You’ve signed up for a marathon, printed out your training plan, colour coded it with highlighters (maybe that’s just me) and you’ve promised yourself you’re going to stick to it. The first few weeks of a training you excitedly tick the workouts off one by one. You’re doing amazing – you’re going to smash this marathon… then out of nowhere it hits you – a sudden loss of motivation. You don’t want to run, you just want to eat your body weight in Cadbury’s Giant Buttons and binge watch back to back episodes of your favourite TV show. You miss one run, then another and before you know it you can’t get back out there.

Dealing with a slump isn’t easy – here are my top tips to get yourself back up and out of the door. (In other words – here’s me giving you a virtual kick up the backside!)

Remember why you started
Think of why you signed up for it? A challenge? To raise money? To get fit? Just thinking about your reason to run could be enough to get you back out there.

Look back on what you’ve achieved so far.
You’ll be surprised how many miles you’ve clocked up already. Running a marathon isn’t meant to be easy. There will be weeks when you’re tired / not feeling it. There will be weeks where it feels really hard and other weeks you find it relatively easy. It’s about persevering and not quitting.

Go tech free
It’s all too easy to compare yourself to others. You see other peoples split times and they are faster than you and you start to doubt if you can do it. If you’ve lost motivation because you’re worried about your pace – go for a run and don’t time it. Pick a route you know the distance of, don’t worry how long it takes, instead just focus on covering the distance.

Buddy up
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – running with friends is a great way to make the miles go quicker. For longer runs ask a friend to run a few miles of it / cycle it with you to help break it up.

Try a new route
Mix it up a little and try a different route – or do your usual one in reverse. (I tried that last week, I got REALLY confused)

Give your playlist a refresh
Fill your iPod with all your favourite songs. Try songs you’ve not heard for ages – you’ll want to keep running just to find out what song is coming up next!

Learn to rest not quit
Maybe you lost your mojo because you’ve been overdoing it – try scaling back the training to see if this helps you regain your focus. If you’ve been following an intermediate plan try switching to the beginner one. A few easier weeks are better than nothing at all!

Treat yourself
Bribery ALWAYS works with me, and it’s usually something small… if I run, I can I use my nice Molton Brown stuff in the shower – if I don’t run I’ll use ‘whatever was on offer in Sainsbury’s!’

Anything else you’d add to the list? I’m all ears. 💛