I have been thinking about why I put in for races over the last week.
I have had a week of highs and lows with my running. I have two deadlines looming, one for a 2.5km swim on 17th April and one for my first HM on 10 May. Last week I was struggling with my runs and this week I conquered my first ever 17km.
Last year I was not even able to run 5km, I had graduated and was stuck. I was training for a sprint triathlon but I didn't need to run further than 5km and it was stressing me out so much that I could not manage it.
The reason for the post is I am a carrot sort of person, I honestly believe that without putting myself forward for things that are a little out of my reach I would not push myself. I love the training but like a lot of us on here have massive wobbles before an event, I always wonder if entering races are worth the stress I put myself under. I come to the conclusion they must be because as soon as I finish one I am not truly happy until I have another one booked.
It made me wonder what is your biggest driving force to get out the door. What makes you lace up and run? This includes all our new runners as well going through the program.
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Realfoodieclub
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I think it's good to share these sorts of insecurities, as then at least it feels like we're not alone in having them. I can't imagine the nerves involved in entering a competition yet, but I can talk from my experience of doing couch to 5k.
My drive is partly in fulfilling a routine, a personal commitment to follow the 3 runs a week of couch to 5k, a sort of superstition that a missed run could undo previous hard work. I also remind mysefl about the other things I try to commit myself to (healthy eating, early nights, less alcohol, better routines in my general daily life), and sort of berate myself for not sticking to all those things, so at the very least I need to stick to the running!
This all sounds like I'm a bit hard on myself... I also look forward to being outside with fresh air and wildlife, so there's a positive in there too
for me initially it was about the program , C25K in 9 weeks . After stopping smoking and deciding to make some positive changes in my life .. after completing it in the 9 weeks I had become addicted ,probably replacing the smoking addiction, I loved how it made me feel and what I could achieve ..
My 3 weekly runs became just part of normal life .. wanting to be better , fitter and stronger is what drives me , being part of a virtual running family and doing parkrun is such a wonderful thing
the more you do the more you want to do
being on the Ic is so frustrating I want to be out there doing what I do maybe that is the difference now I don't want to be sat on the couch being mr potato !!
Turning 40 this year and I seem to be going through a mid life crisis lol. Im on week 8 of c25k but ive booked in 1x 3k, 3x 5k, 2x 10k, a marathon, a 13 mile trek, an abseil and a tandem parachute jump.
Knowing I have stuff booked in and charities to raise money for and people supporting me really makes me get out the door and go running
Great post RFC.... And I am so similar to you, there has to be a nice carrot ( or cream egg!) dangling to keep me on track! I get out of the door for so many reasons, here are my top ones:
To be running strong and free surrounded by nature/ outdoors
For the endorphins....my high lasts all day after a run
I love the smell of salty sweat in the shower ( yes I know that's random!)
I am making my body stronger, more powerful and giving it longevity
I love going to bed with achy, tired legs- I hate going to bed and not feeling like I have worked my body in the day
Bit random really, but if I were to do a route cause analysis, these are my reasons!!
A year ago this week I gained a little weight, I remember the dates because it was just before my birthday.
In the preceding year, I had lost 24kg (nearly 4 stones) and was horribly underweight thanks to bowel cancer.
Despite there being no tangible improvement visible in my scans at that point, that little weight gain convinced me that I was over the worst and right then and there, I resolved that, come what may, the way I lived my life was going to be very different to how it was before.
I haven't actually been able to do that much in the way of running so far but motivation hasn't been (and will not be) a problem.
The same thought entered my head after standingat the starting line on Sunday and sweating thinking what am I doing it's too hot to run outside today.
I started c25k to lose weight now I know that just doing this is not enough.
Also I wanted to get up on Saturday morning or Sunday morning and run like all the people I saw - thinking they ran all this way- how amazing would it be to say I could do that.
Plus I couldn't join a gym with moving to a new country in 2014 and settling in took a while so c25k fitted in perfectly.
While I was adjusting to being in chile and everyday having great running conditions (apart form jan-March far too hot) it has been a great distraction when I feel home sick, helped with stress etc.
Now I run because I know if I dont I will slide down a slope and end up back to square one, all my hard work and sweat will all be wasted. I also love all my running gear and I can't bare to have it look at me and not use it - the guilt will be too much! So as I have enough running gear to last me until the end of time I have to keep going.
