5 Smart Strategies to Create a Successful Running Habit

Whether you’re hoping to stop an existing negative habit or create a new positive one, a huge key to success is to plan, plan, plan. Like most things that we’d like to do, if you don’t plan out when and how you’re going to run, it’s probably not going to happen. So to establish a successful running habit and keep it going, it’s important to make solid plans.

Here are five simple planning and executing strategies that can help you start a regular exercise routine and continue with a successful running habit, so you can reap all the physical and mental health benefits of running.

1. Running Habit Strategy: Plan out your runs.

At the beginning of the week (Sunday is always a good day for planning it out), look at your calendar and make time for running. As much as possible, try to stick to a consistent schedule from week to week. You don’t have to run at the same time every day you run, but if you start setting a regular running schedule, you’re more likely to get in the habit of running and stick with it.

By determining when, where, and how your runs will happen, you don’t have to think much about getting it done. Research has shown that this type of specificity does help people stick with a new habit. In one study about exercise compliance, a group of non-exercising college students were given data about how exercise could significantly reduce their risk of coronary heart disease. Participation in the fitness group increased from 29 to 39 percent. However, when the students received the heart disease information and were also required to indicate when and where they planned to exercise, compliance went up to 91 percent.

Other studies regarding healthy eating habits have found similar results. Study participants were much more likely to eat healthy, low calorie foods when they were asked in advance to say what they planned to eat for each meal.

When plotting out your running plan for the week, think carefully about your schedule, existing habits, and temperament to determine what will work best for you. Some runners run in the morning and there are numerous benefits to morning running. But you should plan your runs for when they work best for you. I know lots of runners who prefer to run in the evening after work, as a way to unwind and recover from a long, stressful day. Going for a run before heading home is a way to create a transition between work and home.

You may want to consider some other factors when planning out your runs. I always plan my weekly running schedule on Sunday while looking at the weather forecast on weather.com. I plan my longest runs of the week on the days when the weather is looking most favorable. If I know it’s going to be a torrential downpour or bitterly cold, I make that a treadmill day.

This strategy doesn’t always work out perfectly – sometimes my schedule isn’t that flexible. I’ve certainly done my fair share of runs in the rain or the freezing cold when I already had an outdoor run planned with my team or I just couldn’t bring myself to do a long run on the treadmill. But I find that consulting the weather forecast makes me more likely to get my runs done since I can’t use bad weather as an excuse to not run.

It also helps if you make plans with a running buddy, so you’re both held accountable. It’s a lot harder to blow off a 6:00 a.m. run when you know your friend is waiting for you. And if you keep a regular running date, everyone in your life is more prepared to deal with it. So, for instance, the kids know that running with your friend Michelle on Wednesday nights or your running group on Saturday mornings is just part of mom’s routine.

To do:  Plan a week of runs.

Whether you want to plan to run five minutes a day, use a training schedule, or come up with your own plan, schedule the runs that you’ll do for this coming week. Put them on your paper calendar, in your phone calendar, in a training journal, or on a sheet of paper that you hang on the fridge. Just make sure you’ll see them written down somewhere. Having your runs planned out someplace other than just your head will increase your chances of actually doing them.

After your first two weeks of regular runs, analyze what days and times have worked best for your schedule and routines. How did you feel after running in the morning? Are you an evening runner? What days of the week worked best for you to run? Take note of what worked best and what didn’t as you’re making your plans for next week.

2. Running Habit Strategy: Run every Monday.

If you belong to a gym, you may have noticed that it’s a lot harder to get a treadmill on Mondays, compared to other days. And it makes sense. Let’s face it: Mondays are tough. Starting the week out with an endorphin-boosting run or other workout can make us ready to face and help us deal with the anxiety, stress, and fatigue that Mondays can sometimes bring.

I try to run every Monday and I always feel like I’m starting off my week on the right foot. It’s motivating and satisfying to check something off my to-do list so early in the week. It’s like getting a head start on the week. Feeling that sense of accomplishment gives me a boost of motivation and confidence that gets me through the week and inspires me to get some more runs in. And that reward will force a running habit into a deeper groove.

Another benefit of running on Monday is that a last-minute invitation to blow off your run and do something else is less likely to pop up on a Monday. Think about it: Who is going to try to cajole you into going to Happy Hour on Monday night? Not much is happening on Monday evenings, so it’s a good time to go for a run outside or hit the gym. Or, if you wake up early to do a run Monday morning, you’re not going to feel like you’re missing out on much if you’re tired and hit the hay early Monday night.

To understand the effectiveness of running on Mondays, it helps to think about how you might feel when you don’t start your week out with a run. If you give into the pressures of work or family commitments or the desire to sleep in a little, you’re more likely to continue that pattern. Similar to the feeling of falling off track on a diet, you might think, “Well, I’m already off schedule this week” and be less motivated to stick to your plan for the rest of the week. Running on Monday sets a solid pattern for the rest of the week.

To do:  Plan to run on Mondays.

