Happy Wednesday!

I hope everyone’s week is going by quickly and smoothly. I’ve had to make a few changes this week to help get me out of my running funk last week, and so far so good! I’ll go into more detail later this week!

Aside from evaluating my training, there are also some fun things you can do to help get your mind off the negative during training sessions.

 

New Music

Saturday morning before my long run I had some new music to my iPod. Only a few songs, but they can make all the difference!

I only get to listen to music on my runs 1-2 times per week, since I don’t listen to it early in the morning. Having some new music to look forward to really helps me to get excited about the run.

 

New Clothes

I easily own more running clothing than regular clothing at this point. However, I find that sometimes one new little piece of clothing can go far when it comes to helping motivation. It may seem trivial but it works!

The past 4-5 years I’ve lived in cities with very few running stores. There aren’t tons of places to go to find good running clothes. Since we’ve moved to Danville, my go to store for running clothes has been Dick’s Sporting Goods.

You are probably thinking what I was thinking when I first moved here, can you really find quality running clothes at Dick’s?

I am here to tell you yes, you can!

 

Here are a few small purchases I made over the weekend that have got me pretty excited.

These awesome Nike Tempo Shorts which have quickly become my favorite type of shorts to train in.

I even used them on my Tempo (see what I did there) run on Tuesday morning. They were light, didn’t ride up and were perfect for warm weather running!

These two running themed Nike tanks that I fell in love with pretty quickly. These are going to be worn more casually then while running, but I can never turn down running themed apparel!

Dick’s Sporting Goods has recently re-designed a the women’s department in their stores, opening up space and making it much friendlier while browsing. They are specifically focused on making room for strollers and children.

They had a surprisingly great assortment of Nike, Reebok, Underarmour, and even Oiselle! I had no idea they even carried all those brands!

Get out there and find some an item or two of new clothing, it always helps me get out the door!

 

New Course

One area I’ll touch on later this week in more depth, is the area you run. I’ve always stuck to the same road or two because of the availability of light early in the morning. I’m made it a point that aside from my workouts this week, I need to find a new area to run.

The mental frustration of running the same road day in and day out can be really frustrating. It makes all the difference to find fun, new places to explore!

 

Focus on The Joy

Monday morning I was reminded of some of the simple joys of running early in the morning. Sure, it’s early and tiring but one of the greatest joys is running and watching the sun come up. Whether it is finishing a hard workout or just running easy, it is an awesome way to start the morning.

 

Don’t Forget to Have Fun

The thing about running is that you have to have fun. Even though the hard workouts, early mornings and extra essentials to staying healthy may not seem fun, if you can’t find some fun in it then it may be time to look for something else.

Running is fun. We have hard days, hard weeks, hard training cycles, but the end of the day if you still can find fun in it then it’s worth it!

 

Have you ever shopped for running clothes at Dick’s Sporting Goods?

What fun things do you do to increase your motivation?

 

This post is sponsored by Vocalpoint and DICK’s Sporting Goods. All opinions are my own.