Staying motivated when you want to stop

Sounds like you might be suffering from over training. Maybe take a few days off. It won't hurt, and it might make you feel better.

You might be right but I really am afraid to take any time off, only have 3 months and I don't want to lose any progress i've made.

You may be feeling flat or overtrained as a result of a lack of variety in your training program. Do you incorporate a nice mix of tempos, threshholds, strides, track work, etc...? Try adding a new stretching or core routine. Or just do a form of cross training rather than running this week. Or take some days off to reignite that passion for running.

Try finding people to run with that can push you. I find that running with good people helps a LOT with motivation, since you can kind of hold onto their coat tails and let them set the pace etc. Even if they're the same level as you, try finding other people

hey bro i was in the same situation as you this year. i'm finishing up my first year of college and went through the same spell of time where i just would not want to run. i made the mistake of just pushing through it and ended up out for seven weeks with injury. my first piece of advice is to listen to your body and take time off when you start feeling down. three months is plenty of time and taking a day off every once in a while will not hurt you in the long run. my second piece of advice is to find a group of people you can run with (already mentioned by another poster0). even if they are not doing the same types of threshold or tempo workouts that you may have planned, you can still do easy and long runs with them. it will definitely help you keep sane rather than spending so much time alone.

-watch WOW on flotrack before you go for a run
-go to road race this summer, make a friend, run with him
-reconnect w/ HS teamates, run with them
-find new trails to run on
-if you run on roads every day, run on trails

This doesn't work if you are injured, but in such instances, I usually find that I don't know if the urge to stop has real meaning until the second or third mile.

If things still feel bad, change the workout mid-course. Find a more interesting/new route, cut the workout short with a slightly? changed pace.

Your last two sentences are the key. You do need to carefully look at your priorities/motivations. Do you really want to walk on? Is this something you could do during your second year after you have taken the pressure off yourself/built a better base/adjusted to college life?

Whatever you decide, your running should be the source of positive feelings, not negative ones.

Sometimes you really are tired and probably should be on the conservative side. Sometimes your mind is just messing with you. Lorraine Moller used to pick it up whenever she felt flat (in a workout or a race) as a method of overcoming the feeling. Give it a try, you might surprise yourself.

Speak of the devil...

Just got back from my "run." About forty seconds into it, I felt like quitting. Altered my course and did a warm-up mile in a little cemetary close to the house. Felt "good" enough to try to continue. I wound up struggling again, so I changed routes and headed up to a park. Wound up doing some 60-90 surges, took a break to look at some migratory songbirds, then headed home. Wound up going for ten minutes longer than I had anticipated and feel pretty good that I was able to take my own advice.

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hmmyeah wrote:

I know that people will just don't be soft and if I feel this way than I'm not cut out to be a runner. However, i'm an 18 year old runner that just finished my freshman year of college, I've been training this year and will continue during the summer until mid August when I will try to walk on to my college xc team.
I am just wondering if anyone has advice for keeping motivated for running. More specifically, I almost always have to run by myself and while I do try to be better, there are just certain days when the minute I get out of the door, I feel tired and want to stop after maybe half a mile into a 10 mile run. I am just wondering how people cope with this/what they think about/or even what they physically do to just feel better during these runs.
Sorry, I realize this is pretty vague, but any help would be appreciated. Although I want to be good, sometimes I just think what's the point? I am training so hard just to be a walk on runner and I'm not sure if it is worth it.

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hmmyeah wrote:

You might be right but I really am afraid to take any time off, only have 3 months and I don't want to lose any progress i've made.

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It sounds like overtraining. The best thing you can do for yourself is to take a day off every week and cross train on the bike. Are you doubling? Take those doubles and turn them into singles. Are you running on a lot of hills? Those can be taxing if you do that every single day.

What is your mileage like? Running 80 miles this week? Cut it in half and you've got forty. I've been where you are now a couple times before. It will only get worse, and guess what? Your body always wins.

Symptoms of overtraining: lack of motivation, trouble sleeping at night, unexplained weight gain, fatigue that seems to linger days after a workout, feeling tired even after warming up. If you keep running with it and trying to push through all those miles you will eventually get slower as well. That will ruin your chances of walking on the team. You need rest. Accept it.

If you just need absolute proof that it's not overtraining then go get a ferritin blood test. I bet you it's low. Iron is different from ferritin p.s. Your iron levels can be high but that doesn't always mean your ferritin is going to be high as well. This is one of the best indicators that you are indeed running yourself into the ground.

it's more likely mental than overtraining - hard to fix. Everyone is different. I like to go find a new place and run for 2 hours in it - just to shake things up.

I think you could be right agip. I don't think I have been training so hard that I should be burnt out. I'll just try to look for some new trails/roads I suppose for now, not sure.

Think of a great race you had and the good feeling you had after it. Try and replay the race in your head on the run (without the blistering pace) and just enjoy it. Also music can help you get you through a tough run.

I echo that replay race idea. There are sometimes where I'm in the middle of some tough intervals and I just want to say "f*** it" and go home, order a massive pizza and watch like three movies in a row, and sell all my shit on eBay.

Then I remember a race that I won that took place during a festival in the downtown section of the town I live in. A thousand people lined the streets near the finish and it was LOUD. Yeah, I'm not elite, but that moment was pretty good...and I had no trouble getting out the door the next day because I was still on an emotional high. You've got to remember the good times to keep going.

I also echo bringing an iPod to run with. Some snobs here will hate on you for acting like a noob, but there is nothing wrong with doing some 8:00 paced runs once in awhile and genuinely enjoying what you do.

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agip wrote:

it's more likely mental than overtraining - hard to fix. Everyone is different. I like to go find a new place and run for 2 hours in it - just to shake things up.

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Train easier on the easy days. You will soon feel the difference. Take each day as it comes and enjoy your running more.

And find other things to do that make you happy, maybe with other people involved. Don't obsess about your running.