PUBLISHED 09/20/2007
David Hays lives in the very wet, very gray Pacific Northwest. He meets his two running partners at 5:15 a.m. on weekdays and 6:30 a.m. on Saturdays.
It's usually dark when they hit the streets. More often than not, it's also raining.
When the trio began running together 4 years ago, one of their routes ended with a very steep quarter-mile hill. For a time, none of them could make it to the top without walking. But they returned to that same difficult loop at least once a week.
"When the first of us was able to make it to the top without walking, it was a victory for all of us," Hays says. "When all three of us made it, we really celebrated, jumping up and down-and wheezing-under the dark, rainy sky."
Hays thinks often of that moment, especially during those inevitable times when his motivation begins to wane. He reminds himself that his two buddies are expecting him.
"I know these guys are there, waiting for me in the rain at 5:15 a.m., and I don't want to face them later if I don't show up," he says. If one of the three fails to show, Hays adds, "We do let him know that it isn't the same without him."
Motivation comes and goes. Every runner has lost it at one time or another-whether he or she is a serious competitive athlete or someone who runs simply to stay fit.
You feel stale, discouraged. The alarm clock chirps at 6 a.m., but you know you're not going to wrench your body out of bed. You come home from work dragging, and you know you aren't going to lace up your running shoes and head out the door.
Your legs feel dead. You're sick of the same old running routes. Your back hurts. You're injured or ill, feeling old, tired, stressed. You have a work deadline. You're bored. It's dark, it's cold, it's raining, snowing, icy, steaming, humid, smoggy, whatever. You just don't feel like it.
So once you've lost it, how do you get it back?
"Motivation is a very tough issue to deal with, and must come from within," says Bob Sevene, who coached Joan Benoit Samuelson to a gold-medal marathon in the 1984 Olympics and currently coaches a group of young athletes in Boston.
"If you're losing your motivation, you have to step back and make changes. You have to have a plan to stimulate your motivation," Sevene says. "A motivation plan is just as important as a training plan."
Coaches, sports psychologists, and other experts believe that the key to such a plan is change, whether it's changing your goals for the year, cutting mileage, working on your speed or strength-or something even simpler, such as varying the time of day you run or your routes. Or even taking a break.
"U.S. runners never take breaks," Sevene says. "They go from race to race with no particular goal other than running another race."
Sevene insists that his runners take time off. "I've always believed that you can't have a beginning without an end," he says.
During the respite, he talks with his runners about setting realistic goals for the coming year. Together they analyze the previous year's accomplishments: the quality of workouts (what worked, what didn't), health issues, goals (achieved or not), and mileage (up or down). Sevene also encourages his athletes to switch to alternative types of training-strength, posture, flexibility-during their time off.
"I change the way I attack certain issues, such as strength and power, every couple of years to keep motivation high," he says. "I change training venues a lot, with new trail runs, Sunday runs, and intervals. My yearly cycle has a beginning, middle, and end, and I set new goals within each cycle."
