How to Get and Stay Motivated to Run

How to get and stay motivated to run:
    1.     Know your reason for running:  Everyone has a reason as to why they run.  Whether it be to run to lose weight, in honor/remembrance of someone, raise awareness/funds for an organization, stress relief, or just because you can.  Other reasons to run...  

The reason I run...

It's my way of carrying my cross daily.

Whatever your reason, know it and own it!  You’re much more likely to start and keep running if you have a reason to run.

   2.     Set Goals:  If you’re just starting out start with a small goal.  You want something achievable in a reasonable time frame so that you don’t burn out quickly.  If you’ve never run before maybe set your goal at a mile or 5k.  It’s ok to have long-term goals but make sure you have some short-term goals too.  My first year of running:  my short-term goal was to run regularly for 90 days and long term was to complete a half marathon.  After completing 5 half marathons my new long-term goal for this year is to survive a full marathon.

Staying Motivated:

  3.     Sign up for a race:  Sign up for a race shortly after you start running.  It’ll give you something to work towards.  I know when I don’t have a race on the horizon I start to lose motivation for running.  Races give me something fun to train for :)

  4.     Track your runs: I probably wouldn’t still be running today if I didn’t track my runs.  I like to see my daily, weekly, monthly and yearly stats.  Tracking my runs helps me see my progress and set goals.  There are several free apps and social networks out there to help you do this.  Here are a few that I use:

•   Daily Mile— www.dailymile.com  I sync my nikeplus to this but you can also manually enter in runs.  It is excellent for keeping up with weekly, monthly, and yearly mileage.  You can also easily track the mileage on your shoes and keep track of your race dates with this app.  I personally like to look at the lifetime stats to see the total miles I’ve run and the number of donuts burned haha  I share these results on twitter and my blog

•   Nikeplus—I use this app on my phone to track my runs 8 mile or less while running.  I love the maps and how it keeps track of my PRs.  It motivates me to move faster.  For my longer runs I still use Nikeplus but manually enter my runs using http://funplus.oliverzheng.com/.  This helps me preserve the battery life on my phone.  The only thing that stinks about manually entering runs is that it doesn’t track calories or convert my run to Nikefuel. This app is nice for tracking mileage on multiple pairs of shoes.  I share my Nikeplus runs on facebook. 

• EveryMove-- https://everymove.org/ This site converts all of your physical activities into points.  These points can be used for prizes (discounts, raise money for organizations).  Who doesn’t like prizes?

•  Walgreens Balance Rewards:  https://www.walgreens.com/steps/stepslanding.jsp If you frequently shop at this drug store and are familiar with their rewards card, you can now earn points for running.  You get 20 points for every mile you log.  5000 points equals a $5 reward :) You can also earn additional points for logging your weight.  All you need to get started is a Walgreens Balance Rewards card.

These are just the apps/sites I use.  There are a lot more out there.  So find the one the works for you and track your mileage :)

I post the majority of my stuff to facebook and twitter.  I'm not worried about annoying people on your newsfeed.  Here is how I think about it. hahaha

And last but not least...

5. Change it up:  Change up your running course.  Running the same route everyday can get tiresome and boring.  I prefer to run loops instead of out and backs so that I’m not running by the same things twice during the same run.  I have 2 5K loops, 2 10K loops, and an eleven mile loop that I interchange for my runs depending on the distance I want to go.  I have a 16 mile loop in mind for when I start training for my full marathon (and it conveniently has a cupcake shop at the half way point. Score!)

Ok and now for the fun part of this post...

The 2nd Annual Disney Ticket Giveaway!!! 
Just comment below on what motivates you to run and follow me on twitter.  Extra entries are given to those who tweet about this post. **** (This contest is open to everyone so if you haven’t started running yet no worries—I hope this post will provide some inspiration to you. In the meantime, simply show some love with a comment and/or follow on twitter)

This Giveaway is in perfect time for all of those runners out there looking for a ticket to Disneyland for the Dumbo Dare Challenge or any other runDisney event this year or spring of 2014. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Details:  The ticket expires 6/08/14 so it must be used before then!  Please only enter the contest if you’re certain you’ll be able to use the ticket by that date.  Also, please do NOT sale it for any reason.  If you can’t use the ticket, give it back to me :)  Mickey Mouse gives tickets to me for free so I’m not selling them and I don’t want you to either.  

There will be (2) winners.  Each will receive 1 Disney ticket that can be used at any of the following parks… Walt Disney World, Disneyland, CA, Hong Kong Disney, and Disneyland Paris.

Contest goes until June 4, 2013.  Winner will be announced on National Running Day June 5, 2013 so be sure to come back and check my blog then.  The winner will have 48 hrs to claim the ticket before it is forfeited.