I’ve lost the desire to run – what now?

Hitting the wall is one thing for a runner, losing the desire to run is something else entirely. We all know what it’s like to hit the wall on a run. You can’t go any further, your body doesn’t want to go any further, you haven’t filled the engine with enough gas, and you stall. We can all get over that, all we have to do is get home and fill the tanks up again, and the engine will start running again.
But losing the desire to run is even worse. Losing the motivation to lace up your running shoes and go for a long run is never fun, and for some it is quite a hill to climb. A mountain that must be conquered before you find running fun again. The article below contains, among other things, a real-world story about going from loving running to hating running, and you can also find good advice on how you can possibly get started running again if you have been stuck for a while.

I have lost the desire to run – what do I do?

Not everyone gets to experience it during their running career, but still there are a lot of runners who reach the point where running just isn’t motivating anymore. There can be several different reasons why you lose your desire to run. It’s very individual what’s bothering you. Below you will find our take on some of the most common reasons why people give up on running shoes and runs. But of course you can also find good advice on how to tackle it and get back to running after an involuntary break due to lack of desire and motivation.

Why have I lost the desire to run?

There can be many reasons and reasons why you have lost the desire to run. But don’t worry, you always have the opportunity to get back on the horse. Below we give you some good advice and concrete examples to find the desire to run again..
There could be 1000 different reasons why you can’t run anymore, or can’t manage your run. But there are still some reasons that are more common than others.

Overtraining:

Many people find that they overtrain. You think everything is fun and exciting, and you just train to get by. At some point, your body may say no, and start sending signals back to you that enough is enough. You may run into minor injuries that you don’t usually get. If your body suddenly becomes too tired due to overtraining, the desire to run may easily disappear more and more.
Solution: Turn down the training intensity a little and let your body rest a little so it can recover properly. Then your desire will probably come back to you. Recovery is important, and you can read more about that here. the real refund here.

Stressful everyday life:

If you have the energy, it could be that your stressful everyday life is teasing you. That you can’t find the “hole” in a stressful everyday life to put on your running shoes and go for a run. It could be that your body isn’t tired, but it’s your head. Your head is full of all sorts of other things, and your motivation to run drops in line with the more stressful everyday life. If you push yourself to run during such periods, the run won’t be enjoyable, and it almost always happens that your desire to run disappears more and more. A run should be fun, and you should have the energy to complete it.
Solution:Leave the running shoes behind, get a handle on the other things that are bothering you. You can possibly set aside 1-2 hours on the weekend where you can run. Don’t squeeze 2-3 runs into your everyday life if you don’t have time for that.

Too high ambitions:

Ambitions are good, high ambitions are also good – but too high ambitions can kill your motivation. You don’t have to run for your PR every time. If you hunger for likes and recognition every time you post your training sessions, and for every run you set new and even higher ambitions, then you will kill yourself at some point. Or rather, you will kill your motivation, because at some point you will hit the wall. You see that quite often.
Solution: Don’t always be a slave to the clock and performance. Give yourself permission to enjoy the run once in a while. Make sure you enjoy running, it’s important for motivation.

The goals for the year have been achieved:

You’ve been lucky enough to stay motivated all year, your goals have been achieved, and suddenly you have nothing more to aim for. The goal on the horizon is gone. For some, not having a goal to aim for can be a motivation killer. Many people are 110% committed to a big race, everything is concentrated on having to perform on a certain day. When the goal (hopefully) has been achieved, it becomes everyday life again. First of all, the body probably needs some rest after you’ve pushed it to the max for a long time. For example, if you’ve run a full marathon, it’s important that you give your body a break, but many people also experience a drop in motivation. That’s okay.
Solution: Let your body decide. Rest is important, and most importantly. Always make sure that after a long run you only run for pleasure. When you have recovered well enough, run when you feel like it. If you have another big race just around the corner, then of course you have taken that into account in your training plan :-) Then recovery and subsequent training towards the new goal are completely under control.

