25 Tips to Keep You Motivated on the Run!

New runners dealing with the physical pain of beginning a running program. The everyday runner whose work and family commitments leave little time for running. The elite runner who’s burned out from consistent training. No matter if your a novice or an elite runner, at one point or another, lack of motivation can become a problem for some. If you're not careful and you don't take time to refocus and re-motivate, before you know it, 5 runs a week turns into 4, turns into 3, turns into none. Does this sound like you or does it sound like a running buddy of yours? If so, try one or more of the 25 motivation tips below to help you or your friend regain the fun in running.

1 • Setting realistic goals—shooting for the moon is great, but don't set yourself up for failure. If you're just beginning to run, maybe a 5K or 10K is a more realistic goal rather than a marathon in 6 months.
2 • Tell people about your goals—having the support of others while working on your goal can be very motivating. Also, when others know about your goal you'll feel more accountable for your training.
3 • Remember the good you're doing—don't forget how easily those pounds come back if you stop running.
4 • Improve on race times—set a goal to get a PR in a favorite race.
5 • Spice it Up!—do your weekly routine in reverse; begin a run at the end of a familiar route and run to the start; throw in a fartlek; add something, anything to your normal routine to break the monotony.

6 • Run with a friend—a long run with a friend can seem half the distance of running that same route alone. Running with someone a little faster than you can provide the extra little challenge you've needed.
7 • Take a short break—if you're truly worn-down physically or mentally, let yourself "officially" take a week off. Use this time to refocus and set some running goals for yourself. Then when you "get back to it" you'll have a refreshed outlook and a refreshed body.
8 • Add some cross training—not only will cross-training (swimming, cycling, hiking, walking, strength training, etc.) add some variety to your week, it will also strengthen other muscle groups that can actually end up improving your running.
9 • Keep a log—monitoring your progress in a hand-written log or on an online log such as dailymile.com, can help you see trends in your training. It also holds you more accountable for your training. Nobody likes to see a blank week in their log.
10 • Have a running mantra—when the going gets tough, having a mantra or saying that you can repeat to yourself can really help pull you out of some tough times during a run. For mantra ideas [click here].

11 • Celebrate accomplishments—reward yourself when you reach that new milestone, no matter how small. Buy that new pair of shoes, get those racing shorts you've been looking at, go to a movie, do something to acknowledge your achievements.
12 • Have fun—"fun" is a relative term. Hard to believe you're having "fun" when you're sore, tired, and hungry on a 20-mile run, but if you're a runner you definitely can. If you're not experiencing that fun, then you may be over training. Re-evaluate your workout routine and pull back some or throw in some more cross training days. Do a fun race you've been wanting to do. Make sure you're doing some runs with your running buddies to help boost your spirits.
13 • Get some new running duds—admit it, you know when you put on that new outfit for work, it makes you feel good, hip, in style, current. Same thing can happen with your running attire. If you're still running in your knee-high tube socks and terry-cloth sweatband, maybe a new running wardrobe is called for.
14 • Make a running playlist—running to some upbeat tunes can help keep you motivated and on pace in your runs. Create your own playlist or download one specifically created for working out and/or running. [Click here] for some ideas.
15 • Map out some new running routes—running the same routes over and over can get very old. Explore a new route. Check with your local parks & recreation department to make sure you're aware of all the available running trails, parks, and greenways in your community. Try an online mapping site such as MapMyRun.com where you can map your own routes as well as check out routes of others in your area.
16 • Leave your watch at home—focusing so much on time, can sometimes drain the fun out of your runs. Try leaving that watch at home and just enjoy running.
17 • Seize the moment—if an opportunity arises for you to run even though it’s not your normal scheduled time, take it! Go run!
18 • Watch a good running-related movie—A movie like Run Fat Boy Run will surely get you motivated.
19 • Read a good running-related book—the cult novel Once a Runner, will have you refocused in no time.
20 • Join a running social site—social running sites such as dailymile.com are a great way to stay connected with other runners. If you're the only runner in your family or circle of friends you may or may not get the support or understanding you need, but at a site like dailymile.com, your running buddies are just a click away!
21 • Run for a cause—Join a training group that raises money for a charity such as Team in Training for the Leukemia Society or the Arthritis Foundation's Joints in Motion.
22 • Take time to smell the roses—If you're fortunate like me and have awesome greenways to run on, take a moment and slow down on a run and just appreciate the flora and fauna around you. You'll be surprised how it will reinvigorate your running.