Hello. Newbie here. I've just finished week 5 (C25k). For me, the motivation is the program and the drive to complete it. I'm the sort of person that will come up with every excuse under the sun but I've really surprised myself (and everyone who knows me!) on this program. I've followed it religiously and I know I will complete it, I'm on a mission! The feeling I get after each run is phenomenal (and yesterday I pretty much burst into tears with pride after running for 20 minutes!) I don't know what I will be like once I've completed C25k, but I think I'll need another program, if left to my own devices then I'm not sure I'd do anything. Signing up to events/races is a good idea and something to work towards, a good motivator. I’ve just had a look online and there are some 5k races coming up near me once I’ve completed the program so I’m going to sign myself up to them so I am motivated to keep going! Hopefully the high I get after a run will be the main motivator to stick at it in the future - plus the increased energy levels and happiness I’m experiencing from becoming a runner! I do struggle though sometimes getting myself out there, but the reward is always worth it a million times.
Grat post RFC I too do need the carrot - and my carrot is called Manaslu... not the race, just a long 3 or 4 week trek
I started C25K after realizing that if I want to go back to Nepal and do that I need to be fit and much lighter (to get an idea of how steep those hills are, these are pic of an "easy" trek flickr.com/photos/sivask/se... )
Signing for a HM taking place on the 3rd of May came naturally just by reading posts on here! I still haven't run longer than 8 k - cause a forced pause of 2 months - but this at the moment is what motivates me to lace up and get out.
After not running for the 2 months I also realized how much my mood is affected by it - it's the last but not least ingredient added to my recipe for real happiness - and that is the biggest motivator of all!
Number 1 reason is my dog! She needs the exercise and the stimulation and I often feel that I might as well run as walk.
Sometimes it is the thought that I have reached the point where not ticking off a run is going to be more burdensome than getting it over with (Of course the resulting run frequently feels way more positive than just 'getting it over with)
Keeping a lid on my weight and reducing my health risks - I have a son who will need looking after into adulthood, and my husband is overweight and doesn't do enough exercise (because he is focused on providing for us) so I feel an additional push to be as fit and functional as possible. I also feel a moral responsibility to the rest of the population - honestly! My professional and voluntary background is in health promotion so I feel a sense of responsibility from that too
A finger up to those (quite eminent) people who think that people like me are just deconditioned physically or have unhelpful patterns of thinking and would recover if I undertook a graded activity programme. I always believed they were wrong, now I have proved it. (C25K is brilliant but it is not a cure or even management strategy for this particular health problem)
Rejoicing that I can do it - it seems crazy sometimes when I am tucked up in bed most of the day unable to work or even maintain a basic level of housekeeping but I find it more helpful to just delight in what I can do and trust that I will do more when I can. It gives me some sense of normality too.
Curiosity - going places, looking at views, listening to birdsong.
Initially, I wanted to get some exercise to help with my weight loss.
The difficulty of my first run persuaded me that I needed to do this for my health - I was astonished at how unfit I had become.
Some time during the program, about wk5 or wk6 I suddenly realised I was actively looking forward to the next run - not just the elation once I'd finished.
I started Park Run in week 6 to keep me focussed.
Now that I've graduated I've just started to use the C25K tapes and I am excited to see what I can achieve next - I think my best motivation is that I enjoy it - even when it's miserably rainy or I'm really tired, I'm keen to go and see what I can do
Perhaps it's the journey of discovery I've embarked upon which is my real motivation
I met a man today while out on a hike with the dog. He was hurt and bleeding after being knocked from his bike. He told me about his wife being diagnosed with cancer yesterday. I replied that yesterday my husband got the all clear from cancer. My husband doesn't exercise. He said his wife didn't either, and she said that working up a sweat on a walk was bad for her so she refused to walk far. It made us more determined to keep up with our exercise, and not to stop while ever we could manage to put one foot in front of the other, run or pedal a bike.
I felt better about the weekend to come than he did. 😕
I'm so glad I can run now, and my motivation for turning out is to keep fit into old age
Miss W - I hadn't realised your husband was battling cancer. That is such fabulous news about the all clear. You most both be so happy. Wishing you both a long and very happy (and fit!) life together xx
for me it was completing the programme and seeing it all ticked off on the app run by run. Then when I graduated last week I thought I would need something to work towards - I am also a carrot kind of person, however this week I just enjoyed my run without any pressure. I am thinking about a park run and a Race for Life or colour runs and am just trying to work out which to do, all of mine are in the summer so I was looking for something a little bit closer. So I think this week it is about enjoyment - a time to switch off and just run
In the beginning it was a combination of wanting to lose weight having not been able to exercise for ages and pure and simple jealousy. Jealous that my partner could run and I "couldn't" and jealous of all the much fitter girls with better bodies and bouncy ponytails that I'd see gazelle-ing around town. Eventually it came to a head in my mind and I set out to prove that I can, although I've accepted that I'm never going to look like a gazelle - more like a Shetland pony - at 4'11.5" with legs like a rugby player, but I do have a bouncy ponytail so that's fine lol!
