Staying Motivated Every Day (NO Excuses)

As I discussed in my previous blog post, distance running is a year round sport because we compete into the fall for cross country, through the end of the winter for indoor track, and finally, through the early summer of outdoor track season.

The day-to-day motivation to get out the door for a run, workout, or strength training session always changes. Over the past 8 years, I have experienced just about every reason to skip a day of training including, I am too tired, too sore, sick with a sore throat, it's too cold outside, its raining, its snowing, its dark out, its too late, its too early, I'm taking a trip into the city with my friends today, too much homework,  I have a test tomorrow or I ran further than usual yesterday.

These are none of my excuses not to run. During the season, besides an injury, I only take 2-3 days off per month. Any great college or professional distance runner knows, if you have excuses you're not going to be great. Whenever these excuses pop into my mind before a run, I immediately think about my long term goal at stake. I face the fact that every day of running is not going to be perfect. In fact, very few days throughout the year are going to feel perfect for a run. Distance runners do everything we can to make every situation as perfect as we can.