Motivation: What Is It & What Does It Have To Do With My Training?

Motivation is what defines the sport of running — marathoners are used as a demonstration of determination and grit for motivational gurus across all backgrounds. What does that have to do with you though?

Unfortunately we are all lumped into generalities sometimes; but don’t be fooled! We all have different reasons for jumping out of bed in the morning and that is perfectly fine. However one motivational reason is not better than another — the beauty of running is that we are constantly dealing with our own personal battles. My competing is a different level than Eliud Kipchoge competing… but I still will be over the moon if I ever break 2:35 in the marathon. My motivation for training is to break my previous pr’s and to compete on the local level — elite level runners may think that is a joke and newer runners may think that is a pipe dream but it is ultimately my reality.

The reason for writing this post is to dive deeper into these generalities, I have runners who run to compete but I also have runners who run so they can drink beer on the weekend and runners who run because it helps with their anxiety… we are all individuals and sometimes the race is just a side product of the underlining motivation.

So we need to be understanding; there’s a big divide in our sport between runners who view running as a sport and runners who view running as a hobby or a means to an end… the only difference is in our motivations (and talent level but I want to steer away from that conversation right now). So what we need to figure out is a way to bridge that gap, to understand that you aren’t being a ‘try-hard’ because you want to be competitive but also understanding that you aren’t being ‘lazy’ because you race to get out of your own head.

So how do you relate this to your own training?

Know that motivation changes depending on our life/health/fitness/mentality. This is important to remember when we run into a setback, it’s impossible to not compare current fitness to past fitness — but we have to be able to distinguish that from the current motivations. Your motivation isn’t to compete but to get back to where you were… you will get there alot faster if you aren’t constantly comparing your current self to your past self.

A personal aside:

My training motivations have changed a ton over the years, in college I was ultra competitive but burned out hard — then my motivation was to run to clear my head and feel better emotionally —then my motivation was to get back to where I once was — and now my motivation is back to being more competitive. However, the reason it’s taken me 3+ years to get back to this point is because I do have that tendency to be hard on myself, so giving myself permission to lay off and cut myself some slack is something I’ve had to learn to get back to where I am right now.

So what’s your motivation for running and racing?

Do you ever feel put off for having different motivations?

I’ll be talking with Claire about her beer rewards plan on the podcast this week and compare her motivations with my motivations… maybe we will both learn a few things in the process.

Happy Running,

-Justin