10 ways to beat the doorstep demons

'Just put your shoes on and get out of the door' - Easy as that - Or is it?



Decisions, decisions at the start of a
wet run in the Cotswold hills

It's always okay once we are out there with the muscles warmed up and the endorphins flowing. But it can often be a fight to make that transition from lethargy to liveliness. The mind is adept at distraction in these circumstances with anything from the 15 minute shoe lace tie to a sudden urge to clean the bathroom keeping us from our good intentions. In order to combat these pitfalls, here are 10 suggestions for getting that door shut firmly behind you and to ensure you spend more time cleaning running shoes these dark winter nights than toilets.

1) Map it the old school way. Send off for a bespoke site centred OS map with your house in the middle. (You can even have your own picture on the front cover of the map!) Rip it out of the packaging when it arrives and pin it up on the wall to plot all your current routes. Then realise how many other rights of way or trails there are that you haven't run before. Get out there, ideally with your new map and run something new!                                    £16.99  https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/custom-made-maps.html 

A wild day out on Kinder- Peak District

2) Meet a friend. You can't keep looking out the window hopefully for that storm cloud to arrive if you are going to make someone late now can you? Make your appointment and see how much easier it is to keep going when steady chatter distracts you from how much further you have left to run.

3) The journey run. Rather than that old loop always resorted to, try running to a  pick up or rendezvous point where you can meet the family or get a  lift home. This not only doubles the potential distance that you can get away from home -  giving you access to new trails - but also provides renewed purpose and direction that is sometimes absent from an out and back. A variation on this could be to hop on a bus or train to a suitable distance from your home and run home for that well earned cup of tea and cake!

4) Enter an event that scares you. Beat that 'where's all this running going?' feeling that can lead to excuses at the front door by signing up for something that gives you the willies. This could be running that first fell race or trying something different such as the Tough Mudder in May; or getting in shape for something a bit longer with the The Exmoor 'Endurance Life'  ultra (33miles) also in May.
https://toughmudder.com
http://www.endurancelife.com/events-list.asp

5) Read all about it. Running is largely a solitary sport but there's no reason why you should feel alone. Get inspired if you haven't already by a raft of running writing. Learn how internationally renowned ultra runner Scott Jurek beats his own lethargy 'the bed sirens' in 'Eat and Run'. Or, closer to home, how the everyman runner Richard Askwith trained to run the 66 mile Bob Graham Round in the Lake District (whilst holding down an editorial role at The Independent newspaper) in 'Feet in the Clouds.' 

6) Data! Collect it all using an APP like Strava and reveal to yourself how much or little you are getting out. Comparisons with friends can be useful but keep it as a motivational tool rather than a stick to beat yourself with.

7) Stick it to the man. Turn your commute into a training session. It might be slower, but if you had planned to run after work anyway, any time you win back here is a bonus against that spent drumming your fingers against the steering wheel. There is also something inexplicably naughty and delicious about arriving to work with mud splattered legs, basking in an endorphin drenched shower and then slipping back into the normal world.

8) The Rocky approach. Get the tunes on 10 minutes before you intend to leave the house. If Stallone isn't your style try something whimsical like the Lord Huron 'Lonesome Dreams' album. Either way be sure to fly out of the house and punch the air as you charge off into the hills.

9) The last resort 'I'm only running to the end of the road' approach - Exactly as described but, once there tell yourself that you might just as well make it to the end of the next one as well...and go from there until either the enjoyment kicks in or you really have decided that it's time to take your domestic chores in hand.

The first step...

10) And finally Retail Therapy. If your shorts get up your bum and your trainers have been beaten flat it's no wonder you aren't so keen! Get yourself to your local running shop, tell them about the map on your wall, your train ticket for your journey run and your foolhardy event entry. Riding the wave of their oohs and aahs get that new kit on ASAP and get it muddy!