Day 29: Find your motivation to run

[Leanna]

We’ll be posting a new challenge every day leading up to summer! Follow along here, on the blog, or using this calendar.

With only two days left until summer, today’s challenge is all about finding ways to keep yourself going afterwards: Find your motivation to run!

That means that today, we want you to do something to ensure you keep going for another 30 days after this. Maybe that means signing up for a race that will require you to keep up your training. Maybe that means coming up with daily reminders for yourself to stay active each day. Whatever you do, do something you know you can stick to.

Here’s our suggestions for how to stay motivated and stave off the boredom for your runs/walks:

Find a buddy. Really, having a friend keeping you accountable is great for a lot of reasons (not the least of which is a bit of friendly competition on the Fitbit leaderboard). But having someone to go with you also means you have someone to talk to. Going for walks/runs with friends is a great way to catch up, too!

Try interval training. We had a challenge about this earlier. But whether or not you finished that day’s challenge, try something similar to shake up your workouts and keep yourself interested.

Go outside. If you usually walk or run on a treadmill, take it outside for a change. Leaving the gym can mean a new scene, or even exploring a new area you don’t usually frequent.

Listen to music/a podcast. Finding the right tunes can turn a run into a dance party, but not everyone is into listening to music when they run. If you’re one of those people, try finding an interesting podcast instead to keep your mind occupied.

Set a goal. We mentioned signing up for a race earlier in today’s post, which is a great way to keep yourself lacing up your running shoes again and again. But even if you’re not ready to sign up for a race yet, try setting your own goals on distance, speed, or time spent running without a break!

What keeps you motivated? Share with others in the comments, or using #30DaysToSummerFit!

This was originally posted on the Fitbit blog.

[badtzmaru]

The Zombies, Run! app is doing wonders for me.

Cost is $3.99, but worth it.

My sister, who does not run, is running 2x a day just to see what happens next.

From Wikipedia:

Zombies, Run! is an immersive running game. Players act as the character "Runner 5" through a series of missions, during which they run and listen to various audio narrations to uncover the story.  While running, the player collects supplies such as ammunition, medicine and batteries, which can be used to build and expand their base. The app can record the distance, time, pace, and calories burned on each mission through the use of the phone's GPS or accelerometer. When using the GPS feature, the user can also opt to participate in a zombie chase which requires the player to run faster for a short period of time or be caught by zombies and lose their supplies, or even fail the mission.

[zapleahy]

@badtzmaru Thanks for the recommendation. Sounds like a frightening experience that would put anyone on guard and running hard!

[JVonC]

I think I might know some poeple the would be really interested in a game like that.  Might even get some to break the couch habit.  Thanks for the share.

[HelenaFitbit]

I had my sight on a 5k (my first race) back in october 5th; but I had a medical emergency and went for surgery a couple days before  Need to check something else and maybe do a c25k before jumping in to another one.