Mental Block when Running

nomsquared

Hey guys,

When I run, I'm physically fine for the entire time, its just getting through that mental "I can't do this/I'm tired/Meh" that scares me. I almost stopped today in the middle of my run, because of that. How to get past that?!

marathon_mama

Do you listen to music?

dreilingda

I'm a little confused. Are you wanting to stop because you are terribly out of breath / physically spent or you're just being a little lazy? If it's the former, you're running too fast or may need to incorporate some walking intervals in. If the latter, well maybe have a progressive training plan so that you know exactly how far or long you need to run each day/week. Then you'll need to meet the goals or else you will screw up your plan.

nomsquared

Yep! I also occasionally play Zombies, Run...

Now that I think about it, this only happens when my Zombies "mission" ends... Hmm.....

dorianaldyn

What has helped me tremendously has been using intervals when I run. I started off running two minutes and then walking one minute. I've found that knowing you have that little "break" coming up can really help mentally. Gradually increase your intervals... now I tend to run 14, walk 1 and if I'm feeling particularly good, I'll skip some of the walks.

H217

I know what you mean... two things that I've found to help a lot are A.) a really good music playlist, or B.) running with someone to make it more competitive.

I've also found that running somewhere unfamiliar keeps away that 'burnt out' feeling. There's just something about knowing exactly how much further is left to run that sucks all of the fun and energy out of it (for me, at least).

amytag

This was a big problem for me, so I'd set mini goals each run, like "today I'll run 30 minutes, and tomorrow I'll run 32 minutes", etc until eventually my mind stopped the chatter. Paired with good music, this has helped. And I bought the premium edition of Spotify so that I don't get bored with the tunes OR the ads.