Suffering extreme lack of energy and motivation for running 😔

You're too deep in it, you deplete joy of running by immersing your mind in it far too frequently. You're stale from the choices you've made, like the little kid who eats a gallon of ice cream when mom and dad aren't looking and then gets sick.

One days when I don't feel it, I just go out for an easy run.

Sometimes it's just more important to get your butt out of the door than anything else.

Not every run has to be a "quality" workout.

Just listen to one of the masters of running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpafVq3OXUc

Then quit.

Find a new hobby.

You aren’t a pro. Running isn’t your job. If you hate it that much then don’t do it anymore.

Burned out. Take some time off.

Time for a rest. Do something else. You have huge mountains nearby. Do you ever go hiking or biking? Swimming in the rock pools?

Why would you do that after DNFing a race? Take some time to do some easy mileage. Cut back on the mileage. Get refreshed for a week or so.

I can’t keep saying it. Get a coach. Seriously.

I was going to write you a response, but man, I realized what a miserable

You can only get so far training by yourself without a coach and training partners. The reason your training is sucking is not because the gods of running have turned against you. It is because you do not have the self awareness to admit that you cannot coach yourself and train by yourself. Instead, you turn it into some sad drama about you against the world and try to hold a pity party. Well, guess what? You aren't special. We have all plateaued and had the experience of workouts being no more beneficial than pouring water over your head. And there are only two ways to deal with that. You can either be honest with yourself and find the help you need to break through or be honest with yourself that you really do not need to do this anymore and go by a set of golf clubs and move on. What you cannot do is use running as an excuse to be self destructive and make yourself out to be some sort of victim. For what it is worth, the vast majority of runners out there could only dream of running on your level. You know what Pre said about the gift.

Running just feels like a "chore." For example, I haven't done any tempo runs in a long time, and I get this nagging stress in my brain that I probably need to do a tempo run soon.

J-man,

I am you in 30 years. We are not exactly alike but i see some similarities. and like you, i have been going thru some stuff.

wondering if it is this social media influence or what.

there are times when i think i have lived a good life...but

i am not sure if i want to be responsible for influencing you or not.

but here goes.

my life currently sucks as bad as yours now. i have put my energy and passion into running - pretty much my whole life. the rewards are mostly intrinsic (i have won some money at races over the years, but as that has died out and races have become more expensive, i race less often) so the very thing that i strive for i do less and less. i still train. and have been dealing with an injury for a few years which had been tough....

but the real issue is - has it been worth it?

because i put my energy into running and didn't just quit like everyone else, i worked a job that allowed me to train...so i made less money.

well guess what - in American those with the money get the women. You know this already. So i have no kids, no wife, nothing. but i have running. it is worth it to go down this path. i think i have to say no. it is not.

the rewards of life are being able to share living it with others. i live alone.

i often think if i just didn't get up, would anyone miss me. not really. what i do as a job is rewarding but i can be replaced instantly without a mere hiccup. my family might miss me some but life goes on. i feel i am influening no one. i was coaching a few years ago and that was amazing. that was demaning and time consumning and exhausting but i loved it.

so i would say if you are feeling burned out - find some one.

a team to coach, a girl to love, someone to run with. don't follow me down this path

the longer you stay on this path the harder it will be to get off it. for example, i know now that to be happy i have to be coaching. but it get harder and harder to make that commitment. what if i end up coaching for a real dick of a head coach...most head coaches at local hs are such. it is a risk? but the older you get the less likely you are to take it or any risk. you become less likely to move, etc.

so instead i spill out coaching advise on this impersonal internet. not much of a life is it.

go get a real life - which includes people. and everything for you will change.

vcvcvc wrote:

because i put my energy into running and didn't just quit like everyone else, i worked a job that allowed me to train...so i made less money.

well guess what - in American those with the money get the women. You know this already. So i have no kids, no wife, nothing. but i have running. it is worth it to go down this path. i think i have to say no. it is not.

I'd be a lot more concerned about the lack of money than the lack of a wife and/or kids.

Is it worth it to go down that path if you can hold a job that pays a decent amount (not necessarily a high salary, just a middle-class income)? Yes, even if you never run a sub 6 mile.

Motivation’s been crappy for me as well lately. Drop mileage considerably for a couple weeks and just do easy runs. Don’t run on days you don’t feel like running. Eat food, go dink around with friends. It’ll come back.

It has for me, and unlike Jamin, I've never gone sub 15. The key to avoiding burnout is taking a few weeks off every year and having non-running hobbies:

have i not convinced you yet?

you don't believe i am real, do you. that someone could spend their whole life being a runner and be so unhappy/unfullfilled. well i am real. i do exist. i have run for 46 years. i have been an all-american, an national champion (on a relay), i did the ironman once, i competed in masters championships - and won. i am capable of setting world age records - and probably will soon once my injury passes....but for what? who the hell cares? if you don't have someone to share it with it is like a tree in the forest - no one hears it.

Become a coach or get a real job. go back to school if you have to, move if you need to, but do something. get off this path. i have already traveled it and it sucks. don't follow me. if only do one more good thing in this life - i hope it is to part with some knowledge to the next generation. to you.

CopperRunner wrote:

Motivation’s been crappy for me as well lately. Drop mileage considerably for a couple weeks and just do easy runs. Don’t run on days you don’t feel like running. Eat food, go dink around with friends. It’ll come back.

+1. There aren't many good meets at this time of the year anyway if you're not elite. Take some time off, build back the mileage in early fall, and set some PRs next winter and spring.

this isn't burnout.

i am a few minutes away from heading to the track to do a workout.

i am highly motivated. i run 75 miles a week, but will do more when fully recovered.

this isn't midlife crisis. i felt this way 20 years ago

this is an indictment of a way of life and living when you put running first. i mean really put it first. when you want to be not good, but great.

this is training and living like a Kenyan in America. and it is not worth it. if it were the only way to make it - then yes it would be. but in this country there are so many better ways to live. go find them.

i will stay on this path for the next 40 years because i am too far down the road to turn back. J-man is not. he can still have a life. a real life if he figures it out now.

look at all the successful and happy people in this sport, what to they do?

they start a web site for runners - like Wejo and bro

they write a book and coach - like Magill

they coach and teach - like Magness

they don't just keep running

remember how that old masters world record guy - forget his name, Whitlock - who ran for hours in a cemetery would take about his running. exactly like Jamin does. it is a chore. a bore. a task. a thing you do because you have nothing else. now there good days, don't get me wrong. hell there are great days when you are on top of the world. there are workout beyond what others would even believe you could do ( i once ran a 16 mile am run and came back in the afternoon for 24 more mile) for a 40 mile days. i once ran 30 miles in low 7:00 pace, followed that up with an evening track workout of 400 = slower than crap but amazingly did another 30 the next day- again in low to mid 7:00 pace. that felt great!!! but who cares. no one believe you in the first place so you can't go around sharing it with people. but for what purpose does it serve? it only have one purpose to be self serving. running in the forest without anyone to see or hear - is not a life.

get a real life, run if you want to j-man

but you have to have people around you

you are headed down the wrong path