What drives me? See that's the thing. Nothing is driving me lately, and I wonder if somehow I've lost my personal sense of motivation once starting yoga, with all its emphasis of being over doing.

I'm no expert, but a few things come to mind reading your post.

1. What is your reason for running? If it's just general cardio fitness, there are lots of ways to do that, so why force yourself to run if you're not "feeling the love"? Take up biking, kyaking, swimming, or whatever.

2. How much of a workout do you get in the group fitness classes you teach? Could it be that you need to schedule in some rest rather than more running, teaching, etc.? Do you have one day a week where you don't exercise other than just general household stuff?

3. If you really want to run, then try something new and totally different for you, something out of your comfort zone. I know you said you don't want to race, but why not just participate in a local 5K...maybe one of the big ones to benefit a charity? Just show up, don't train. Walk some, run some, whatever feels right, take in the sights, be part of the crowd. See if you don't catch the bug to train a little for the next one. If not, you supported a good cause. Or find a local running group and see if you can meet a couple of folks at your pace. Oh, and finally, maybe get a new gizmo or running outfit. Or listen to an audio book instead of music on your ipod.

OK....enough ideas. Easier to think of them for others than for myself



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Progress, not perfection.

Thanks for the questions, Carol40. I'll address them as you asked them:

1. What is your reason for running?

I run for a sense of well-being, as well as staying fit. Running is my license to eat, but I don't think I'd stop running if I didn't need it as my maintenance. I find that when I run, it's somewhat meditative for me, and as we say in yoga, I come closer to my true Self. I like the feeling of the repetitive motion of running, how my entire body is involved in sustaining it physically (not just my legs). I have hypermobile joints, especially my S/I, so the lateral movement, combined with being weight-bearing, tends to level me out in a way that feels "right". I tried biking, racewalking and swimming, and none of those activities ever felt right for me in the same way. Running feels like the hardest thing I can do, but the fact that I can do it, makes it my cardio activity of choice.

2. How much of a workout do you get in the group fitness classes you teach?

Virtually none. I only teach yoga now, stopped teaching group fitness back in May. And so when I teach, I mainly instruct verbally, with very little demonstration of poses. The classes I teach aren't my workout, and even when I was doing more group fitness, they weren't my workouts then either.

3. If you really want to run, then try something new and totally different for you, something out of your comfort zone.

Yeah, that's really the thing, isn't it? For some reason, I always swore off races because I viewed being competitive as something "bad". Might be time for an attitude adjustment regarding that. A couple years back I had slacked off my running as well, and gradually brought myself back up to speed by logging my runs and miles for every week, and being extremely diligent with the 10% increase rule. I started at 3 mile runs 3x/week at a 10min/mile pace, and within what felt like no time, I was back up to my previous speed of 8.75min/mile, logging close to 20 miles a week. I wonder why I stopped that.... oh yeah, I discovered yoga shortly after, and found I didn't have enough time to run AND take 5-6 classes a week. I have a tough time running at times other than in the mornings. One more thing to work on getting over as well.

Well, thanks so much to everyone who responded, because I just got back from my run, and you know what? it really felt good! I ended up doing the longer route (5 2/3 miles) and I finished it, first time for me in a while where I didn't have to stop to walk the last mile or so. Yes, I suppose I do have a goal of 15 miles a week, though the tough part for me will be when I don't achieve it every time. Why is it the anticipation of the running is always so much harder than the running itself?

Thanks again for the support, everyone. I think I'm going to stick around for a bit (once I figure out which thread I'm supposed to report my runs on, since I'm not doing that 5k program I see everyone else doing here). Cheers! E.

Everybody has addressed the motivation issue, but do you find it easier to run with somebody else, or do you prefer to run alone? You could go to your local YMCA or running store and look into some kind of running/training group, or find just one other person who is looking for a running partner there. I know you said also that you weren't looking to compete, but what about one of those charity runs, like Team in Training? I haven't done it myself, but have a friend who did and said it was a great experience. That way you'd find others to run with, and you'd be doing it for a cause, if you're into that sort of thing. Your goal could not be to run a 10K or whatever, but rather to raise money for somebody with cancer or something. Just a thought.

"and believe me at an 11:30 average pace, I'm not in any danger of winning any races."

This gave me a chuckle that I needed this afternoon...

I'm not in any danger of it either. Thank goodness. I don't like danger.

smile

I wonder if motivation is what I need. I started for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to be healthier
2. Running makes me STOP eating any junk, because after all of the effort going in, I want to make sure that the food is good for me too.
3. weight loss (see other posts for this topic, running is not the only thing I'm doing to support weight loss but it is a part of the entire package)
4. change the appearance of my body (this happened almost immediately, the beginning of change and I was shocked)
5. I like running, have a high stress life and needed something to calm me down so that I could relax easier.
6. Spite

So, none of these are working for me today - but I know that tomorrow will probably be different