How do you motivate yourself to run after work? (Read 3131 times)

Hi all, I'm a morning runner - if I haven't run before breakfast it's all over. At the moment (well, until last week when I had to go on school camp) I've been running 4 days a week. I'd like to put in a 5th run but I like my schedule of Mon, Tues, Thurs, Sat - I like a weekend sleep in and I also cannot face getting up at 5:30am more than three times a week! So, I've come to the realisation that I will have to run one evening (i.e. do a double). Problem is, I work relatively long hours and find it really hard to motivate myself after work. How do you evening runners get yourself out the door (running home from work is not an option)? And how do you make sure you don't eat too soon before you run? (I know, I know - just don't eat, but...) Thanks for your help!!!

I prefer to run after work since I'm not a morning person when it comes to running. I work 9 till 5 and for the summer there is still plenty of daylight left when I get home. With my hectic house there are some nights when running has no choice but to wait until after dark and then I just get my miles in on the treadmill. But, for days when I can run before dark I try to eat something small at work later in the day around 4:00 so that I'm not starving before my run. Then when I get home I make dinner for the family and then head out for my run and eat when I'm finished. Sometimes I'll sit with my family for a bit to enjoy the usual dinner talk, then I'll head out.

What Michelle said, with the exception of the treadmill (during the warm months, I go outside regardless.) I'm on a train at 5:45AM, so morning running during the week is just not possible for me. If you measure your food intake through the day, you can eat what you need and not be starving at run time. Or, if you don't mind running later, you can eat a sensible dinner and give it time to digest before heading out... although I've found that this can be a bit tricky. As far as motivation... I don't find any difference in getting myself out the door in the evening versus the morning. Some days, I enjoy the evening runs more, because I have something to look forward to during the day. I especially like it after a tough day for stress relief - getting the demons out on the road, instead of around the family.

I work 12-13+ hour days and when I plan a run for after work (which is about once a week), I make sure I have it in my head the day before so that way it's always on my mind and by the time I get home I have no choice but to go run! I will tell my husband and usually when I get home he is all dressed in his running clothes and ready to go! Even when he's not up for it I still make it out the door. Sometimes, like last Friday, I'll have a super stressful day and running will help me destress. For my destress runs, I will do 2 super easy miles to work it all out and then I like to sit around and just rehash on my day before I go back home. By the time I get back home, I'm my normal self. My mantra for any run, morning or evening, is that I never regret a run but I will beat myself up for missing a planned run so it's not worth the mental anguish for me to miss one of my scheduled runs. I am flexible though, if I have something come up that absolutely must be taken care of and I can't run then I don't.

I'm a regular night time runner. I recommend NOT eating dinner before you go. Maybe a small snack. But a full dinner is a sure fire way to make me either a) feel too full to run or b) something in the food will invariably give me stomach problems e.g. indigestion or burping - neither of which are fun while running.

Like most of the responders here, I'm not a morning person for running either. I'm definitely not motivated to get up and go run in the morning. Typically my weekend runs are early to late afternoon or even into the evening. I think your question is, how do I motivate myself. Well first off, i seldom go home fo rmy run. I have a pot to stop and run and this just makes it part of my routine. I find on that rare occassion when I do go home, then I have to push myself to get out the door and not get involved with reading the paper or starting some project (like mowing the lawn). Also, by running at night, I have the day to think about what I want to run, how far, what pace, even which course. So I think that this helps motivate me to run. I've been in those stressfull jobs of working 10-12+ hrs a day nad it is hard to get motivate to run after that, but during the summer with so much daylight it was easy to get it in and very stress reducing.

I have been an evening runner ever since I started running over the winter. I always try and sneak in a sensible snack before I leave from work and change into my running gear as soon as I walk in the door. That way I have no excuse if a sudden pang of laziness falls over me. By the time I stretch and get moving, the snack has settled, and I am swiftly heading down the road. I guess its just the development of a routine. However, recently the after work runs have been difficult due to the much warmer temperatures, and sauna like humidity. I would prefer to have a better performance and run in cooler conditions, so I have been attempting the transition to morning runs. I have attempted morning jaunts several times recently with mixed results. The most amusing of which included getting attacked by a chihuahua , very strange way to start my day, but that may be a story for a different thread altogether.

This is an interesting thread. I find myself on the other end of the spectrum from most people who have responded so far. I have to run after a long day of work. Knowing that I have that run or mtn bike ride is the only thing that gets me to the end of the day sometimes. When I took a few weeks off of running this spring, I found myself getting really mentally fried and my stress levels were through the roof. I generally work 12 hour days (on my feet the entire time) and once I start running, I feel re-energized. On the eating side of this discussion, I have to eat before I do a run. I've found if I have lunch at 4 and run at 6 that works ok. If I eat lunch any earlier, I need to have a snack (smoothie, muffin, banana, etc) about 1/2 and hour prior to running. I rarely have any stomach issues (usually if I do, it's from drinking caffeine too late in the day).

How do you evening runners get yourself out the door (running home from work is not an option)? And how do you make sure you don't eat too soon before you run?

I guess I am used to it. There are times that I am exhausted from work (more mentally than physically - office job), and I find that I am re energized after I run. The trick for me is to get home, change, and get right out the door. I run before I eat dinner, so no issues there. It's definitely hotter in the afternoon, but I find if I hydrate throughout the day and slow down during the run I can get through it.