23 • Post your running schedule for all to see—Somehow when something is in writing, it holds more importance. If your running seems to get pushed aside, try posting a calendar or schedule of when you're running for the rest of your family to see.

24 • Take a trip—pick a race (could be a 10K, half marathon, full marathon or whatever) to run each year in a fun location away from home. Make the training and the trip itself an adventure. Take some time to explore the city you visit before and/or after the big run.

25 • Start a blog—create a blog and use it as an online journal of your running adventures. There's an entire world of running bloggers out there who are ready to support you and learn from you, as well as teach you a few things.

Check out the video clip below and hear what motivates James, a young runner, to run.

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Kids Actually Do Pay Attention (Sometimes)

The great thing about magazines like Family Fun is that they're full of cooking and craft ideas for kids to do. The bad thing about magazines like this is that they're full of cooking and craft ideas for kids to do. You see, our youngest is in a constant state of creating. From painting our beagle pink, to tying up the family room with dental floss to make a spider web, to painting our solid oak dining table with a bottle of Wite-Out®, to making "potions" in the bathroom, Ellery, our 8-year-old, is constantly making and doing. I'm trying to convince myself that our house is her canvas and that one day it will pay off when she's a world-renowned artist or possibly a chemist for Crayola. Until then, I'm never quite sure what I'll come home to.

This past Saturday after my long run with my running group, I walked in the door stinky, damp, and encrusted in salt. My plan was to hit the shower and then take a nap. What I was greeted with instead as I walked in the door was, "I'm ready Dad!" Ellery was in the kitchen, apron on, a cantaloupe under one arm and a big mixing bowl in the other. Let me back up to fill you in on a few things. On Monday, one of those kids craft magazines arrived in the mail and as usual, Ellery began scouring its pages in search of the next craft or cooking project to conquer. By Thursday she and I were in the local grocery store buying what she so desperately needed for her projects. Friday was my older daughter's 8th-grade graduation and we just didn't have enough time for Ellery to get involved in a messy project, so we planned on doing it over the weekend. In my mind that meant Saturday or Sunday afternoon, not Saturday morning at 10:00AM after running 11 miles in hot/humid conditions. So I took a deep breath, exhaled, and said, "Okay missy, let's get to it!"

By now you're probably wondering what in the heck this has to do with running, fitness, or nutrition. I kind of am too. Oh yeah, all my talk around the house about good nutrition and how food is fuel for the body evidently has rubbed off on Ellery. You see, the creation she wanted to make was a recipe for "Shimmering Fruit Salad." She thought I'd like it since it was healthy. It actually is a pretty healthy recipe and it ended up being a great post run snack containing protein, carbs, and fiber, not to mention all the vitamins and antioxidants in the fruit and nuts. Ellery had to make me promise not to eat the entire bowl!

Ellery's Shimmering Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup of skim milk

2 tbsp. lite or reduced fat mayo

1 tsp. honey

2 oranges cut into chunks

1 apple diced

2 bananas sliced

2 cups of cantaloupe cut into chunks

1 cup of grapes

1/2 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts

Directions:

Mix together in a small bowl the milk, mayo, and honey to create a sauce. In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Pour the sauce over the fruit, cover with a lid or plastic wrap, and place the bowl in the fridge until it is chilled. Makes about 10 cups.

Awesome Site for Runners—dailymile.com

There's nothing better than having the support of your running buddies whether it's the one or two that you regularly run with or the large running club you belong to. Training for a marathon or any (endurance race for that matter) can often wear you down both mentally and physically. Having friends to push you or for you to push during your training can be very helpful and motivating. Running buddies are amazing tools in your training arsenal.

