, exhausting and painful. A number of runners (newcomers and veterans alike) report that it can be difficult sometimes to stay motivated regularly.
Loss in inspiration is brought on by many factors, such as boredom, muscle pains, and most of all, loss of time. Some other times within your running years you were probably attacked by lack of motivation.
This begins slow (skipping a run or two) and without your knowing it, gradually moves to a point for which you discover you’re not running regularly anymore.
Goals
One of the better approaches to fight loss in motivation is to set realistic goals. Among the most common goals to stay motivated is simply to accomplish a race.
Choosing your race, training for it, and lastly competing in it is another good source of inspiration. Your selection should depend on your personal goals. In case motivation is your only goal, probably deciding to compete in those periodic short races is the ideal option.
Setting realistic goals will be the proper way for a runner’s motivation to stay up and intense enough.
Of course, you could choose your favorite distance (5K or 10K or a marathon). The choice itself, the idea, and also the actual preparations and the competition proper are enough elements to keep you busy (training) as well as motivated (prestige and awards) enough.
Other runners are motivated by setting even bigger goals to their training (if competing) or in just plain running. They set up faster times, or longer distances as a next goals.
Obviously, they’ll not get it right the first time. The attempts of bettering them are great motivators.
Variations
Athletes could also stay motivated by adding some variety into their program. They can vary the courses (and terrain) they may be running (jogging across the woods or the tracks), distance, speed and intensity (doing sprints in straight tracks and jogging in curves) among other things.
Running having a friend (in twos or threes) can occasionally perk up an otherwise monotonous activity. Considering someone going with you on a run can be a good motivation to get it done. Working by yourself makes staying in bed within a cold morning seems really tempting.
Off times
Often, joggers have to use some time off from running. This may look counter-intuitive but it is effective.
A great way is doing some cross-training which can also make you stay in shape other than running. (This is aside from the fact that you DID take some time off from running.)
Add to your workout schedule a week for each 2 months perhaps of not running at all but doing some other physical exercise of your choice. The break from running makes you feel recharged and raring to return running.