Hey. I thought I’d give this a shot, just a general chat thread about running… eg. How was your run today, how are you tracking, how’s your training going for that race that you decided to go for etc… if it’s popular, maybe someone knows how to write a bot to post weekly or monthly? (I don’t)
I’ve gained about 30 lbs (14kg) over the last two years. I fell out of the habit when I got my first job out of college, but now that I’m not working remotely I have a better schedule, yet I still have trouble maintaining motivation long enough to make a habit of it.
I love running, but I can’t seem to make myself do it. With winter closing in again I worry that I won’t be able to muster the strength to go run outside again until the spring.
Any tips or inspiration anyone could share would be appreciated.
Try to find a local group or run club to get out with.
How would one go about this? Serious question. Are there sites with lists? Are there things to avoid?
There are usually lists online, yeah. You could search “running group [your city]” and probably find a couple. You should also check with your local running stores and ask if they know about any. And if you find more then one don’t be shy about trying more than one. You might find that different groups have different personalities, goals, etc.
@marvinfreeman @vesikel lots outs running groups on social media, you could most likely find a local one to your area. Strava is an another great resource!
Whenever I do not feel like running but know I should, I just put on my running clothes. And I tell myself that I will just do a short run.
That way I make it myself easy to do a minimal effort run, but usually when I start that way I still do a pretty ok round.
What I want to say is, make it yourself easy by lowering the bar somehow. Once a week a run of 30mins is already better than doing nothing.
This is good advice. I just take one step at a time: coffee and snack, running clothes, shoes, out the door, warmup, and then a bit of running. Usually, but not always, I keep going.
In larger perspective, I follow a program of scheduled workouts. And set a goal of some sort at the end. There’s lots of programs out there.
Lower the barrier (get clothes out etc before hand), make it novel; pick somewhere different to run (if you’ve the time for some travel), reward yourself after, set a goal (either running metrics or like "I want to see the pretty garden anyway so might as well run there).
Treadmills suck but are better than not running if the weather sucks.
Find some nice tunes or podcasts or audiobooks and only listen while running to make it more exciting.
Also acknowledging that for a little while it’s going to suck and be hard and just being ok with that can be useful. Until you get fitter and get the habit it’s hard, it’s ok to find stuff hard. Sometimes just accepting that makes doing something transiently hard easier.