Top Five Tips to Keep You Running This Christmas

December can be a tricky time of year for runners, especially if you are training for a spring race.

You want to enjoy the festivities but you also don’t want to feel guilty about having to choose between your training and social activities.

So, what to do?

Here are my top 5 tips to help you keep running this Christmas

Be picky about your runs

If you only have time for one run and the choice is between an easy run, a long run and a tempo run think about what your goals are and prioritise the run that will help you towards that goal.

If your goal is just to keep running prioritise the easy run. If you have a spring marathon prioritise the long run. And if you are trying to get a PB then the tempo run might be the one to go for.

Just get out there

Having said that sometimes it’s just better to get out there. A 15 minute run is better than planning for a 60 minute run and never doing it! You’ll feel good about having got out there rather than guilty about not.

And a 15 minute run doesn’t have to be an easy run. It you want to do a 15 minute tempo or intervals, go for that!

Enter a race or a challenge 

Having something to aim for definitely helps! For the last 2 Decembers I have entered Run Up To Christmas with my running group. It’s a nice group challenge that helps you keep running.

You might have a local Santa race that would be fun to run or you might need a bigger goal such as a 10k run in January.

Just choose the one that will inspire you to keep getting out of the door.

Agree a plan ahead of time

 And I don’t mean a training plan, but rather plan when you are going to run with your significant other/family members/children.

If you say in advance you need to run and say when you are going to do it you will be more inclined to run and you won’t feel guilty about doing it.

It might mean that you agree you will run first thing in the morning whilst your other half gets the kids ready for school, or plan to meet friends in a coffee shop at the end of your long run, or maybe that you want to have space mid Christmas day morning where you can get outside for 20 minutes to clear your head before any cooking happens.

Don’t stress 

But most importantly don’t stress.

It’s really easy to stress and worry about missed runs and try to “catch up” with them. But sometimes we just need to rest and recover. Having a few no run days is perfectly acceptable!

Try and fit in what you can but if you miss a few days that’s not a problem, especially if you follow tip 1 about prioritising the runs that will help you reach your goal.

 

Do you always make time for running over Christmas or is it a time when you keep the running to a minimum?