Bad experience:

You have been unfortunate enough to achieve a poor result. Many people have a feeling and a hope of where they would like to finish when they run a goal. And if you then experience not being able to run/live up to the expectations that you or your surroundings have for you, then you can easily fall into the big pot of lack of motivation to run. There are many factors that can play a role in this. We can all have a bad day at the office, your legs don’t want to do as you would like. There can also be indirect elements that have been responsible for your failure to perform. Poor nutrition, lack of sleep, stressful everyday life are some of the frequent reasons you see when a “goal” falls to the ground.
Solution: Hurry up and get back on track. If possible, do a mini-analysis of what could be the reason why you didn’t perform? If it’s something you can influence, do something about it. If it’s external factors (like the weather), forget about it as soon as possible. Get back on track and you’ll be better prepared for next time. We can all be unlucky or have a bad day.

The running injury:

There is nothing more de-motivating for a runner than an injury. You really want to run but can’t give it your all because of a nagging injury. Then you lose the desire to run all too quickly. Injuries can really kill motivation. There can be many reasons for injuries, and that alone is worthy of an entire article. But some of the most common reasons for running injuries are found in overtraining, the wrong running shoes and or the wrong surface.
Solution: Get back on track. The injury simply needs to be allowed to heal. You need to give a running injury the rest it needs. If you start too early, there is a risk that the injury will flare up, and where before the run you were perhaps a week away from being able to train properly again, you are now 3 weeks away from being 100% back on track. So give your body time to heal. If you want to go out and sniff it a little, put on your running shoes and go for a walk. It smells a little bit of it.

Second training takes over

It happens that new offers come up, other forms of training. It can be training that includes a little bit of running, or another form of training that does not include running at all. But many people want to try something new, and new is always fun, so you lose a little motivation for the old and boring. It is also possible that the new or different training may take some of the desire away from you as a runner, as the training is so demanding that it is no longer fun to run. Spinning can be extremely hard on the legs, and really make them tired. It can easily ruin the enthusiasm for a run that you cannot perform as you would like due to tired legs.
Solution: Give the new workout a chance – it’s never a bad idea to try something new. But varied training is even better, so see if it’s possible to combine the new workout with some running on the side. You might even agree with yourself that you’ll accept running a little slower.

The season can kill

It is easier and for many also much more fun to run in the spring and in the fantastic Danish summer. When it is dark autumn and winter in Denmark, motivation drops for many runners. It does so because everything becomes much heavier and a little more difficult. You have to spend much longer getting dressed, it can be more dangerous to run because of ice and snow, and there are many “excuses” and that can make motivation drop. And then some choose to take the easy choice of skipping the run
Solution: Promise yourself (and put it in your calendar) that while you might run 2-3 times a week during the bright and warm months, you’ll run once (maybe twice) a week during the dark months. That way you’ll stay in shape, and when you get home you’ll feel really good, and your motivation won’t drop.

Summary: Good ideas for getting back into running

The above are just some of the problems and solutions you may run into. There are certainly many other risks and given solutions to these challenges. But the important thing in this process must clearly be that you listen to your body’s signals, because many of the reasons that make you lose the desire to run are rooted in your body’s signals. It’s a bit like a person who gets stressed. The body can tolerate running at full speed for a given period, at some point it says stop, and then you just slow down completely. So listen in time, and see if there is anything preventive you can do..
Slow down your training a little if you feel like running is “suffocating you.” After all, a little bit of running is better than no running at all.

It all sounds very philosophical and a little bit clever, but it’s actually not that difficult. Your body will definitely send you some signals when it’s tired, stressed, not in top shape, etc. Listen to them, and you’ll be one step closer to running into that wall called “lost the will to run.”

The Runner Who Lost His Passion – The Real Life Story

This story is still fresh at the time of writing, and is actually in a state where work is still being done to get back to the old desire and motivation for a run. Yep, you guessed it right, it is the undersigned who is behind this story, and it is he alone who is the basis for writing this article. My thought was that I was not the only one in the world who had been through this, and if I can help others in the future, I am happy to do so.

