If you’re trying to get in the habit of running consistently, you absolutely need to schedule it on your calendar. 🗓️
Start with running 2-3 days a week. Doing something new only once a week feels awkward every time and it’s hard to get momentum and progress. Every day is unrealistic and difficult to sustain in the long term. You will burn out once the novelty wears off.Choose times where you can block off a full hour. This will give you time to run/walk for 30-40 minutes, plus have 20 min to warm up, cool down/stretch, and take a quick shower (or towel off and change clothes).
Be super respectful of yourself and your existing commitments when you plan this. Give yourself grace by picking a frequency and times that would be easy for you with very minor adjustments.
❌ Don’t say you’re going to get up at 4am and run before work if you are 100% not a morning person.
✅ Do see if you can find extra time and energy by cutting out activities that don’t support your goals— like going to Happy Hour after work or binging Netflix.
Put the chosen times on your calendar or whenever you keep track of your schedule/ appointments. This will eliminate decision fatigue throughout the week of figuring out how to fit in time to run. It will give you something to look forward to. It will also give you opportunity to make an easy, and clear choice to either commit to your goals or to blow them off.
Yes, life happens and things pop up so you can shimmy around the time as needed. But there’s a big difference between moving around appointments on your calendar and literally not having anything on it but expecting things to get done by coincidence. If you’re not a planner, this is a great way to ease into the habit of planning. (I swear, plans make the impossible possible!)
When are you running this week?
Olivia Lovejoy is your run bestie who shares running tips, training plans and motivation online and offers one-on-one run coaching to help new runners achieve their goals. Based in Hastings on Hudson, NY but just a click and scroll away: Instagram | YouTube | Run with me | Email me | Subscribe to my email newsletter
