When your desire to run is flagging and your warm duvet is beckoning, a great way to ensure you complete that training session is to agree to do it with a friend. Even if the other person is also suffering from motivation-deprivation, the mutual responsibility of agreeing to meet at a certain time on a certain day will keep you both on your toes, as neither of you want to let the other person down.
I enjoy running on my own and once I’m on route do not necessarily need the entertainment of a running partner to while away the time, but it is getting out the door in the first place which can be tricky, especially when it is dreary-looking outside and cosy inside, so having a plan to run with someone can be the stimulus I need to make sure I get out the door.
Another benefit of agreeing a run in advance with someone else is that my run is not ‘free time’ to be taken over or intruded upon by other activities and distractions, it is a commitment to be kept to like any other, a protected space in my diary when I will definitely run.
Your running friend does not need to be the same pace as you, as long as you have agreed to meet at the start you can go your own way and then come together at the end to congratulate each other on a job well done. I have even had successful ‘training dates’ with the other person on a bike or walking; it is the agreement to train together which benefits you both and boosts your motivation.
Other Recommended Reading
- Keep Running – Motivational Tip Number 1
- Keep Running – Motivational Tip 3
- Fun Run – Motivational Tip 8
- That couple that runs together – Motivational Tip 12
- Keep Running – Motivational Tip 4
About the author
I am a trained medical doctor and a writer specialising in health and medicine, fitness and outdoor sports and dreaming about becoming a novelist. I have been a runner for many years and have run-explored in places around the world including Paris, Barcelona, Lausanne, Porto, California, New York and North Carolina, to name a few. I also enjoy swimming, cycling, badly attempting sailing and other watersports, and thinking about doing a triathlon (whilst sitting comfortably at home drinking copius amounts of tea).
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