Blog Goal

This blog contains more than 100,000 words. That’s a lot of writing! How do you go about tackling such a big project? You set intermediate goals and then set short-term goals to get you to those intermediate goals. You track your progress toward these shortterm goals, all the while reminding yourself of the long-term goal, and when necessary and appropriate, you review what you’ve done to remind yourself how far you’ve come. That’s the approach that I recommend for running as well. You need to set both shortterm and long-term goals, you need a way to track those goals, and you need to monitor how you’re progressing toward your goals, both to see whether they need to be revised and to remind yourself how far you’ve come.
For most runners, the ultimate long-term goal is to keep running for the rest of their lives. That’s a pretty heady goal, and one that’s hard to pin down. It’s certainly my ultimate goal, but it’s so vague that I can’t use it as my main source of motivation. I set goals for a given year, and then within that year I set intermediate goals of what to focus on for a few months at a time. Within those few months, I set even shorter-term goals to guide me through a week or so of running at a time. Along the way, I’m constantly assessing things to determine what adjustments I need to make.
Again, consider this blog. When I started to write it, I would have been lost if I would have said, “OK, I’m going to write more than 100,000 words about running. Let’s get going!” Instead, I looked at finishing each section as a goal unto itself and finishing each section of each chapter as an even more immediate goal. Along the way, I’d monitor how I was progressing. (Usually not as much as I’d like!) By plugging away like that, I was able to produce what you’re reading now. You probably take this approach with your work as well without even thinking about it.

Beyond the Basics

What I have to say in this section applies to all runners, whether you’ve made one trip around the block or have run so many miles that you could circle the globe. That said, I’m going to focus in this chapter on what I call “Phase Two” runners. By that I mean runners who have already successfully taken that hardest initial step, from inactivity to regular running. These runners have achieved that basic level of fitness. But having reached that, they might very well think, “What now?”
After all, when you’re new to running, you probably don’t always find the running itself easy, but keeping at it is in some ways easier because it’s so foreign to you. When you follow a moderate progression like the one I outlined previously, you can see gains almost from run to run. It’s hard not to be motivated when from week to week you see that you can run farther, that running is becoming easier, that you’re losing weight, feeling better, and so on. This period can be one of the most exciting times in your running life.
You know that you feel better than when you started running. But how do you keep at it? How do you make the leap to where you look at running as something that grounds, not interrupts, your day? How do you stay motivated?

Running Motivation

Ask runners who have been running for six months or more if they hope to run for the rest of their lives, and almost all of them are going to say yes. That’s the easy part—recognizing that your life is better because you run. What’s not so easy is knowing how to stay motivated enough along the way to keep running. Inertia is a mighty powerful force, and it can be tough to keep in mind how much better running makes you feel. So it can be difficult to resist that little voice that tells you that your life is hard enough as it is, so you just can’t deal with running this week. Then one week becomes two, then three, and then you’re way off track. In this section, I’ll show you some basic motivational strategies that I and other longtime runners use to keep ourselves on the road. If you get in the habit of using a few of the methods I tell you about here, not only will you want to run for the rest of your life, but you’ll be psychologically able to.

Running Here and There

The more convenient that you can make your running, the better. That’s why some busy runners try to combine it with other parts of their lives when possible. For example, you leave your car with the mechanic for repairs, and rather than bother a friend to follow you there, you run home. Or you spend a full day with the family at a mall or at a park and have your spouse drop you off a few miles from home on the return trip.

Obviously, these aren’t everyday solutions, but if your life is as busy as most people’s, it can help to always be thinking of ingenious ways to squeeze in runs or catch a quick-few. These out-of-the-ordinary jaunts are sometimes among the most fun.

A more routine example of this kind of thinking is running to and from work. My coauthor, Scott Douglas, used to do this when he lived a few miles from his office and really came to look forward to it. Scott would run home from work on, say, Monday night, lengthening the basic route by however much he wanted. When he got home, he enjoyed the feeling of being done with both work and running for the day. It didn’t hurt that his commute via foot didn’t take all that much more time than by car. The next morning, Scott would run to work. Knowing that your car is at the office is a pretty good incentive to get in a morning run! There, Scott would shower and change into the work clothes that he had brought in on the previous day. Sure sounds better than sitting in a traffic jam.

