I’ve got to admit, I’m one of those people that simply loves to run.
The pavement beneath my feet, battling through the elements, enjoying the views as I move along my route, I love it.
And while most people hate to run and the whole idea of being outdoors, I can’t get enough.
I’ve got to admit, I’m one of those people that simply loves to run.
The pavement beneath my feet, battling through the elements, enjoying the views as I move along my route, I love it.
And while most people hate to run and the whole idea of being outdoors, I can’t get enough.
But honestly, it wasn’t always this way, in fact, when I was younger I hated to run and found it incredibly tedious. I only ran if I had to and I couldn’t last more than 10 minutes on a treadmill because I would get so bored.
After I developed plantar fasciitis, which made each and every step beyond painful and came to a head when I collapsed and couldn’t stand back up, I wanted to avoid running altogether and I really began to hate it, but somehow, I turned this all around and discovered a love for something that has now become an obsession.
But, how? I hear you ask.
Well in this article I am going to share my top tips, for how you too can fall in love with running and make running more enjoyable again.
Change Your Mindset
One of the most important things you can do is change your mindset and approach.
A lot of people approach their runs thinking about how far they have to go or how much of a challenge it will be, if it’s cold or wet that will make everything ten times worse and often, they don’t even make it out of the door.
Change your mindset and everything else will improve.
Start looking at your runs as something that you want to do, not have to, and that your time outside is time for you, time to de-stress and find some peace.
It’s a chance to work on your goals and make some improvements to your health and fitness.
For a little extra motivation think of a time when you had a great run and achieved a big milestone or a fast time, then replicate that energy.
Change the Route
Once a week try adding in an exploratory run, where you find new routes, new parks, new paths and simply new ground to cover.
Scheduling a destination run (where you pick a destination like a local coffee shop, then run to it) is also another good way of changing up your runs and doing something different.
These types of runs are great for keeping you on your toes and keeping your runs interesting. When you stick to the same routes and same levels of difficulty your body adapts and it soon gets very monotonous and doable, challenging yourself in this way will bring new levels of excitement and curiosity to your runs.
Use an App
The last few years have produced a spike in running apps as they have become increasingly popular and more widely used as a great resource to make running more enjoyable, challenging and fun.
Running apps are great and many can give you real-life data, feeding back on how you’re performing every time you lace up, helping to push you more and give you clear goals to try and achieve.
With apps tracking everything from your daily activity to your distance and speed, you can even get apps like Strava that show how you compare to other runners on the same route giving you a little extra motivation and some friendly competition.
Set goals
Make your runs more purposeful by setting goals and giving yourself targets to achieve. For beginner runners, milestones such as completing a certain distance or meeting a certain time are always fantastic checkmarks, but as you become more advanced you can start to adapt your goals, whether they’re time-related, distance-related or more personal goals such as how you feel physically at certain checkpoints, setting a goal is essential to keep you engaged, interested and enjoying your run.
It will also encourage you to push the pace and keep your mind focused as you work towards meeting your goals.
Listen to Music
Making a killer playlist to help you along is a tried and tested, scientifically proven way to make your runs more productive. Seriously, it’s been tested, one piece of research in particular, that by Scientific American found that music “elevates mood, increases endurance, reduces perceived effort and may even promote metabolic efficiency”.
Adding more weight to the thought that some type of audio stimulation can have a great impact on how well you run.
Some people opt for podcasts or calming music as it allows them to zone out and not worry about the run, but others prefer a more upbeat tempo with their favorite feel-good tunes on.
You can even get apps like Temporun that will help you to sync songs to your running pace and get you a beat at the right BPM.
Work in Intervals
Interval training is a fantastic way to burn more calories from your run but in less time.
It’s also a great method of keeping things interesting and helps to keep your mind engaged.
The intervals can be what you want and will be determined by your goals, for example, faster-paced intervals may see you running for 30 seconds before dropping back to a slow jog for 90 seconds but at this faster pace you wouldn’t be able to go for too long
If you did have more time or were planning a long run you may employ a different strategy, such as 3 minutes at a steady pace and one minute at a faster pace but again, it’s down to your personal choice.
The important thing, however, with intervals, is that you’re changing the pace and raising your heart rate sufficiently, not simply keeping to the same pace.
If you’re running on a treadmill then working to your interval zones is easy, but if you’re outside, a handy trick is using your surroundings so you know when to change your pace, street lights or trees as landmarks are a great way of doing this without having to look at your phone or check the time.
Conclusion
Making your runs more enjoyable can seem like a far off dream, but the key thing is, it can be done. Plenty of runners struggle with motivation but by using the top tips above you will soon start to enjoy yourself and look forward to your runs much more than before.
By changing your environment, changing your work rate and building a killer playlist, you will find yourself in your stride and reaching new levels but you will also start to see improvements in your running and overall performance.
Try then tweak the tips above, you may prefer podcasts of calming music or you may find that an exploratory run leads you to a new passion, but one thing is for sure, by implementing the tips in this article, your runs are about to become a lot more interesting and a lot more enjoyable.
Leave a Reply