I stumbled upon a great social website for runners called dailymile.com. Dailymile is a social training log for runners, triathletes, and cyclists. It bills itself as "The easiest way to share your training with friends and stay motivated." Founded by Ben Weiner and Kelly Korevec (active athletes who share a passion for putting in daily miles, and creating great web applications), the young site already has around 20,000 members who've logged over 1 million miles!

I'm a member of a few other running sites where I can log my mileage, but dailymile is the first where I've really connected and become friends with other runners right here in my own state as well as all over the country. In addition to making runner friends and logging your miles and workouts, you can plot your miles, time, pace, and calories. You can overlay your graphs with that of your friends and compare your training with theirs to find interesting trends in your training data and train better. The site also has video applications, a mapping tool to track and share your favorite running routes, the ability to share your workouts on FaceBook, and you can even import Nike+ data.

Take a few moments to check out dailymile. If you do, I think you'll quickly get hooked like I did. I've made some really good friends through the site. I may or may not ever meet these people in person, but that doesn't really matter. I'm here for them and they're out there for me to motivate, encourage and celebrate our accomplishments in a sport we love—running.

The New York Times is running a special section titled “Marathon Tech Review.” They are reviewing tech products every Friday up to the start of the New York Marathon. Dailymile would love to be one of the products they review. If you've been using dailymile and have enjoyed it as much as I have, drop The NY Times an email nytmarathon@gmail.com and let them know how dailymile has been helpful in your training.

A dailymile friend of mine Loic Le Meur recently had the privilege to run with Ben and Kelly in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Check out the video clip below of their run.

Speed Work on a Treadmill?

Some runners can run long distances on a treadmill—I'm not one of them. Usually you'll find me on the treadmill only if it's winter and it's 20° and sleeting or if it's summer and it's 98°, with a heat index of 105° and an ozone warning. I just prefer the distractions of the fauna and flora around me on a run outside to the constant view of the sweaty people beside me and in front of me in the gym. In a previous post, I did mention that I discovered that doing fartleks on the treadmill really made those runs more enjoyable. So, I got to wondering if you could do "real speed work" on a treadmill and if so, was it comparable to speed work out on a track.

First of all, when it's July or August and there's a heat index of 115, it's just impossible to run as fast as you need to without risking heat exhaustion. So, a speed workout on the treadmill is definitely better than no speed work at all. There is a little bit of controversy as to whether or not there is much difference between speedwork on a treadmill vs. speed work on a track. Seems that most believe the biggest difference is the lack of wind resistance on a treadmill. To compensate for this you need to adjust the incline of your treadmill. The amount of incline depends on your pace. For example, if the treadmill MPH is set at 7.5 and the incline is set at 0%, the pace on the treadmill will read 8:00 min/mile. However, if you were outside you'd probably be running around an 8:20 min/mile. To account for the wind resistance, set the treadmill at a 1% incline and then your pace is more equivalent to a 7:59 min/mile out on a track. Hillrunner.com has a great chart that calculates all the equivalent paces by incline for you for from 0% all the way to a 10% incline.

A smaller camp doesn't think wind resistance really is a factor unless you're running faster than a 6:30 min/mile pace. Personally, on a really good day, I might be running a 6:30 min/mile pace, but even when I'm running at a 7:00, 7:30 or even an 8:00 pace on a treadmill at a 0% incline, it doesn't feel the same as running outside. I don't know exactly if it's due to wind resistance or just the often unnoticeable roll of the landscape, but I think running outside is not truly replicated on a treadmill at 0% incline. If you're just trying to get in 30-45 minutes of running and you're not worried about pace, then keeping the incline at 0% is perfectly fine. If you want more of a true "outside run" or you want your speed work to be more akin to your running on the track, I'd suggest upping the incline by at least 1%.

