burn-out/motivation!!!

Hey Guest,

Could be S.A.D. Do you run in daylight hours? Otherwise, perhaps you need a short break of a couple of days where you can concentrate on something other than running. That or immerse yourself in books, magazines, video's, etc. to get the motivation up again.

Whatever you decide, keep your stick on the ice and your head up high.

Monty

Thanks Monty.

I do normally run in daylight hours. Its weird though ever since I experienced my first burn out 5 years ago it seems to come back fairly easy. I quit for 8 months in 2000 and another 5 in 2002 and am/was feeling great like I said this fall. I believe I have the potential with running its just my head seems to get in the way

thanks again

I have problems with burn-out too. Things I've found to help:

a) New routes. Scenic if possible, especially trails; get off the road away from the traffic.

b) Don't do your workouts on the track... I measure out 1/4 miles on the road so I don't have to do the around and around and around thing.

c) better yet don't do any workouts. Just run.

d) eat good food. Don't let yourself eat garbage if possible that always makes you feel worse.

e) Get out there and think about how you're out running and the majority of the world is sitting on their ass and couldn't run half a mile, that always makes me feel good.

try running at different times of the day. say--try running late at night, its always fun. if you got nothin goin on wake up at like 3 a.m. and go for your run. then sleep the hell in and forget about running for the rest of the day. give yourself lots of variety. run with people, with music , etc.

Hey here is how I dealt with it... I murdered it. Burnout is in the mind to a large degree. Don't listen to it. I run the same trail pretty much everyday and it doesnt really bother me at all anymore. I have the goal that i want to accomplish and i will myself to run towards it every day. It may sound cliche, but if you are really excited about achieving it, it makes your runs a lot easier. Its like cheating almost. I have the mindset now that i want to train as hard as possible to be able to race as fast as possible. I have heard it before, but i really understand it now and have taken it to heart and it has really helped me a lot, especially keeping the tempo up...

Another thing that will kill it is when you are really feeling bad and have had a crappy run and are ready for it to be over, don't stop. Go atleast another mile. Tell yourself that you aren't gonna stop until your drned good and ready too! take that, ha! Seriously though, it really helps. It will be so much easier next time. Just stick with it though, it will pass and you will feel so much better if you ride it out and slay the beast of burnout... :)

I know what everyone says about finding new routes and spicing up your running and everything, but...

What really has worked for me at times when I've felt burnt or impending burnout is: Reducing the number of running routes.

When I lived near to where I used to go to college, I ended up running up ~80% of my weekly milage (between 65-120 miles/week at that time) around a trail loop of 2.3 miles. Sometimes I added on around the athletic fields and such too. Whenever I started feeling burnt I'd often notice that I had been running all over the place a lot, and by re-focusing upon that loop for most of my running, I'd feel better in a jiffy.

Now I live in a far different place, and I have miles and miles of trails around, and a lot of county roads and parks to run about. What is working best for me, however, is doing the majority of my runs over three different routes. A 13 mile course between work and home, a 3 mile dirt loop, and a 20+ mile meandering hilly dirt route for long runs.

I've been thinking about this a bit, and I have a few theories as to why this has worked for me.

1) By running the same small loop over and over again, I can become more in touch with the small variations in how my body is feeling, and thus react to them more promptly.

2) Maybe after doing the same same routes so much of the time, when I finally hit out on a new route it's much more of a refreshing treat.

3) Maybe trying to decide where to run every time I'd go out the door would take too much mental energy--maybe this is an big advantage of the Australian Complex Training system such as used by DeCastella... don't have to think too much about what you're going to do.

Well, I've lost my train of thought.

Maybe give it a try