How do I stay consistent with ADHD while training alone?

I think that if you find a way too make running a more enjoyable activity it'll help motivate you to get out the door.

You can do this by logging runs on Strava and "competing" with other people.

Personally, I listen to podcast on many of my runs alone. I love basketball and listen to basketball podcasts. During the winter I watch games while on the treadmill.

Also, consider switching the schedule of your life. I switched my work hours and I now have the opportunity to run before/after work. This has allowed me to run more.

Yeah true, making it more enjoyable helps me stay consistent but for some reason it's only after I've already started being consistent. I listen to music on runs because I never manage to pay attention to podcasts, and I already have Strava because my previous team used it so I've already got all my friends added on it. But instead of doing anything helpful with it, I just periodically scroll through it at 3am and get jealous that everyone else is running while I'm not, but then it's 3am so running isn't an immediate option. Then later in the day when it is an option, I don't do it because some reason lol.

I might try switching my schedule since I'm not in school for a few months, so I can just be semi-nocturnal and then run early in the morning, since my main issue is forcing myself to get out of bed to run which won't be an issue if I'm not in bed lol. Thanks!

Find a running buddy. Never mind if they're slower than you, it would help get back to a committed routine. Even if you just do a short jog together - you go straight into your own thing when they stop. In fact if they're a beginner that could work out well. You'd be their mentor which would give you extra motivation.

Otherwise, a small tip is to set a time of day when you'll go out, but start thinking about it an hour before. Get mentally prepared, visualise what you'll do, think of the training benefit, etc. That definitely works for me.

This helped me with a lot of what you are describing…often the thing stopping me from getting out the door is thinking that the run is “too hard,” “too much of a burden” or is just somehow not doable. So instead of running I sit there feeling like I can’t muster up the strength to run for hours and I just feel worse and worse.

So what i started doing is just planning something that is SUPER easy…then 99 times out of 100 once I started I wanted to do more. So whatever that is…plan for 10 minutes a day. Or a 5 minute run per day…cause you know the biggest burden is just getting out the door. That way even if the day sucks and you just do the 5 minutes….you technically succeeded! And you’ll be encouraged to do it again the next day. And chances are you’ll feel good more times than not and have a great run. Best of luck.

Also, set up your running schedule based on what works not what seems like it should work.

Example, I work full time M-F and I like to long run Monday evening. I like to start the week with momentum, and I’m not doing anything else on Monday. I don’t run Saturday morning because I’m tired from the week and want to enjoy my morning, even though Saturday is often the most open day in my schedule. I just know I won’t usually workout on Saturday or Sunday because I’m catching up on things, seeing friends, and relaxing. I spent so long being frustrated with myself on the weekend because I “should’ve” been running since I had the time free…turns out I was just exhausted! Go east on yourself!

Also, I found for me the best time to run was later at night (right before dark) because everything was done for the day….I have a hard time getting out the door earlier even if I have time because I have other things mentally on my plate (work, house chores, etc.) and I found once that was all done I could “run free”

All the best to you.

stop being lazy. your "disease" is just an excuse. just run. maybe read david goggins or something if you need motivation.

I have ADHD and I am medicate which really really helps the running routine. However, I’ve realized it’s not so much the medicine as it is the routine and structure it allows me to build into my life. Also the other post about using strava/competition goals etc to make running more exciting is for sure relatable for me. I have never really liked running that much for someone who has done a whole hell of a lot of it UNLESS it’s in the context of something I find exciting like training for a championship or testing out my potential in a race. Being an adult with other responsibilities and past organized sports it can be hard to get that same excitement but I’ve found it fun to try new distances and training methods to get myself excited about the sport the way I used to be.

I also wanted to echo the idea about fitting your training to your life. Life is too short and none of us are fast enough to do training/feel bad about not doing training that makes us miserable. Need saturdays off? Take them off! Want to run after dark when everyone else is in bed? Do it! Need to skip a workout? Skip it! The guilt about not fitting your plan makes the whole thing harder than it has to be as an adult. This sport glorifies machine-like consistency but we’re all humans and some of us have ADHD and are actually more productive if we go with the flow of our brains than by fighting it.

Background: Not diagnosed until I was 28, believed the lie that ADHD was a made up disease so that tiger moms could for their kids to take study drugs. My own parents were too checked out to notice anything was wrong with me. I was pretty good (at running) in high school - inconsistent, but good enough to get a partial scholarship at a mid-major school. After a year or so in college, the wheels started coming off, not just athletically, but also academically and socially. Ended up with no degree and no PRs after my freshman track season.

