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Winter Runderland: Winter Running Tips for Enjoying the Season

Mindset, Training

Shift Your Mindset to Enjoy the Best of Winter Running

If one of your New Year’s resolutions this year was health-related, you’re not alone. Now at the end of February, you’d also be in good company if you found yourself feeling burned out from those resolutions. Instead of offering Winter running tips to help you push through and hit your resolutions, I suggest a different approach. To find more joy in the Winter season, use it as a natural time to recover and rebuild.

Why the Best Winter Running Tip is to Shift Your Mindset

We know intuitively that starting off with unrealistic New Year’s resolutions is a recipe for frustration. But that doesn’t stop us from doing it. Sure, you might be able to power through for a few weeks, but you’re more likely to hit your goals through incremental, sustainable progress than giant leaps. Often, the goals we have require a real lifestyle change, which is why my best winter running tips are really all about changing your mindset. Your mindset is your relationship to running. Essentially, it’s your approach to how you train and why you run in the first place. It forms a sort of code that you live by, and greatly reduces the need to obsessively track your progress in the form of workouts completed, miles run, or weight on the scale. It helps you zoom out to what really matters, and forms your motivation to do it. When you get this part right, it becomes so much easier to accomplish the details, too.

Some mindsets you might consider adopting are below. Try them out and see what feels right for you, or make your own.

I run because I enjoy it.
Eating healthy food gives me the energy my body needs.
I avoid alcohol because my sleep and energy are more important.
Daily stretching supports my overall wellbeing.
I will prioritize how I feel over how I look.

If your goal for 2024 is real change, it needs to be built gradually, and consistently, so that it actually sticks for longer than a few weeks. This is why having a training plan tailored to your goals is so helpful: it sets you up for success and helps you avoid burnout!

Winter is a Natural Time of Rest

Another great way to avoid burnout is to ensure that you have meaningful periods of rest both during your training program, and in between training programs. Our modern culture emphasizes constant achievement, in everything from our careers, to our relationships, to our training. But no one can be at the top of their game all of the time, not even professional athletes. This is a recipe for burnout. Mentally and physically, we need time to recharge. This is why training programs always include periods of rest, both within the program, and between programs.

If you can’t remember your last easy week, now is a great time to have one. Start by decreasing the intensity, duration, or frequency of your workouts. Is it single digits outside? Freezing rain? Ice? Take some guilt-free time off, and don’t sweat it. Your fitness level won’t be negatively impacted by a day off, here or there. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re already highly motivated in your training, which means you almost certainly need more easy days than you’re giving yourself. If you want to stay active and healthy long-term, learn how to rest and relax, too.

Just like the rest of the natural world, humans need time for rest. With shorter days and colder temps, Winter is a perfect time to rest and recover, so you’re better prepared for Spring and Summer training.

Lean into Other Winter Activities

One of my personal mindsets for running is that I run to enjoy it. While I love planning racecations or hitting PRs, I genuinely love to run for the sake of running. This mindset shift means I don’t have a “bucket list” and I don’t “cross off” goals. I want to be happy running for decades to come, so what’s the rush? To keep a good relationship with running, I take breaks when I’m not feeling it. Winter is a perfect time for this. If you live in a particularly snowy and cold climate, lean into that! Maybe that means going on a short, slow run in the softly falling snow. Maybe it means skipping a run and watching the snow from inside. Or maybe you want to go all-in on Winter activities like sledding, making snow angels, and building snow forts. My point is, don’t treat running like a chore, or just some other thing on your to-do list. Getting some exercise while doing some fun seasonal activities will leave you recharged and ready for your next run.

Enjoy Winter Running, Spring Will Be Here Soon

Like everything else in life, the Winter season is temporary; Spring will be here soon! I encourage you to try these winter running tips for yourself, and enjoy the rest, coziness, and (albeit cold) beauty of Winter, while it’s here.