Tips for Weekend Jogging

You want to progress intelligently with your running. That usually doesn’t mean doing most of your running for the week on the consecutive days of the weekend. But that’s what you’ll see a lot of time-pressed runners do, figuring that they’ll trash themselves on Saturday and Sunday and then have the work week to recoup and do it all again the next weekend. That’s not a good approach unless one of your main goals as a runner is to get injured. Still, if it’s always a major effort to find the time to run during the work week, you can use the weekends to your advantage. Say you’re running four days a week. Have Saturday and Sunday be two of those days.

That means you only have to squeeze in two runs between Monday and Friday. Just be sure to plan intelligently. It’s usually best to do your weekend running in the mornings. You can still sleep in some, go for a nice run, enjoy breakfast with your family, and then have hours free for whatever else you want to do. One time-honored running tradition is to do the longest run of the week on the weekend. The runs before and after that longest run should be relatively short, easy runs. So you could go for a short run Saturday morning, still have almost the entire day for other activities, and then do your longest run for the week on Sunday morning. The short run on Saturday is just a warm-up to loosen you up for Sunday’s run. Or you could do your long run on Saturday and find a little time on Sunday for a short run that will help to work out the kinks from the previous day’s effort.

Tips for Night Jogging

Hit the roads after a stressful day, and by the end of the run, you start to entertain the possibility that perhaps your boss only seems to be the devil incarnate. Even if you feel tired from a long work day, you usually feel better after you’ve warmed up when you run in the evening than at any other time of the day. Getting out for some miles after work is also a wonderful way to separate your professional life from your personal life. Some runners swear by their late afternoon/ early evening runs even if they have already had a morning or noontime run. They get tremendous energy from this doubling.

But consistently getting in your runs after work can be tough if you’re not dedicated. You’re seldom going to get a call early in the morning from your boss asking you to come in two hours early, but the same isn’t true when it comes to staying late at the office. If you have a family, they might be in the reasonable, even endearing habit of wanting to spend time with you when you get home from work, rather than watch you dart out the door in your running shoes. There’s also the matter of holding up others’ mealtimes to consider.

Having someone to run with right after work can help mightily in sticking with it. It’s often easier to find running partners for the afternoon, when people tend to be congregated in fewer areas, than in the morning, when you’re scattered all over the place. Another solution is to start your run from your office. By the time you’ve finished your run, the traffic will be lighter, and you can go home and devote your entire attention to what’s waiting for you there.

Noon Jog

Another of the main when-to-run options is the middle of the day. When I was training for the 1976 Olympics, I was employed as a teacher. Running before and after school every day was starting to get to me, so I asked for and received permission to run during my lunch hour. This was a huge help. It broke up my work day, gave me a boost for the afternoon, and allowed me to get in a better quality workout than when I was continually dragging myself out of bed to run. (I’m not much of a morning person.) Running at lunchtime is also nice because, as with morning running, you have the post-work hours free to spend with family and friends. During the winter, running in the middle of the day often can be your only chance for any real sunlight until the weekends. This is also usually the warmest time of day in the winter. (It is in the summer, too, when it can be a good idea to look for a different time of day to run.)

The biggest problem you’re going to face as a noontime runner is logistics. Your employers might not see the value in you dashing out the door every day for a vigorous run, especially if they’re not exercisers and think that you’re going to spend the afternoon asleep at your desk. That’s why it’s a good idea to do what I did and discuss your desire to run at lunch with your boss. As you should with your family, explain why this time is important to you. (You could also hit them with the statistics that show that the fittest employees take the fewest number of sick days.)

You might need more than the standard time allotted for lunch in your company to get in your run. It’s not in your long-term best interest to sprint out the door at 12:01, return at 12:56 and be back, dressed, at your desk at 1:01. Account for the necessary pre- and post-run activities as you should when planning a run in the morning. Present your boss with a good plan, such as taking an extra 30 minutes in the middle of the day in exchange for arriving earlier or staying later.
After getting the thumbs up from your boss, you’re going to have to assess the surroundings.

The number of businesses that have showers on site is growing, but they’re still rare. Check for health clubs near your office at which you can stretch and shower afterward. If reasonable, this option is often a good one for helping to maintain your professional identity—you’ll leave and return to work in your office attire, rather than your coworkers seeing you in shorts and a T-shirt.

When there’s not an accessible shower, some runners towel off in the bathroom. This is a judgment call, based on your preferences, as well as the degree of formality of your office and the closeness of contact with your coworkers. Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be around some runners a couple of hours after they’ve run if they had yet to shower.