MOTIVATION

"If your aspiration is to run a marathon eventually, then your total mileage and the time you spend on the roads will have to increase. Some runners have difficulty in making themselves do this and are liable to quit simply because of the boredom -- they don't like being alone for so long!

However, if you truly enjoy running, then boredom is only rarely a problem. In fact, boredom or lack of enthusiasm is often a symptom of over-training and may indicate the need for a rest. However, we do have some hints for enhancing the enjoyment of your training and overcoming any temporary lack of motivation.

The most effective solution is to run with someone else. Choose a running partner of your own calibre and interests so that aerrobic training can offer the opportunity to exchange ideas and views. Running partners assist each other, especially in the difficult parts of training -- emerging from the warmth of home on wet cold morning or perhaps toiling up some excrutiating hill in the heat. They bolster each other to raise mileage and enhance each other's ambitions to speed. Fartleking can become an order of the day without prior programming!

Another solution is to vary your traing routes: hills one day, valleys the next. It's difficult to be bored when the scenery is changing and you have to pay attention to the exigencies of the course. Even running a course in the opposite direction is as good as a 'rest' -- for one thing the hills can be appreciably different.

Many runners disassociate from the difficulties they may find in running by daydreaming. Graham has run many an important international event on a long training run -- difficult hills become quite easy when, in the mind, the legs are driving toward the Olympic Trials finishing tape!"

“Target 26 - a practical guide to marathon running,” Skip Brown and John Graham, Macmillan Publishing, NY, USA, editions in 1978, 1980 (Canada), 1983

ISBN: 1st edition: 0-02-028820-4 and 2nd edition: 0-02-028100-5 (Large Trade paperbacks)

Used copies vailable from the author, or through Amazon.com at prices from $1.00 to $8.00, plus shipping and handling.

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