Consistency

(With my friend Mike Montgomery, who I've known almost as long as I've been running ultras - 28 years. And he's still running tons of ultras. Can't think of a better photo for consistency. Photo: MIsty Herron)

How do you break a cycle of inconsistency?

Where you’re missing runs and it bothers you enough to finally get out there for a solid week or two of running but you lose focus, miss a day or two…and find yourself back missing runs.

Where you just can’t get out the door and the more runs you skip, the harder it is to get out there.

It’s infuriating.

You know consistency is important. Everybody says it matters more than mileage or time on your feet. You used to be good at it.

So you try all the tricks and hacks.

You run with friends and groups to guilt yourself into showing up.

You lay out your running clothes the night before to make it easier.

You register for a race you should want to run but don’t.

You try tracking progress to your race goal but that requires consistency too. 

You try and make running fun...but how?

You schedule time for running and then blow it off anyway.

You change your diet, cross-train, and drink more water hoping that helps.

But you run out of ideas and still aren't consistent.

None of it worked because you’re fighting against your own motivation.

There’s a reason you don’t want to run…and that’s incredibly hard to admit, especially when great ultrarunners are intensely dedicated, single-mindedly driven, and obsessively goal-focused. 

But if you want to break the cycle, that’s what you have to do - face why you don’t actually want to run.

Facing and accepting it breaks the cycle. You no longer need to summon enough willpower or shame yourself out the door every day.

The key is figuring out what you’re trying to avoid - what’s discouraging you from running?

Sometimes another priority is stronger at the moment than running. You thought you could take on that special, fast-track assignment at work and still run like normal but there aren’t enough hours for both.

Most often, however, it’s the way you think it will feel to run. You think everything will be better if you can get out and run but in the background, your brain predicts everything will be worse. 

For example, maybe you’re overcommitted and the idea of training exhausts you.

Or you compare yourself to others a lot so you carry a mean critic along in your head the whole run.  

Or you’re out of shape and it’s going to be a long, hard slog to get in shape and even then, you’ll never get back in the shape you used to be in.

Or you’re sure you’ll work hard to put in all the training miles, hill work, strength training, and speed work you can for months and months…and still DNF.

Or you’ll never run like you did 20 years ago and every run inescapably highlights your decline.

Or you’re simply no good at consistency and you’re going to fail at it all over again, so why bother?

Whatever the reason, once you know it, you can stop getting frustrated.

Have compassion for yourself.  

Put motivation back on your side.

And make the changes you need to make to break the cycle of inconsistency for good.