Just Keep Running

As the days get colder my miles are getting shorter. I am finding it hard to get up off the couch and run and I am finding it hard to not turn around after a mile of running. I don’t know how much I should be running; all I know is that I haven’t been running nearly as much as I did for cross country.

I am having a really hard time breathing in the cold air and after a couple of miles my lungs are burning, my body feels weak and I am ready to turn around and head home. I know I should try and push myself more, but I am finding it really hard to get motivation. I have so many goals set in mind, which would normally be very motivating, but once I step out the door all I can think about is how cold it is. Winter also means that it gets darker a lot earlier. Between the freezing cold weather and the fact that I can’t run in the dark, I am really struggling to find time and motivation to run. Going to the gym is helping though. I can’t run as much miles at the gym (you have to run 10 laps to run a mile and running a lot of miles on the treadmill hurts my legs), but at least I am running. Running is hard during the winter, with the cold and daylight savings, but going to the gym does help.  

It seems like everyone is always busier in the winter. I don’t know if it’s because of school or holidays or a mixture of both, but I am having a hard time finding someone to run with and I really don’t like to run by myself. The people I normally run with either can’t run right now, don’t want to run right now, or I just haven’t seen in a long time. So I am left running with my sister and she has less motivation then me. I find it almost impossible to run more than four miles by myself and my sister hates running more than three miles, so most days I am only running two to four miles. Considering that I ran at least five miles a day in the weeks before cross country started, four miles being my longer runs is really bad for me. With everyone being busy, I am left running shorter miles.

 

Cold weather, daylight savings, and the busy season is making it really hard for me to get my miles in. I am going to continue to try to toughen it out and push myself to run more.

               

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