Feb
22
14 Tricks to Jump Start Your Running Mojo
Photo Credit: Day 8 by Flickr User Kenna Takahashi, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Your training season is long. Eighteen weeks is typical, and even if it’s a shorter twelve week program, you really start the base building a good six to eight weeks before that. It’s inevitable that you are going to hit a rut at least once during the cycle. It’s time to step back and find your mojo.
The first key is understanding why you’ve hit the wall, why your goal stopped working, at least as a daily motivational tool. It’s tough to force yourself out the door (or, to do the needed ancillary work). It may be time to take a candid look at your goal – is it a reasonable stretch goal? Have your target paces on key workouts been achievable? Does your goal motivate you sufficiently?
If the answer to the above questions is “no”, then it’s time to reassess your goal, and define something more inspirational. Thus the first four tricks address goal-setting:
- Change the timeline – if your training is going well (and you in fact risk peaking too early), maybe you should seek an earlier “A” goal race. If it’s not going well, and you need more time to build up, maybe you should seek a later race.
- Change the race distance – if you were training for a full marathon and aren’t “feeling it”, then maybe you’ll get more inspired to go after a half-marathon PR. Or maybe the half-marathon just isn’t motivating enough for you, and it’s time to jump to the full. Many races allow you to switch events up to a certain deadline, perhaps for a small fee.
- Change the time goal – this one you should always be careful about, especially if you are making it more aggressive. One idea I’m not a fan of is setting multiple (A, B, C, etc.) goals for a race – while it sounds nice, it makes planning a race strategy devilishly difficult – what pace do you go out at? Your goal is your goal – it may be helpful to be “satisfied” with a result that is less than your goal (but still, say, a personal best), but “aiming” for more than one target doesn’t work.
- Postpone the goal – this is a more extreme version of the first idea – maybe you just aren’t ready for a training season, and would benefit from (and, more importantly, enjoy) some more base building or strength training. Or maybe you suffered a minor setback due to injury. There’s no shame in saying “not yet” when it comes to pursuing a goal – we too often face the temptation to say “yes” to everything that comes our way.
If your goal is still appropriate, or you’ve made tweaks to it from one of the above approaches, here are ten tricks you can use to revitalize your training in a matter of a week or two.
- Set an interim goal – It may help to define a nearer-term objective, like a race or a weekly mileage personal record. Be careful that this “B” goal doesn’t distract from your training, but in many areas there are plenty of shorter race options that can actually serve as a good workout.
- Take a weekend off – Our weekends during training season are often consumed by long runs – the workouts themselves require several hours, and can leave you a bit fatigued for the rest of the weekend. When you are already tired from the work week, this can take a toll over course of the season. Taking the occasional weekend off from training can recharge your batteries, and the disruption may provide some unique training possibilities.
- Change your weekly routine – Are you doing your intervals on Monday, your tempos on Thursday, and your long run on Saturday, every single week? Try mixing things up for a week or two, being sure to still space the hard workouts appropriately. Move your rest day from Friday to Wednesday. Hit the weekend strong having polished off a good Friday afternoon tempo run. The possibilities are vast.
- Get some new gear – Are your shoes getting old, or do you need a fresh feel (and smell) in your shoe or clothing rotation? Eyeing that pricey GPS watch? Finding new motivation is as good of a reason as any to splurge. The return on investment can be huge.
- Find a running partner or join a social media site – Been going solo for a while? Feel like there is no one to really talk to about your training progress or concerns? Find a friend (preferably with similar goals and capabilities), join a social media site like dailymile, or join your local running club. The enhanced sense of commitment you’ll feel for hitting your planned workouts will have big benefits.
- Explore a different type of cross-training or strength/mobility workout – You are doing some strength training, aren’t you? If not, there is no better time to start. If you are, there are undoubtedly other exercises you could learn to target your weaknesses. And feel free to replace the occasional anticipation run with anticipation cross-training.
- Run at a different time of day – Again, routine can be a great asset to your training, until it becomes a liability. Try mixing things up with some non-predawn runs (you are running predawn, right?). The light of day may cast a whole new perspective on things – and it’s amazing how well a tempo or interval workout can go when you are fully awake.
- Hit the trails or your local parks – If you are always running on the streets (or, even worse, the sidewalks), your legs may be getting just as beat up as your mind. Trails (even if paved) can be good for both body and mind, plus many can offer some good balance and hill training.
- Explore some new places to run – Maybe you didn’t get the memo on varying your routes as much as possible. Or maybe it’s not that easy to do so where you live. Just hop in your car and drive five minutes to start from somewhere different. Variety is the spice of life, and your life is partly about running, so by correlation…
- Throw on some music – I’m not normally the type to listen to music when I run – if I listen to anything, it’s to catch up on The Economist or running podcasts. But a few times when I’ve felt less motivated to run, music has helped get me out the door, and studies show it can help your performance.
Very often, these ruts are temporary, and just finding a way to see the light at the end of the tunnel is all you need to stay strong and push through.
Do you have any tricks you’ve used to get your mojo back? Or is your mojo invincible?
