I don’t profess to be the perfect runner, or always stay on my schedule 100% of the time. I wish I could be that dedicated to running full time, or working full time, or having the perfect diet all of the time. Some nights I even forget to put my retainer in but please don’t tell my Orthodontist. So how do we break out of this rut when it happens?
This past week has been stressful for me and I was reading different article on staying on track with a running routine. There were some great suggestions which I thought I’d share with you. I’m sure none of them are groundbreaking and perhaps you have read them before. All of this knowledge came from multiple sources so I’m going to share tonight what I read and think I might use.
For now, these are some of the tips I liked that I read to help me stick to my training plan that I want to try to follow.
The first one that caught my eye is to be a morning runner. I don’t usually like to get up early and do anything, let alone run. My family wouldn’t consider me a morning person, so I think this will be a good challenge for me anyway. This gets me up early and gets the run out of the way so that I can do all the rest of the days tasks without having to worry about fitting the run in after work.
Get enough sleep. Normally this isn’t an issue for me but since I am going to attempt waking up early for running, this means I will have to go to bed earlier. Yet another good challenge for me, especially since I don’t usually get off work until 8. When our children are young, one of the signs that they are having a growth spurt is that they sleep a lot. This sleep helps them grow because during sleep, human growth hormone is released. Sleep therefore helps us build our muscles and recover.
Use one day a week for long runs. I already do this and am adding it to this list for a couple reasons. The first is to pat myself on the back a little for doing something right regularly! The second is because the article I read informs readers that long runs not only build endurance but help to grow capillaries which supply our muscles with oxygen and nutrients.
Keeping track of your schedule in a journalling form is a great tip! This is something I generally try to do but I’ll admit, during tougher times, I don’t always do this and I think that does hinder me and my training. It does help you to see the progress you have made over the past weeks and months. Maybe I should keep track of my runs on my blog. That way I can be accountable to the people reading. Maybe it’ll motivate you guys as well!
Weekly, I’m going to write a very honest post about what happened with my training and where I am with it. It’s fun not to necessarily do the same thing as everyone else, so since I am writing this tonight, prior to going to bed after a long night, I have decided to do my weekly training posts on Tuesday nights.
The last suggestion I am going to put here is to reward yourself! Who doesn’t like rewards? These can be something simple or more extravagant depending on your preference. I find that seeing my Apple Watch rings be completed feels like a reward to me, so I might be happy with a star at the end of the day on my training schedule and when I have all stars that week, reward myself with a new pair of running socks that I normally wouldn’t spurge on.
The point is that sometimes life happens and things happen during the day that we have no control over. Sometimes, I think I use life issues to not run when I just don’t want to do anything else. I am choosing to try and follow these few simple suggestions, write a post weekly about my progress and see how that helps me.