What’s your fitness goal?
Whether it’s to get in shape? To run a half marathon? To earn your BQ? To feel confident in your bikini this summer? To lose weight? Whatever your fitness goal is, there are days that motivating yourself can be harder than others. Days where it’s hard to get yourself to the gym, to make good food choices, or to head out for a run.
When things get tough, ask yourself ‘how bad do I want this?’ Do you want it more than a lie in? More than that extra glass of wine? More than an afternoon on the sofa with a sharing bag of Doritos?
Sometimes this can be just the motivation I need to get out of bed when it’s 5am, cold, and dark. Here are the other things I say to myself to get my butt out of bed.
- Remind yourself of WHY you’re doing it. Keep a photo or a note of your goal in the bathroom, on your phone with your alarm, on your fridge – wherever it’s going to make the most difference.
- Create a timeline – when do you want to run your half marathon? When is the BQ attempt? Have you booked your beach holiday?
- Put a plan into place to reach your goal. Whether you write your own plan, follow a plan like this 3 week running fitness challenge I created in partnership with Robinsons or have a PT or coach to help write a plan.
- Make small changes, don’t expect your diet or fitness regime to be perfect all the time. Change one thing at a time, or change things in small increments. Get up 15/20 minutes earlier, swap your lunchtime fizzy drink for a no added sugar Robinsons squash, walk to work instead of getting the bus.
- Have mini milestones – often your ultimate fitness goal is months (or, like my BQ, might be years), so having smaller goals that you can achieve within a shorter time frame can help keep you on track. I’m striving for a half marathon PB at the North London half in a few weeks’ time.
- Think about the big picture. For training to be successful you need to think about more than just your workouts, you need to ensure you’re getting enough quality sleep, drinking plenty of water (or Robinsons no added sugar when you want something juicy!) and eating properly to nourish your body and for maximum recovery.
Did you give the 3 week running fitness challenge a go? I know a lot of people tried some of the speed workouts (and loved/hated them!! Haha).
I thought I’d share a couple of the running workouts I’ve done recently…
Yasso 800s – these were my saviour and nemesis during Berlin marathon training. Last week I had 4 X 800m with 400m jogging recoveries. You’re supposed to be able to run the 800m in the marathon time that you’re aiming for in minutes… so if you want to run a 4 hour marathon then you *should* be running 4:00 800 repeats. I had 3:30 repeats on my schedule after a 2 mile warm up and 2 mile cool down.
Tempo Run – don’t underestimate this workout, it turned out to be 9 miles in total! 2 mile warm up, 2 X 5 min at 7.11 pace with 3 min jogging recoveries, 10 mins at 7.38 pace, 2 X 5 min at 7.11 pace with 3 min jogging recoveries, 2 mile cool down.
Long Run Workout – during my half marathon last weekend I had a workout to complete, 2 mile warm up, 1 mile repeats at 8.10, 8.05, 8.00, 7.55, 7.50, 7.45 with 0.5 mile jogging recoveries, 2 X 0.5 miles at 7.35 pace with 0.5 recoveries, and gun it to the end. I even managed to run a half marathon PB during the race.
Ah I just love your blog!
I’m running my first half marathon in March and I’m so nervous about it!
What are your tips for your first half?
Olivia X