If you were to count how many times you have told yourself to go for a run and you didn’t do it, would your number be high?
I know mine can creep up at times.
If you are in the same boat, I would love to encourage you and share a couple of tricks that have made all the difference for me. The first is your mindset. If you think of a run as a chore it will always feel like one. However, if you change your mindset and look at it as a break in life, a place where you can escape for a half an hour, it will become your paradise. You have to change the way you think about runs by creating a positive mentality. A little trick I do is when I tend to think negativity I put two positive thoughts to overturn my perspective. If you always turn to weather for a reason not to go for a run I encourage you to go to TJ Maxx or Marshals. Get what you need to endure the weather. If its raining, get a bright rain jacket or if its snowing, get some funky warm leggings. So when the weather isn’t cooperating you can be motivated to rock the new pieces of clothing you just got! For me, as I got into running half marathons it was so exciting to purchase new waist belts. I first got a waist belt that held my phone then later on got one that held a water bottle. It was so fun and now I don’t run without a waist belt. I love it!
If you don’t like running but want to get into it, try hiking or going for nature walks first. The second words of encouragement I have is gradually increase your runs. As you walk longer distances try picking up your pace and jogging for a while. When I first started running it was not enjoyable because I had to become conditioned. I was out of shape and all I could think about was the struggle of the next step. Looking back if I simply worked on shorter miles and built my milage up over time the experience would have been more enjoyable. But as you get yourself out there you will find that you will become stronger and actually want to go longer distances. You tend to surprise yourself, I know I do that quite often. Each week challenge yourself by writing out how many runs in total you want to do. Plan out what days would work and don’t let yourself down. Commit to it. Like I said gradually increase your runs, please don’t try and run 3 miles the first day if you could only do one strong mile. Start slow and work yourself up to distance. The whole idea is to enjoy it and if you haven’t ran in a while it will be hard but like anything the more work you put into it the easier it will become.
I hope you find the beautiful escape a run can give. It takes all of two things: your mindset and you getting out the door.
Live Well and Run
Live Well and Run 