I'm not very competitive though so I don't really want to enter any races in the same way that I make cakes for a living but don't have any desire at all to enter into the competition side of that either. My motivation to get out there now (or to the gym as it is at the moment) is to stay fit and healthy, and build bone strength having had a not so positive bone density scan that showed I'm on the road to osteoporosis.
Thanks RFC, this is something I have been considering recently. I started C25K really for something to do, and a physical activity to stop myself being welded to the couch whilst waiting for the redundancy axe to fall. It has helped me mentally and physically, I like to have goals - sometimes, and I am tenacious, but where now? What sort of 'runner' do I want to be?
My neighbours regularly run marathons and half marathons, do I want to do that? No, I don't think so, I was looking for some activity that I could do in about 1/2 to 1 hour a couple or so times a week, that was also not too expensive. It had to be near home too, as the thought of having to drive somewhere would make it easy to whimp out.
The overall wellbeing and better physical shape I have now is great, I love being out in the open air, I love the buzz you get after a run. And just feeling alive. That is what motivates me to go out the door.
I now do my local park run regularly - yes, I have to drive to it, but hubby now runs too, so we motivate each other. I get my runs done in about an hour 'ish' for the long ones - aiming for 10k at the moment, for my 'official' races I will stick to 5 and 10k, 'social' running as a friend calls it. I am very happy with what C25k has given me, I'm very happy to be rocking along, albeit slowly, I will never be a gazelle, but a Weeble? (Weebles wobble but they don't fall down 😉) yes sir (never mind the mud face plant!)
It's nice to have the 'races' to aim for, help to keep the running focused, and invariably they help some good causes, so right now that's me, 5 to 10k Madge 😃. Happy days!
I'm very goal oriented, so over the last 13 months since I started c25k, I have set myself several goals and have been ticking them off one by one. It feels great to achieve a goal and do something that previously I thought would be impossible.
The downside of being goal driven is that it's easy to go overboard. I tend to become a bit too obsessed, and eventually I end up paying the price for it.
So right now today the motivation is simply to be out there, enjoying the sunshine, enjoying the ability to run and the amazing feeling when you stop running and walk the last 5 minutes.
I am a bit like you and have now done two "races" which I had signed up for well in advance as a means of maintaining motivation. After, my 10K race of last Saturday, I had agreed to spend the next week at my sons house to help him with a bit of house painting. I decided after the race that I would give running a rest for the week and left my running gear at home. I am glad that I did so as this painting is turning out to be quite strenuous and tiring,
However, I feel that I have now fairly well incorporated running into my daily life and am looking forward to increasing the numbers of days that I run to 5 per week (all to be done at an easy pace) until I am running 40 klms per week. This is my goal for the next few months and I will not be putting any pace "expectations"upon myself (Which seems to happen to me when I am traing for a specific race). It feels quite refreshing to forget about pace for a while.
Just remember that while it is good to set goals and then to chase them, it can lead to "burnout"of a different kind!!!!!!!
My parents: my dad recently ran a 10 miler in 1:39 and my mum ran the GSR in 2013 in about 2 hours. That was the shot in the arm really. I am not letting my mum do the run and not me!!
At the beginning of the programme it was to complete it and get fit. Now it's about pure pleasure as I love running. But also I want a medal and so that is what is pushing me for a race in May!
I started C25k as I didn't want to be waiting on the sidelines all the time whilst my hubbie and kids were running. Now, not only do we have a fabulous family hobby but I feel fab. Having some time to myself 3 times a week is super precious. Historically, I often felt like my lungs were tiny now I love that feeling of filling my lungs with fresh air and covering a great distance. That sense of achievement and enjoying my rural area so regularly just can't be beaten.
What a wonderful thread - so much inspiring and moving writing.
It's interesting to see such a range of motivations and I can relate to a lot of them (Wristy, my father's 10k PB is a terrifying 36.03!).
For me, one of my principal motivations in running and getting fit is actually getting rid of motivations and being able to focus more on what is most important to me - the enjoyment of running as a sport.
Within a couple of months, I will have lost sufficient weight that I will no longer be able to say I'm running to lose weight and, given that I should be up to 40+k a week, I won't really be able to say I'm running to "get fit" - I will, to all intents and purposes *be* fit. Already, I do sufficient exercise on my non-running days ( 3x45mins callisthenics) to meet a government target for exercise, so my runs are all "extra" as it were.
