When Races Don't Go as Planned: How to Stay Motivated and Keep Running

If you have another runDisney race coming up but your last one didn’t go as planned and you’re looking for motivation tactics to prepare for your next one, keep reading.

In this article:

1. Motivation tips from runners

2. Signing up for races

3. When that doesn’t work

4. Training Motivation

Motivation tips from runners

There are many ways to stay motivated. If you ask on social media (and I did) you’ll get a wide variety of answers. Some of which includes:

1. Listen to audiobooks/podcasts

2. Good playlists

3. Think about those who can’t run and be thankful I can

4. Sign up for races

5. For their health

6. Discipline > motivation

7. Schedule it & stick to it

8. Create a run streak

9. Run with friends or running groups

Signing up for races

And honestly many of those are pretty good.

I made a killer playlist to keep me motivated while I’m running. And I listen to audiobooks or podcasts because I enjoy those and I think my best when I’m walking or running so listening to something I can learn from is especially beneficial at that time. I also sign up for races to stay motivated… but that’s more to get me started.

See I go in seasons of running. I take time off from running at various times of the year, I go back to running at other seasons. And it’s usually weather related. I live in Las Vegas so the heat of the Summer isn’t the time for me to be running long distances. But, I also have cold-induced asthma so if I run outside in too cold weather then I can’t breathe well… so Winter also isn’t a good time for me to run outside. So long distance running usually happens in the Fall and Spring for me. I do love the treadmill, but I find I max out at about 4ish miles so I’ll do up to that amount in the Summer or Winter.

I find that scheduling the run doesn’t necessarily work for motivation because I can just ignore the scheduled run… it almost becomes white noise on my calendar and I eventually tune it out.

In college I used to think keeping a run streak (or gym streak) going kept me motivated. I used to think I needed to have the routine of going to the gym, or going for a run daily would keep me motivated to keep going. And at that time I mostly focused on what my body looked like and the numbers on the scale (I since ignore the numbers on the scale, mostly ignore what my body looks like and focus mainly on how my body feels), and I used to find myself thinking “I skipped the gym today and the scale didn’t change, or my pants still fit… so what’s wrong with doing that a few days in a row?” And when I thought those things that’s when I thought I needed to go daily so I didn’t start that thought process.

Though, as time has gone on, the daily streak that I did in college wasn’t a fit for my life anymore. So I needed something else to stay motivated. And I still went in waves… I’d enjoy running for a few weeks then I’d miss a few runs, and have to start all over again. When I met my now husband he trained for triathlons and I enjoyed running so we signed up for my first half marathon for us to do something together. I felt like that was a good motivator to stay consistent with running.

And that’s where signing up for a race became the first motivator for me. I’m also very injury averse, and being a physical therapist I know that staying consistent helps reduce injuries. So all those things helped me.

When that doesn’t work

But, what about when you do all of those things… you make the playlist, you schedule it, you have the discipline… but things still happen and you find yourself missing runs?

Some runners struggle with this after having an ache or a pain that makes them take a break from running for a week or so and they have a tough time getting back into it. Or some love it for a while and then just fall out of love with it for a bit and come back to it a few months later.

But, why?

If they do all the things… Why does motivation wane?

The #1 reason that I’ve found that hinders motivation to run is an unsuitable training plan.

Yes, you read that right… the training plan could be sabotaging your running motivation.

Think about it…

If your training is so intense that your lungs and miles are on fire every run, are you going to want to get back out there and do that over and over again each week?

Or if your training each week adds so many miles that you are aching and in pain for days on end after each run are you going to want to put yourself through that any time soon?

Or if your training has you going faster and faster each run but you plateau and stop seeing the numbers getting better you’re going to be pretty bummed out and not want to see the pace getting slower and slower.

Right?

An unsuitable training plan for you makes it so it’s not enjoyable to keep running therefore you don’t go run. But this is hidden behind the facade that “you're just not motivated”

It’s not lack of motivation. You do hard things all the time. Your training plan is sabotaging your plans. A suitable training plan for you will make it so you love going out for a run and you’ll crush your next race!

Training

Setting up a suitable training plan includes

1. Looking back at your previous training to see where the hiccup started

1. Was it a time of day problem?

2. Was it a pace problem?

3. Was it a weekly mileage problem?

2. Looking at your future schedule

1. Making mileage work on busy weeks

1. Birthdays

2. Holidays

3. Vacations

4. School breaks

5. Etc

3. Formulating a training plan that includes

1. 10PEFT

1. 10% rule

2. Predetermined taper/deload weeks that may match the future schedule or based on previous injury

2. Cross training

3. Strength exercises

4. Stretching

5. Rest days & Recovery