Ready to level up your running? Reach out for a free consultation for individualized, virtual, 1:1 coaching with me!

Looking for Running Motivation?

Mindset, Training

This Iconic Catchphrase Helps Me Beat a Common Mental Block

Now in November, we’re nearing the end of the Fall racing season. Many runners like to take some well-earned time to recover during the Winter, but if you’re training for a Spring race, your program is just starting. Need some running motivation for those cold, dark Winter months? Read on to learn how I beat a common mental block, and the iconic catchphrase that helps.

Where Does Your Running Motivation Come From?

It’s that time of day: time for your run. But you’re not feeling motivated. You’re tired, it’s cold, and it’s dark. You just don’t feel like lacing up and going outside. We’ve all been there. While each of these reasons may be valid, are any of them helpful? Should you really wait until you feel like it?

A common mental block in running, (and in other aspects of life), is to wait until you feel motivated before taking action. But what if you never feel motivated? What if, the secret to feeling motivated, is to just get started anyway? Our bodies and minds are intrinsically connected, and they influence each other. Just as you can use psychology to tap into your body, say, challenging yourself in training, you can use this connection the other way round. You can use your body to influence and change your mind-state.

You just don’t feel like lacing up and going outside. Should you really wait until you feel like it?

However, I’m not talking about ignoring or pushing through aches, pains, or illness. It’s always important to listen to your body, and seek professional, medical attention when necessary. This hack is purely for those days where you could go for your run, but you don’t feel like it–at the moment! In all likelihood, once you get started– and especially at the end– you’re going to be glad you did.

Don’t Rely on Music for Your Running Motivation

I love a good pump-up song, but I don’t think you ever want to be reliant on something external to motivate you for your run. In fact– and this might sound counterintuitive– one thing I swear by is never running with music. This forces me to be totally in the moment, enjoying the run and the world around me. It helps me tune into what my body is feeling, and what it’s needing. So much of our days can be filled with stuff and to-do’s; running with music, in my opinion, is just layering more noise onto the experience. If you feel like you just can’t run without music, that could be a sign that you’re pushing yourself too much, and running isn’t something you really enjoy for its own sake. Try running without music on your next run, and find out what your experience of running is, just by itself.

How Making Enjoyment Your Primary Goal Beats Other Running “Motivation”

If you enjoy what you’re doing, you won’t need to rely on external conditions being “just right.”

I love challenging myself with a faster pace, longer distances, or a sprint workout. But I truly enjoy the process of running, and I never run something just to “get it over with.” To me, that’s not a great way to go through life. Since running is something “optional,” why should it be treated like a chore? Sure, it’s great to set goals, but crossing the finish line and hitting that PR are such small moments in the grand scheme of running, and most of your time is spent in your weekly training runs. If you’re living for your goal, consistently treating running like a chore, it’s a recipe for burnout. This ultimately makes it so much harder to meet your goals! However, if you enjoy what you’re doing, then your motivation is intrinsic, and you won’t need to rely on external conditions being “just right.” So I want to encourage you to make enjoyment your primary goal for any run or race you do.

To cultivate joy in your run, first reflect on your current relationship with running. Ask yourself questions like:

How do I feel when I’m running?
Why am I choosing to run instead of doing any other activity?
What could make the experience of running more enjoyable for me?

There’s nothing wrong with setting goals, but becoming too attached to them can suck the fun right out of running. If you feel like this has happened to you, make a commitment to yourself to just enjoy your next run, whatever that means for you. Try it, and see how it changes your experience, and your results over time.

Lacking Running Motivation? Just Do It.

Perhaps this is why Nike’s famous slogan, “Just Do It,” is so impactful. With great simplicity, it cuts straight through all excuses, mental blocks, and attachment to goals and gets right to the point. To me, it means that if you want something, don’t wait for external things to fall in to place, don’t even wait for motivation, “Just Do It.” And why should you do it? For the enjoyment of it.