How to keep running when life gets in the way

Source: unsplash / @shadrinaizzati

In the last post, I argued that you don’t need to love running to keep running. That idea is comforting, but it raises a more practical question: how do you keep running when life gets in the way? This post is about how running survives ordinary, crowded lives.

“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans”, John Lennon popularised. If you plan to start, return to, or catch up with running when you feel you’re in your best, or even a good, physical or mental state, there’s a good chance you won’t. Life doesn’t come to a halt if you decide to run. Work, family, stress, illness, bad sleep, all continue as usual and running doesn’t make obligations lighter.

This suggests that motivation is not the key factor here. With the daily grind, fatigue, the rush to get things done and the anxiety that often comes with it, motivation can get lost between the cracks. In fact, waiting for that right time when you feel motivated is how running fades quietly. So what is the engine, if not motivation? It’s habit.

I find it quite liberating to know that every Sunday morning I will go for a run, come rain or shine. This is what keeps me and most long-term runners running. When life starts to feel heavy and running, like other hobbies, begins to crumble under life’s weight, the aim should be continuity and preservation. Smaller, shorter runs preserve continuity and maintain your identity as a runner, even when systematic training is hard or impossible.

That said, you don’t have to be a schedule freak. Missing a run because you couldn’t get yourself out of bed is not the end of the world. A run that’s easier than usual because you didn’t sleep well the night before is still good maintenance. Running rules are there to bend, not to break. Running that adapts to life lasts longer than running that resists it or tries to change it.

How do you build that sense of habit? Anchoring running to something stable and predictable helps. Running on the same day and within the same loose time window can make a big difference; it’s what made my Sunday morning runs, starting between 7 and 8 a.m., what they are. Running familiar routes helps too; they lower the mental load because you already know where you are going and how long it will take. Running with a pack, not of dogs but of friends, can also help, if it’s your thing; chatting away the kilometres takes your mind elsewhere. In short: running sticks when fewer decisions are required. And in fact, while the route stays the same, conditions change: weather, seasons, time of day, mood. It’s not all copy-paste.

All this leads to a more realistic definition of success for the tired, stressed out, always-in-a-rush runner. Success is not momentum, running streaks or personal bests. Success is running that doesn’t fade away. If running remains part of your life, it’s already doing its job. Running that stays is what allows it to grow later.