When planning your runs for the week, make sure you schedule some miles on Monday. The reward of feeling accomplished (and hopefully less stressed) will reinforce your commitment to complete your other scheduled runs for the week. Once you’ve run for several Mondays in a row, you’ll start to crave those rewards and you’ll be well on your way to establishing a Monday running habit.

Here are some tips to make sure you get in a Monday run:

Put it on your calendar. This is the number one reason I’m successful at getting my Monday runs done. I block out time, even if it’s just a half-hour, and I treat it like an appointment that I need to keep.

Prep for it. To guarantee yourself a Monday run, you need to prep for it in advance. Lay out your running clothes and gear on Sunday night, when you have a little more time, so you’re ready to go on Monday.

Plan a reward. As I already mentioned, Mondays can be tough! Give yourself a little reward for starting out the week right with a run. Plan for a post-run coffee or other mini-treat to give yourself something to look forward to.

3. Running Habit Strategy: Make your progress visible.

Seeing a record of your progress can be extremely powerful. Mark your runs and other workouts on a calendar and check them off as you go along. Seeing all those accumulating checks or X’s will give you a tangible, visible reminder of your progress and serve as motivation to maintain your running habit.

Some runners keep a training log or a running blog to track their progress. Jot your workout in your notebook and write some notes after each one. Be sure to mark the date, your approximate mileage and time and a few comments about how you felt (i.e., “finished strong,” “felt sluggish first 2 miles”).

Keep your log in a prominent place to help remind you (and maybe put a little pressure on you) to keep running. Or, if you prefer to do it online, create a running blog and post entries about your progress and share it with friends and family.

There are lots of great apps, like RunKeeper, that help you keep track of your runs on your phone. You may want to use a social fitness-tracking app, like Strava, so you can track your runs and also get the benefits of a supportive network of other runners.

A recent study in Nature Communications actually found that using a social fitness-tracking app may actually help motivate you to run longer and faster. Researchers found that if one person ran for about 10 minutes more than usual on any given day, their Strava friends would increase their workouts by approximately three minutes, even if the weather conditions weren’t ideal. They also found that if a friend ran faster than usual, his or her friends would tend to pick up the pace in their runs that same day.

Another benefit of tracking your workouts is that you know what you’ve done in the past, so you can continually try to improve your workouts to get fitter and stronger. You’re probably not going to remember what you ran from week to week, so it’s helpful to have a record of it.

To get stronger and fitter, you need to continually challenge yourself to up the intensity of your workout. Without tracking how intense you worked in the previous week’s sessions, you won’t know how much to push yourself in your current workouts. If you did three sets of ten push-ups last week, you should be trying for three sets of twelve push-ups this week.

Most of us do not have photographic memories and won’t remember what runs we did last week, let alone last month. Having a digital or paper record of what you did will allow you to see how far you’ve come and how to challenge yourself in your upcoming workout.

To do: Make a plan to track your workouts.

Whether it’s a wall calendar with your planned runs jotted down, a notebook used as a training journal, a printed training schedule, or a running app on your phone, figure out how you want to keep track of your runs. As you continue to check off your workouts, you’ll look forward to the reward of checking off another run and get motivated by seeing all those workouts recorded.

4. Running Habit Strategy: Remind yourself about your runs.

When I schedule my weekly runs, or any other exercise plans, in my phone calendar, I always set reminders. If I want to do a boot camp class at my gym, I need to sign-up for the class the day before, so I put a reminder in my phone to do that and then another reminder for the class itself. Many days I don’t forget that I have a run or other exercise planned, but there are some days when I’m completely spacing out or stressed and I really need the reminder.

Setting reminders is especially critical during the first few weeks of habit formation when the reminder can serve as one of your cues to start your run. As you continue to set reminders for your runs and do your runs after the reminder, you’ll begin to establish a habit cycle and the routine will start to become more automatic.

5. Running Habit Strategy: Don’t think all or nothing.

Even if you start with just a 5-minute daily run, you’ll eventually want to expand to longer runs and have a regular running schedule. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be days when it may be impossible to stick to your exact schedule.

On those days, don’t assume that you shouldn’t run at all if you can’t do what you originally planned. If you start skipping runs completely, you may slide down a slippery slope. One missed run turns into two skipped runs and so on.

Rather than skipping the entire run, do what you can. Run for a mile or two, if that’s all you have time for. One mile is better than no miles, and going through your running routine, regardless of the distance you run, will help deepen the groove of your habit.

Beyond the habit-building benefits, you’ll also make some fitness and health gains with shorter runs. Frequent, shorter runs help your body adapt better than infrequent longer runs. You’re also less likely to get injured if you run consistently, as opposed to taking the “weekend warrior” approach of cramming lots of exercise in on the weekends. So you’re actually better off doing three 20-minute runs during a week than just one hour-long run.

30-Day Beginner Running Program

Need some help getting your running habit going? Check out this 30-Day Beginner Running Program.

About the author: Christine Luff is a certified RRCA running coach, and certified as a personal trainer, fitness nutrition specialist, and a weight management specialist by the American Council on Exercise. Her book, Run for Good: How to Create a Lifelong Running Habit, is available on Amazon.