Some treadmill companies have gotten savvy to runners wanting to do intervals on treadmills and have added intervals to their program options. Some LifeFitness models have a program set up for intervals. You enter your jog speed and run speed. Then toggle between the two with the hit of a button. To me this is a little more akin to fartleks, but check it out, give it a try, and see what you think.

Go Green! Super Foods for Runners

I'm gearing up for my fall marathon training that starts in July. I've experienced some good marathon training and some not-so-good marathon training. I'm hoping this marathon will qualify me for Boston, so I want this to be a great training experience. I revealed in an earlier posting that I'm going to be using the FIRST marathon training plan, so I feel confident in my weekly workout plan. But I also want to feel just as confident in my nutrition training plan. As runners we all know about sports drinks, energy bars, and sports gels; not to mention shot bloks, chomps, and sports beans. But, what does Mother Nature have to offer? What does she provide (food-wise) that can prepare me, sustain me, and help me recover during my training and after the race?

If you've been reading the blog for any length of time, you know by now that once I have a question in my head, I have to do a little digging until I find some answers. Here's what I dug up on one of the best types of foods for runners.

Not only is "going green" great for the environment, it's great for the runner. I discovered that if it's green (unless it's that 2-month-old unrecognizable leftover in your fridge) it's good for you. It's really more than just good. For a runner, green fruits and vegetables are super foods. Green fruits/veggies are vitamin and nutrient-rich. They're also great sources of minerals, fiber, and anti-oxidants. In addition to these great things, green veggies contain chlorophyll (responsible for the green color). According to Rick Morris of RunningPlanet.com, chlorophyll helps increase the oxygen uptake in the body. This increased uptake of oxygen improves your endurance, recovery time, and energy levels.

Green fruits/veggies are also slightly alkaline. Morris further explains that "one of the causes of running fatigue is a rise in the acidity of your blood." Consuming green veggies on a regular basis can improve your performance by acting as a buffer to the increased acidity of your blood helping to keep fatigue at bay. Morris also says that phytochemicals in green fruits/veggies "help protect your cells from the oxidation caused by free radicals produced by strenuous training."

Great Green Fruits and Veggies to Add to Your Diet:

• Broccoli

• Spinach

• Kale

• Collard greens

• Romaine Lettuce

• Arugula

• Bok Choy

• Brussels Sprouts

• Celery

• Asparagus

• Cucumbers

• Zucchini

• Artichokes

• Okra
• Green Bell Peppers
• Cabbage
• Tomatillo (similar to a green tomato; often found in Mexican cuisines)
• Nopalitos (cactus pads; often found in Mexican cuisines)
• Avocado
• Kiwi
• Honeydew Melon
• Lime

How to eat all those greens? Simple, add them to a soup, make a salad, put them in a wrap, steam them, stir-fry them, eat em raw! The possibilities are endless.

And the Winner Is...

Congratulations to Heather Gannoe and her winning photo of RunnerDude's Funniest Running Photo Contest. Heather will soon receive a $50 REI gift certificate as her prize! Over 330 votes were cast in determining the winner. I'd like to thank all of the runners who submitted photos. They were all hilarious snapshots of the light side of running. I'd also like to thank all the blog readers who voted.

The popularity of the contests is drawing in some cool prizes for you the readers! Be on the lookout for RunnerDude's July contest! Brooks Running has been awesome and will be supplying the contest prizes. The winner will get his/her choice of one pair of Brooks running shoes and a Run Happy Mesh Cap. Plus the 1st and 2nd Runner-Ups will each receive a Run Happy Mesh Cap! Brooks rocks!

Friday Funnies To Clear the Training Blues

Sometimes when you're in a rut or your training is overwhelming you, a little humor can be just what you need. The following clips should lift your spirits.

Karl and Carl Underwood, The RunningSuperfans, are at it again with another hilarious running adventure.



I think this was me the first time I used a treadmill.


Okay admit it, how many of you have done this infront of the mirror? I'm thinking Pooh's honey pot may have been the original energy gel.