A fun running training session

Fun running training is the subject of this post. When you talk to your friends, you’ll understand that the most important results don’t come from completing a difficult or long training session. On the contrary, success is the result of constancy and continuity in training. 

Something that is not always easy, basically for two reasons:

1. Injuries must be avoided
2. You have to constantly find the motivation.

1. Where to find motivation

The part related to motivation is probably the most difficult to manage. There may be many reasons for this, but it is clear that everyone is different and not everyone is naturally predisposed to successful self-motivation. 

So how do you stay motivated day in and day out?

It sounds like a silly answer, but in addition to organizing workouts so that they are stimulating from a metabolic, muscular and mental point of view, it is very important that they are also fun. That’s right. It is not true that running is boring and repetitive or that hard training is necessarily just fatigue and “suffering”.

2. Fun training

Much of the fun comes from the variability of the stimuli. This is true in life in general, but even more so in training: it is essential to be as less repetitive as possible. The problem is that many times when you run you tend to be monotonous, choosing the same routes and committing to paces and distances that are always very similar to each other.

Thus, over time, you reach a plateau in performance: the body adapts to this type of effort and no longer obtains effective benefits. 

Therefore, after having understood and studied one’s own characteristics, the first objective must be to adopt a complete and stimulating training system that improves performance from all points of view.

In what way?

On a muscular level with a running workout aimed at increasing strength. Technique and speed to improve thrust, support and frequency. Finally, longer runs to increase endurance and the ability to burn fat as a source of energy. Simply put, over the course of a month, there should never be one week the same as another.

3. Variability

Varying the stimuli means varying the work, duration and distance covered in each workout. By acquiring new stimuli and discovering different sensations, you won’t run the risk of getting bored. If the week is not monotonous, the motivation and the will to train with continuity will remain constant over time. Therefore, consistency will make the difference with respect to the others.

4. With or without a coach?

Of course, what we have written seems perfect to us if we have a coach behind us. And in fact, the option of having a coach follow you is definitely an advantage. If we find it difficult to get help from within, it can be helpful to get help from outside. But not everyone chooses the help of a professional. 

How to manage independently?

The biggest difficulty lies in having the enthusiasm to start training every time. We know well that at the end of the workout we will feel satisfied thanks to the production of endorphins, but before we start, we bring with us the tiredness of a day’s work, the stress and perhaps the discomfort of a climate that is not always pleasant.

This is where motivation must take over: it must be the lever that every day makes us take that first step that makes the difference between a great workout and an anonymous afternoon spent on the couch complaining about a bad day or, even worse, ruminating on the fact that we didn’t have the strength to go for a run. 

So many small daily first steps will make all the difference at the end of the year. 

Running for us is not and should not become a job, so the ability to finish workouts will be much stronger the more fun we have and the more gratification we get from the results.

A concrete piece of advice is to always try to put before different routes that can stimulate curiosity and above all distract us: in this way the brain’s attention will shift from effort to observation of the environment.

Training with positive and cheerful people is another key tip. Especially if we do not have a goal that pushes us to train, going out in company will allow us to share the commitment and effort and, above all, it will force us to have a specific time and a specific appointment that we cannot miss.  

These are just a few tricks and stratagems to exercise automatically and that help, day after day, to overcome the initial resistance that, on the contrary, would lead us to get bored on a sofa.

For all running products try Deporvillage.

Stefano Francescutti