With Coach Alexa, Online Running Coach and in-person coaching in South Oxfordshire
Why Starting a Run in the Rain Feels Harder
Hi team. We Run Coach Alexa here. An interesting phenomenon cropped up last week when we were having a lot of rain. It is easier to go out for a run or a walk or a cycle or whatever it might be when it’s not raining, and then it might start raining on that run, but somehow that’s far easier than trying to get yourself to go out for a run when it’s already raining.
It’s interesting psychology and it crops up a lot. I certainly experience it with all sorts of different types of training, and it is certainly really common in my runners as well.
How to Hack Your Brain on Rainy Days
So I was thinking how we could hack into that and make our brain a little bit happier because either outcome, whether or not it is actually raining at the beginning of the run, we’re still probably going to get a bit wet at this time of year.
Warm Up Indoors First
I was wondering whether thinking about doing a little bit of a warmup so you get yourself a little bit warm inside the house. Maybe some dynamic stretches, maybe a little bit of jogging on the spot, so you are already a little bit warmer when you go out. Sometimes our fear, or our brain’s fear, around that is just the cold and the unpleasantness.
Use the Right Kit
Having good kit is always gonna help. Kit that maybe keeps the extremities a little bit warmer. For me, a bit of a neck tube and gloves, even if they do get slightly wet in the rain, still kind of keep my body heat in a little bit, plus a decent waterproof jacket.
Avoid Looking Out the Window
Sometimes I play a little trick on myself where, particularly in the evenings when it is getting quite dark now, any evening running you are pretty much in the pitch black. And helpfully, because of the slight layout of my house as well, it’s just not looking out the window.
So I do not really know, once I’ve finished working and the curtains have maybe been drawn for an hour, an hour and a half by the time I finish work. And I just put my stuff on and I go. At the point where I’m all ready and raring and off out is when I realise what the weather is actually like.
Keeping Consistent Through Winter
Maybe have a little bit of a think about that. Not all of those are gonna be easy for you to do depending on your personal setup and logistics at home. But it’s interesting, isn’t it, that somehow it’s perfectly manageable when it starts raining on a run, but our brain builds it up into this kind of, oh no, it couldn’t possibly, if it starts raining before we go out.
So something to bear in mind when it comes to keeping the consistency of training over these slightly wetter winter months.
Happy running.