After a couple years of kicking around, two arrests, working manual labor jobs, and some problematic drinking, I got back into running regularly, by which I mean maybe 30-50 miles a week, for a few weeks at a time at least. I'm back to the point where I can throw down at a local road race and outkick some yuppy Strava tryhards, which is all I really need out of running at this point anyway.

ANYWAY here's my advice:

Do everything by feel. You can still keep a watch to check your pace after the fact. The only time you really want to monitor your pace is if you are doing race-pace specific work or you are in an actual race. Surge in the middle of your long runs, take a break in the middle of your tempo, it doesn't matter, you know your body and how much work you need to put in. Running is a skill, not an effort.

If you feel like $hit, take the day off. If you feel like crap or poop, start your run of very slow.

Don't track your mileage I'm calendar weeks. Instead, approximate your volume by adding up how many miles you ran in the last 7 days.

Iglioi-style intervals. Daniels is for boomers.

Hydration: you are probably more dehydrated than you realize right now. Drink up, and get that potassium.

Do your hard workouts on days when you don't feel good. It will teach you to run hard when things aren't ideal.

If you notice that your fidgeting makes normies uncomfortable, then good, they deserve it.

One day at a time. I used to think that was a mantra for idiots, but it's true.

Yeah, I usually train with a few other people and then it's easy because I feel obligated to actually do it since I made an agreement with them, if that makes sense. I would be doing that right now but my semester just ended and it was only my first year of uni so I don't have an apartment in that city yet, so I had to go back to the city my parents live in. Only one of my teammates lives in this city, and she's out of town. My parents are insane and have control issues, so they only let me run this one specific 2-mile loop when I'm on my own, so I can't go meet up with anyone else somewhere or even run any routes other than the stupid loop, which might be part of my problem. Neither of my parents ever agrees to run/bike with me while I run, I've tried asking as a compromise to their weird control issues but they said no.

I actually do the thinking about running before actually trying to run bit, it does make me want to run but I keep doing it at like 3am and then waking up at like 6pm and not doing anything. I'll probably put reminders/alarms on my phone so I wake up in the morning and do it because it does actually work. Thanks!

Ohhh I haven't thought of that before but it seems like it would definitely help, since I keep trying to make other things work around running which isn't ideal. I'll try that, thanks!

Yeah all my wheels came off first semester of uni lol, I was going to do track since running with people kind of forces me to be accountable but I had to spend all my free time studying so I didn't literally get kicked out for having too low of a GPA. C'est la vie or something, I don't speak French.

I actually haven't heard most of that advice before so I'll definitely try that out (never even heard of Iglioi-style intervals before so that's interesting). The only thing I'm already on top of is hydration because Adderall makes my mouth dry as fu€k so I drink water constantly lol. Thanks!

Yeah definitely, I had the same thing with medication where it just made it so that I could get things done and didn't just automatically make me want to do them. For school that kind of worked, because the threat of failing out was enough motivation that once I had meds I could actually function lol. I just don't have that kind of threat with running so it doesn't happen as easily.

Going with the ADHD random flow actually sounds like it would help a lot, cause currently I keep going "oh I'll run at X time of day" and then it passes and I keep delaying X until it's too late to actually go run. So having it as "I'm going to run at some point today" would probably help eliminate the sense of "oops the planned time passed, so screw the entire plan" that I tend to get lol. Thanks!

Fun fact: David Goggins is diagnosed with ADHD. Tell the other trolls under your bridge that I said hi!

Regarding Iglioi intervals: you definitely don't want do do them every day, but workouts with a high volume of short reps are great for working on your form and running economy.

Also, I saw medication came up. Personally, I don't take it on race days, do that I can have caffeine instead. I find that caffeine is actually a stronger stimulant, purely in terms of boosting energy levels, than amphetamines. Plus there's less of a risk of dehydration. If I were playing a sport where hand eye coordination was important, it would probably be different.

I'm not sure how to apply this to running, but I actually already do this a lot with homework because it's one of the only strategies that's been consistently helpful for me. Thanks!

try going to therapy, brah

Yeah, the closest thing I've ever done to Iglioi intervals has been 24x200m in high school, but that was a fun workout and I always dropped time after doing it, so I'm definitely going to use Iglioi intervals more often now. Thanks!

I've had the opposite experience in that caffeine does absolutely nothing to me even in high amounts, while dextroamphetamine works really well. But yeah I don't take it before any kind of exercise including running, since my current dosage only lasts ~6 hours and I find it easier to focus on exercise without medication than on homework. Plus yeah, the dehydrated feeling from meds would suck while running.