Sometimes its hard to even get out the front door. Running motivation can be hard to maintain but with the right tools and tactics you can tap into your inner resilience and persevere through the tough times.
Personally, I love running but even with a joy for running I still find that running is hard at times and finding solutions to make running easier, both physically and mentally, is important to help us all be consistent and persevere when moments get tough.
Motivation When You’re Falling Apart
This picture is an adequate representation of the struggles I experienced during 26.2 miles on this particular marathon day. I don’t often write about myself here but this race is a perfect example of how running can be very hard. The following brief overview presents some key indicators to understand how important it is to have something to “push for” when running gets hard, or really when anything in life gets hard.
Find Your WHY for Running
My brother passed away in his early 20s and I found that running became an emotional strength and escape for me while I was struggling with his loss. 1 year later I committed to run my first marathon and it was absolutely miserable! I finished and said I would NEVER run a marathon again but regardless of my feelings towards marathon running I continued to run because of the emotional and physical benefits that I received from it.
Many years later I still run marathons. Why? Because my WHY outweighs the difficulties and struggles of running. The satisfaction I find in personal progress and the connection that I feel to the struggle that it helped me to overcome are my two main WHY’s.
When you find your WHY, you find a way to make it happen.
Eric Thomas
When It Doesn’t Go As Planned
The 2018 St George Marathon was the hardest marathon I have ever run, not because the course was hard but because I unexpectedly fell apart. I went into the race feeling confident. I was confident of my goal and excited for a HUGE PR (Personal Record)! But I noticed relatively early on that something was a little off. As early as 10 miles in I was missing mileage splits by 2-3 seconds. I thought, “No big deal. I can make it up in the 2nd half.” With 12 miles to go I knew I was falling apart. I was in pain but I wasn’t about to give up. At mile 19 I began cramping and developed a debilitating side ache that I couldn’t get rid of. It wasn’t until mile 22 that I knew there was no recovering from the hole that I was in.
Inner Drive Motivation
All I could think about during the last 60 minutes was how bad it hurt and how badly I wanted to stop and walk but my reasons for continuing still lingered in my mind; my inner drive to succeed, my wife and family cheering me on along the course, my buddy Mike who had trained to run with me at that pace, my buddy Ty yelling at me on his bike, my little boys holding their hands out to give me high fives as I passed by.
I still PR’d that day, but only by 46 seconds. Had I not had solid habits, perseverance tactics and solid reasons to not give up I would have likely walked to the finish line.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter how hard you train or prepare for something. It doesn’t always go as planned. But you can’t give up. Your inner self needs to be programmed to continue telling you to keep pushing.
“Success depends on staying power. The reason for failure in most cases is lack of perseverance. Men get tired and give up. Don’t you give up.”
J.R. Miller
This specific marathon reminded me of my brother, how badly I hurt when he passed away, but also how perseverance got me through that hard time back then and how it will continue to do so in the future. Staying Power.
Make it a Habit
Though it is incredibly important, willpower is limited so you can’t expect to rely solely on your inner strength and determination when things start to get hard.
It’s normal for humans to “unravel” when faced with stress and difficult situations. Slowly unraveling is often presented in the form of a conversation with yourself. “I can do this. No I can’t. Just a little longer. But it hurts so bad. Don’t give up.”
When your willpower has been diminished you will revert to your “default settings”. If your default settings are to flop down on the couch and watch TV, that’s what you’ll do. If your default setting is to give up when the moments get tough, that’s what you’ll do. You will always revert to your default but you should always remember that your default can be reprogrammed by forming new habits.
‘Once it’s a habit, exercise feels easier and doesn’t take as much willpower when you don’t feel like it.’
Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit.
Be Persistent and Consistent
Persistence and Consistency will bring more return on your running investment than almost anything else. If you persistently build your running knowledge and seek to develop proper habits to increase your running motivation you’ll begin to find more ease in running.
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Getting out the door is the first step and often the most difficult. Eliminating the barrier of time and schedule pressures will give you a major advantage. To help accomplish this, setting specific daily and weekly goals and reminders is incredibly helpful for maintaining consistency. Spend a little time analyzing your typical day to determine which times of the day are most conducive to running then plan accordingly.
Look at the Long Game
Becoming really good at anything requires a long-term mindset. Looking for shortcuts and instant results almost always leads to disappointment. The highest probability of achievement lies in determinating a solid long-term action plan and sticking to it. That’s why a marathon training plan typically lasts 18 weeks but expects you to be at a minimum “base mileage” before you start the training plan.
Mastery means that we are a master of what we know but an apprentice of what we are still learning. Thus we become masters of what is behind us and apprentices of what is ahead of us.
Motivation From the Masters
Even the best of the best struggle and require continual motivation in some form or another.
Michael Phelps Motivation
When I feel tired, I just think about how good it will feel when I’ve reached my goal.
Michael Phelps
Usain Bolt Motivation
Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take it’s place. If I quit, however, it will last forever.
Usain Bolt
Serena Williams Motivation
I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.
Serena Williams
Avoid Burnout
To avoid burnout it is essential to continuously find solutions that keep you at the top of your game and make running exciting. Remember, luck has nothing to do with it.
- Find your Why and your inner motivations will begin to surface.
- Develop good habits.
- Be persistent and consistent
- Look at the long game
Last, but not least, almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… Even yourself.
Simone Biles Motivation
In 2017-2018 Simone Biles, the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) gymnast, took over 12 months off of training because she was, “very physically and mentally exhausted, ” and she said, “that’s why I decided to take the time off that I needed to recuperate.”