But it’s really very simple. It was all supposed to be so big and beautiful, and it was all supposed to culminate in a PR on the 21 kilometers. Everything was planned (I thought) But I had to get smarter.
A plan was made for how I would achieve the goal. A running test with subsequent talk about how and in what way I should train to get the best opportunities to perform on the day. Other training was opted out in order to optimize my running training. Among other things, I chose that spinning should no longer be part of the weekly training, as it simply made my legs too tired. Therefore, some crossfit and circuit training were added to the weekly calendar. In order to get some more strength (muscles) in the legs in particular.
As a bonus – it wasn’t originally part of the plan – I got the idea that for six months I would limit my intake of sweets and completely abstain from alcohol. Of course there was still room for a little sweet on the weekends with the kids, but alcohol was completely avoided (I didn’t drink much before either – but now it became a no thanks to EVERYTHING. Not so much as a glass of red wine for 5½ months leading up to the day). As I said, it wasn’t part of the original plan, but I thought that at least it wouldn’t reduce my chances of performing.

Everything is going as it should – May is approaching, and I actually feel pretty good and have great faith that it will succeed.

It must be said that this is the Lillebælt Half Marathon – and the time to be achieved was 1 hour 29 minutes 50 seconds.

Everything seems to be coming together. Well, there’s one little thing I forgot to tell you, I’m an avid hygge hunter and the buck hunt starts in Tysklan on May 1st. That’s why we planned a trip with the boys down to look at nature a bit. This trip coincided with the weekend I was supposed to run. I came home on Friday, where I was supposed to run on Saturday..
And looking back, it’s that trip alone that’s to blame for why I don’t feel like running anymore. I had faith that “of course I could easily do that.” But if you’re a hunter, you know your rhythm when the buck hunt starts, and for the rest of you, it’s something with far too little sleep and a very high level of tension. Apparently not the best combination in the world when you’re going to run on the weekend. I probably got an average of 4½ hours of sleep per night. And yes, it was with the boys, so a beer or two was also drunk. But certainly nothing wild – I had it in my head the whole time that I had to perform on the weekend.

The day will come – I will flop BIG TIME, I have never stopped and walked to a half marathon before. I did this time. Already after 8 kilometers. I completely collapsed, and finished with a time of 1 hour 43 minutes and 42 seconds. So miles away from the declared goal. The body no longer wanted to perform when it was supposed to. And this can be attributed to the fact that it has not received the necessary care in the week leading up to it. It has been both stressed and in a mega sleep deficit.

But back to losing the desire. After that Saturday in May, the desire to run completely disappeared. It suddenly wasn’t much fun anymore. And could I even run fast enough?
It took a really long time before the running shoes came back on and I hit the road. First time in the normal uniform with heart rate monitor etc. Determined to run good times. It has dropped again. Now I’m struggling to find the motivation again.

My cure is that running should be fun again, so I’ve let my heart rate monitor run out of power and hidden the charger very far away. So when I run now, it’s without being a slave to the watch, and there’s even been room for it to be okay to jog or walk. I’m not running very long runs right now, in fact, after about a month and a half, I probably haven’t run more than 6km yet. Right now, it’s all about getting some spirit back in my running shoes.
When I’ve reached a point where I think it’s fun again, the next part of the plan is ready (and I can tell I’m well on my way). But the next part is about finding a new goal to go after. It could easily be a new half marathon with a PR (I don’t think it will be) but it could easily be. Because I can feel it in myself, and I also knew it well in advance, that I train and perform best if I have a goal on the horizon. A place where all this running and spending a lot of time will culminate. So I’m very confident, I’m sure my desire to run is just around the corner, and I’m sure I’ll get back on the horse.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I certainly didn’t see it coming. It came a bit like a bolt from the blue. And the feeling you have all of a sudden is very strange, and can’t really be described in words. Going from running 2-4 times a week to having completely lost the desire to run is quite a leap for me. But nevertheless, that’s exactly what happened.

We would love your advice for the runner who has stalled.

As always, you are more than welcome to give us your input, and also your story. It may be that another runner can use your experiences. So have you ever been in a situation where you lost the desire to run? What did you do, and what methods did you use to find the desire again?