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Runners World Articles: Archives Under Pressure At one time or another, everyone gets pressured about their running. Family members don’t understand those 3-hour marathon training runs. They want you home with them. On the other hand, training partners want you to try the latest, gut-wrenching workout-the kind that makes you hobble around for days. Other training partners plead with you to slow down, just when you’re feeling good. But not all pressure is bad. Sometimes pressure can motivate you to run your best. Over the years, I’ve experienced all of these pressures. Here are my tricks for minimizing negative peer pressure and maximizing the positive. Remind your family why you run. We all need personal time to regroup, organize our day and renew our energy stores. Most runners find that going for an easy run for 30 to 40 minutes will get the mind and body geared up to meet the day’s challenges or to erase its stress. Remind your spouse and kids how much more enjoyable you are when you run regularly. Remind your boss why you run. Tell your boss that running boosts energy levels and productivity in the workplace. One runner I know told me her boss was dubious about her midday runÑuntil he monitored her productivity for several weeks and concluded that she worked best during the hours following her run. He became one of her most enthusiastic running supporters. Listen to feedback. Sometimes you need to listen to those cautions from your boss or family to cut back on running time. You don’t want to turn into a mileage junkie who’s neglecting other things in life. If, for example, your spouse or boss complains about the amount of time you spend pounding the pavement, ask some trusted running friends if they think you’re overdoing it. If they think you are, you probably are. Don’t limit yourself. Perhaps you started out on equal ground with a running partner, but you’ve advanced at different rates. Now your partner is slowing you down. Since you started out together, you’d feel guilty running alone or with someone else. So you keep running too slow, which hurts your progress. You can alleviate this problem without feeling disloyal. Instead of ditching your running partner, do a speed session once a week by yourself or with a faster companion. Do speed with Speedy. Sometimes keeping up with a speedy partner means pushing beyond your comfort level. A faster pace can make you faster. Running fast all the time, however, can lead to injury or burnout. So strike a compromise. Try to hang with Speedy once a week. On other days, use the talk test. You should be able to talk during the entire run without considerable huffing and puffing. Change the focus. Sometimes runners of equal ability push each other too hard purely for competitive reasons. Instead of competing to see who can finish the course first or who can stay in motion the longest, challenge each other to find the most scenic route or come up with the best postrun snack. That way you can satisfy your competitive instincts while maintaining a conversational pace. Tell your brain to shut up. The worst kind of peer pressure often comes from within. We place unrealistic time and distance expectations on ourselves-and get upset when we don’t reach them. You’ll know you’re pushing yourself too hard if running becomes a chore. When this happens, consider yourself grounded. Rule 1: You’re not allowed to wear your watch or heart-rate monitor for one week. Rule 2: For the next two weeks, run just three days a week and maintain a slower-than-usual pace on every run. (Go with that slower running friend to ensure you run easy.) Learn to laugh. I ask members of my training groups to bring three things to each run: a joke, a juicy story and a controversial issue. As each person talks, the good humor pulls everyone along, and the pressures recede.
From Runner's World, August 1998, p. 36
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