Run Club: How To Stay Motivated When Training Solo

Get connected and up your running game.

Today is busy. You have work and you have home. You have that side hustle you’ve got going on, your mate’s birthday and and you really should think about doing your tax return before you once again slip into fine territory. There never, ever feels like there’s enough time. Plus, you want to work out.

Running is easy enough. You can fit in a run before work, after work or even pound the pavement on your lunch break. A quick 20 minutes is often all you need. The thing is it can be a bit of a solo mission, a little hard to get, and to stay, motivated. Especially as the heat of summer starts to fade and winter creeps ever closer.

There is, though, a solution of sorts: technology.

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Apps like Nike+ Run Club (NRC) make for the perfect running partner, allowing you to track your runs and your friends' runs too. They create a community of sorts, a connection. And this can really up your running game and your motivation: just as you show up to the exercise class you booked and to meet your friend for that walk, apps hold you to account.

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“Miles did eight kilometres this morning,” is, three days out of five, what I wake up to as my boyfriend checks in on his app before lacing up to see if he can hit whatever that total was plus one.

Apps like this are health-led social media. Even when your schedules don’t match up, you still feel connected. In-app, you can keep tabs on your pace, your distance, your heart rate and for the serious players, your mile splits … as well as those of your friends as you compare (read: compete) with your fellow runners. Game on.