​​Recently, I have been in a running rut. It’s rare, but there are just times when I struggle to get out the door and even put in a mile or two on the roads. I tell myself that I’ll run later or that I deserve the time off because I worked out yesterday. Because I am surrounded by runners and coaches, when I am in a rut, the idea that I am struggling to get out the door is amplified. Even when I am telling my athletes the importance of consistency in training, I know in the back of my mind that I am not practicing what I am preaching!
 
Over the years, I have noticed a pattern to the influences or events in my life, and in the lives of the athletes I coach, that lead to running ruts. As a result, I have a few tips and tricks to help you get out of your rut. If you have a particular question, make sure to reach out!
           
The I’m So Stressed At Work Rut: This one is the worst. It’s ironic that I do the least amount of running during the outdoor track season. I am so focused on helping my athletes and getting the team to contend for league and state titles that I tend to forget about my own fitness. In the back of my mind, I know that I am a better coach, father and husband when I am running regularly, but coming off of the stress of the spring days is really hard! 

As a result, my fix is always to run to or from work. I am fortunate that I live four miles from work so I can commute by foot. But I know other coaches who run from their jobs to the train or even park their car two miles from work so they are forced to get a little time in!

Every runner has their favorite routes. Whether it is your after-work loop, your Sunday long run or an out-and-back from home, we all have roads and trails that bring comfort and good memories from miles logged in the past. But the routes that inspire us the most are the original runs that helped shape our identity as runners.
            Recently, I was visiting my parent’s house in Connecticut and laced up my Asics to put in a few miles before dinner. I had been coming off of injuries that had prevented the winter training I was used to and this was going to be my entry back into what would hopefully be some more consistent training. While I knew I was only going to be able to manage three or four miles before I needed to be back, getting my legs moving and my mind back into the training mindset was more important to me than logging more mileage.
            So I set out from home and took a left up a hill that, at one time, had seemed insurmountable. When I was a freshman in high school lacing up my first pair of running shoes, my endurance and strength was in its infancy. And while powering up the small incline was easier than it was 18 years ago, the memories of those early struggles and subsequent triumphs were vivid. As I crested the slope and headed back downhill, my confidence grew as my cadence increased. When I run the routes that made me fall in love with running, my mind always returns to the same topics: old races, friends I’ve made through running, and races I hope to run in the future.