I plan to run some 10k races over the next couple of months, a HM in the autumn and something longer next year, partly for the fun of racing and the challenge of long distance but also to strip away the idea that i'm "training" for something - my weekly runs might look like training - I mix up different distances, speeds and workouts but I try and stay far less focused on my future athletic goals and more on the joy of running in the moment - the process being far more important than the product.
PBs and races are great motivation and I look forward to them but not as much as I visualise one single, specific idea - the of being able to jump on the tube to the other side of London and run home, 10-12-15 miles through my city, at a pace that is both challenging and comfortable, for fun and just because I can.
Apologies if this seems a bit pretentious but I do really like running.
I started for a couple of reasons. I saw people running and thought 'I'd love to be able to do that' and also because I lost a lot of weight and need to tone up plus getting fit,
Now it's about all those things but also because I love just being able to exercise as soon as I leave the house and I get to be outdoors and in the fabulous fresh air.
I run because I like life better when I run - it keeps me vaguely sane.
I run because it helps me to fall in love with where I live again and again, in all seasons and all sorts of weather. It builds a relationship with landscape in a really unique and lovely way.
I run because I have a horrible competitive streak and it pleases me to know I can go further and faster than other people.
I run because I love feeling capable and strong; it gives me real respect for my body and what it can do, and I love how alive I feel when I push my body - you can feel how much it wants to be living, moving, working.
I run because I want to be Joss Naylor when I grow up.
I run to make time for myself, and to listen to music, and think (or not think) without distractions.
I needed something to help lose weight and joined a gym. Then I discovered c25k and despite hating cardio I started running to get a bit fitter. Unfortunately I am persistent and I stuck it out long enough to get the endorphin kick. Now I'm hooked. I look forward to running three times a week. Last week I was gutted when I had to work and missed a Parkrun. Now I've cracked the 30 minute 5k. I'm not sure where it's going. I want to be able to run 5k without it being a big thing (getting closer) and maybe run a 10k.
I run because I of a promise I made to Brody my grandson.
In May 2013 3yr old Brody asked me why I couldn't run a race with him.He had been diagnosed with Leukaemia, was getting intense daily chemo and was 6 mths into his 3 year treatment plan. Me - I was overweight and basically feeling sorry for myself for various reasons. I promised him I would run the same 1 mile race the following year - and I did. This May I will be doing my first HM ( who would have thought!) but more importantly will again be running that 1 mile race with Brody and his sister Jessie. Like everyone else I have times when find it hard to get out the door but once out there I love it Running keeps me sane. Anyway Coach Brody is always telling me I have to keep practising if I want to get faster!
My main motivation is the fact that for 30 minutes, three times per week, I can stop thinking and worrying and planning and and and... During my runs I can concentrate on myself, get to know me better, reflect on and develop my personality - if I manage to get a bit fitter too whilst doing these things, that would be a welcome bonus
I have no clue. There are times when I don't like the act of running. I'm too hot and uncomfortable, my flab is wobbling uncomfortably, I'm sweating disgustingly, my joints ache, I'm slow, I wheeze and gasp and sob for breath, my feet thump down on the ground and basically I'm not having a good time. I've spent a hell of a lot of money, not just on running gear but on extra chiropractor's appointments. I've been out with injuries for longer than I care to think about. I must look absurd - an overweight middle-aged woman plodding around in skin-tight, sweaty Lycra.
Aaaand... (still with me? ) in three week's time I'll have been running for 3 years. I don't go far, or fast. It's the only form of exercise I've ever managed to stick to. I do it for me. It's toned me up and given me great thighs, even though I'm still overweight. I love running tourism and plan my hotels around 'where can I run?'. I love being out and being able to put my troubles to the back of my mind. Quite often, my running is my thinking time and I can come back with a solution to a problem. There's something very meditative about running, for me, and something even better in that I only do it for me. I don't give a stuff what I look like or what other people think. Someone jeered a while ago and I told him, 'If you can't do better, STFU. If you can, come and coach me!' (Needless to say, he didn't have a response) I love this forum because it's full of the most supportive people who all started from the same place, and who just get it!
So what makes me lace up and run? Um... selfishness?
I just do it. I've always done some kind of exercise 3 - 4 times a week, at the moment it's running, in the past it's been walking, swimming, dancing etc...At the moment I'm enjoying running, seeing things from a different perspective, learning more about where I live, enjoying the changing seasons...I just plan my runs - say Mon Thurs Sat, and I just go and do them. That said, I'm not competitive in a any way, and if I ever start thinking about a race I remind myself of those nerves, I just can't/won't deal with them. No disrespect to those who do, you all amaze me, but it's just not for me.
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