Beating boredom while running

Find out how to revive your motivation

You love running. You’ve always scoffed at those who have commented ‘but running is so boring,’ thinking ‘they don’t understand’. But recently, it feels as if the enjoyment is slipping away. Running has become more of a chore than a pleasure, and you are finding it increasingly difficult to motivate yourself to get your trainers on. What’s going on? Well, unless you have reason to suspect that you are suffering from overtraining syndrome, the most likely diagnosis is plain old boredom.

You see, your relationship with running is a little like your relationship with your other half. To keep it from becoming stale and monotonous you need to do four things: appreciate what you’ve got, take stock regularly, add a little spice now and again and be prepared to change the focus of the relationship. A few ups and downs are inevitable, but the tips below should help you re-light the fire.

Remember why you fell in love
Running is the best form of exercise for keeping your heart, lungs and muscles in shape, for keeping excess body fat at bay and reducing your risk of many major diseases. It gives you time out, opens your social circle and gets you to places you’d never otherwise see. If you are no longer appreciating what you get from running, ask yourself why. Have you begun to take the myriad of benefits for granted? If so, remember you can’t store fitness, so a lifetime of running is only useful if it’s the lifetime that lies ahead. Perhaps you’ve taken the fun out of running by getting too obsessed with PBs and stopwatches. If that’s the case, ditch the watch for a fortnight and just go out there and remind yourself how great it feels to run – regardless of the outcome.

It helps to be more ‘present’ in your running. Boredom can set in pretty easily if you set off and switch immediately into autopilot. Try focusing on your breathing, or the sound of your footfall. Keep scanning your body to see if there are small ways you can improve your technique and running posture. Pull up taller from the hips, relax your jaw, loosen your shoulders…

Take stock of your running
Sometimes relationships seem to go downhill without us barely noticing. That’s why it’s important to sit down and take stock sometimes. Are you bored because you don’t seem to be making progress? If so, it may be time to sit down and re-assess your training regime.

Know the purpose of each session you do. If all your runs are 40 minute steady sessions, then you need to go back to the drawing board and learn the value of incorporating faster, shorter sessions and longer, slower ones as well as runs on different gradients and terrain.

Ring the changes to your running training
Just like a relationship where you always have Chinese takeaway on a Friday, go to Sainsbury’s on Saturday and your in-laws on Sunday, a running regime that repeats the same old pattern, week on week, soon becomes more of a rut than a routine.

And not only are you likely to become bored, you’re also limiting your potential to improve and increasing your chances of jacking it all in. A study from the University of Florida found that exercisers who had to do the same workout every time during the study period were significantly more likely to throw in the towel than those who were given different workouts to try. So how can you add variety to your running.

Finding a new route, a new training partner or a new running club can shake things up a little. If you are a morning runner, try a sunset outing, if you always run on the roads, go off-road or visit the athletics track. Even just run a favourite route in reverse.

Get a gadget. A report in the journal Physician and Sportsmedicine found that exercise-monitoring devices could help motivate people. A heart rate monitor (HRM), GPS device or a simple pedometer are worth considering.

Change your focus
If your annual running goal is the Flora London Marathon – pledge not to enter next year and concentrate on bettering your 5k time or doing an off-road race. Having a different training goal necessitates ringing the changes with your training, too. Look for something a little more exciting than your club’s 10k race to work towards. What about entering a multi-stage event? Or challenging club members to see who can tot up the entire mileage of the Pennine Way quickest? What about a Euro city marathon? Be inventive.

Alternatively, help someone else. Take the focus off your own running and help a friend take their first faltering steps successfully. The sense of satisfaction you’ll get – along with their newfound passion for the sport - will almost certainly get you motivated again.