Picture this: It’s 5:00AM and your alarm sounds. While it’s technically spring, the weather outside is painting a different picture. Your plan calls for an easy five miles before work and while normally you’d wait until the afternoon when the weather is like this, you have family and work commitments today that will prevent you from getting your run in.
This is the type of situation that prevents so many of us from reaching our running and fitness goals. At Windsor Running, one of our secrets to getting consistent workouts in is making sure that we always have a running partner. And on days where we can’t find a friend to get up early with us, we make sure to hold ourselves accountable in our online running communities! We’ve outlined four key benefits to running with a partner below:
Accountability – In our scenario above, the only thing that got us out of bed was knowing that our friends were waiting for us at the track, and not wanting to let them down! I live across the street from a track and had some 400-meter repeats on tap last week. Even though all it was going to take was literally crossing one street, my bed was so comfortable! But I knew that my buddies were already warming up and we needed to get the work done. So out I went, crushed the workout and came back ready to take on the day.
This is the type of situation that prevents so many of us from reaching our running and fitness goals. At Windsor Running, one of our secrets to getting consistent workouts in is making sure that we always have a running partner. And on days where we can’t find a friend to get up early with us, we make sure to hold ourselves accountable in our online running communities! We’ve outlined four key benefits to running with a partner below:
Accountability – In our scenario above, the only thing that got us out of bed was knowing that our friends were waiting for us at the track, and not wanting to let them down! I live across the street from a track and had some 400-meter repeats on tap last week. Even though all it was going to take was literally crossing one street, my bed was so comfortable! But I knew that my buddies were already warming up and we needed to get the work done. So out I went, crushed the workout and came back ready to take on the day.
Push Beyond Your Limits – I have always had a distance runner’s build and shied away from the weight room. It wasn’t until Coach Adam and I started working together that I started to see some serious gains in the strength department. I knew what I needed to get done in the weight room in order to get stronger, but having a friend who was as passionate about strength training as I was about running was the boost I needed to get my reps in.
I also find that occasionally running with someone who is faster than me pushes me to make real improvements in my training. When I was working towards my second marathon, which is still my PR race, I trained with a good friend every Sunday. He had a marathon PR that was ten minutes faster and in the beginning, I had a really hard time keeping up in the last quarter of our long runs. But running with him taught me to finish fast and push myself beyond what I thought I could do. Fortunately, I could help push him when it came to shorter speed on the track so we both benefitted from the training relationship.
Stay Within Your Limits – I have trained runners who have struggled to contain their pace on recovery days. They have the mindset that everyday needs to be a hard day in order to maximize their time on the road. I use two tools to slow them down so that their bodies recover. One option is to use a heart rate monitor. The other is to pair the runner with a teammate who is a bit slower. The runners have to tell me something new about the partner by the end of the run to be sure the run is completed at a conversational pace. They also have to finish the entire run together. Not only does this slow the faster runner down and force him to recover, but the slower runner almost always benefits mentally because they get a confidence boost from running with their faster teammates. It’s a win-win.
Social – The best part about having a regular running partner is that you will build strong friendships. Some of my best friends are those with whom I put in hundreds of miles in high school, college and after college. We worked through relationships that started and ended, solved all of the world’s problems and laughed about too many things to remember. Time spent running with friends is time you will cherish and look forward to every time you’re on the road.
Let Windsor Running help pair you with a coach or another team member in your city to help give your running and strength goals a boost!
With Us, You Will
Coach Jesse
I also find that occasionally running with someone who is faster than me pushes me to make real improvements in my training. When I was working towards my second marathon, which is still my PR race, I trained with a good friend every Sunday. He had a marathon PR that was ten minutes faster and in the beginning, I had a really hard time keeping up in the last quarter of our long runs. But running with him taught me to finish fast and push myself beyond what I thought I could do. Fortunately, I could help push him when it came to shorter speed on the track so we both benefitted from the training relationship.
Stay Within Your Limits – I have trained runners who have struggled to contain their pace on recovery days. They have the mindset that everyday needs to be a hard day in order to maximize their time on the road. I use two tools to slow them down so that their bodies recover. One option is to use a heart rate monitor. The other is to pair the runner with a teammate who is a bit slower. The runners have to tell me something new about the partner by the end of the run to be sure the run is completed at a conversational pace. They also have to finish the entire run together. Not only does this slow the faster runner down and force him to recover, but the slower runner almost always benefits mentally because they get a confidence boost from running with their faster teammates. It’s a win-win.
Social – The best part about having a regular running partner is that you will build strong friendships. Some of my best friends are those with whom I put in hundreds of miles in high school, college and after college. We worked through relationships that started and ended, solved all of the world’s problems and laughed about too many things to remember. Time spent running with friends is time you will cherish and look forward to every time you’re on the road.
Let Windsor Running help pair you with a coach or another team member in your city to help give your running and strength goals a boost!
With Us, You Will
Coach Jesse