Nick Hafer – Run More Often

Behavior to Change:

Go on more runs in general, but especially make sure you run once per day even when you desperately don’t want to. So I guess behavior to change would be “not wanting to go on runs”.

Measurements:

• Listed above is my Strava with the runs I completed over the 5 days I measured
• Day 1: scheduled morning run with my friend alex
  • Felt like because I was running with someone else, I was held accountable and therefore couldnt miss the run that day
  • Also because it was in the morning, it was out of the way and i didnt have to think about it later/after class/during work
• Day 2: Saturday was pretty free overall but I didn’t run until later in the day
  • Felt the need to run that day to keep the streak running that I had started on Day 1 – didn’t need too much activation energy
  • I was used to doing long runs on saturday in high school so wanted to see how a 1 hour run felt on a loop I used to do a few years ago
  • rain/music/trail made the run more interesting, but knees and feet hurt by the end from the pavement 
• Day 3: only had a short amount of time to run but felt really motivated
  • Was gonna do a ~30-40 min shake out (lots of excitement for this) but got invited to hang with friends in ~15 min, so decided to run as fast as i could for 10 min then shower and be ready in 5
  • Really excited, like a golden retriever, the whole run, but super tired after
  • Definitely liked having something to look forward to (hanging with good friends) after the run
  • Also liked keeping the 3 day streak going!
• Day 4: scheduled another run with alex for 8:15am
  • Accountability helped again, but the early time made it hard to wake up
  • Run hurt a lot after a little bit so stopped early
  • Happy that I got outside and got up early to get breakfast + get some strength training in after the short run + listened to my body to not get injured
• Day 5: felt amazing omg
  • Was gonna do a short slow run for 30 min, but just kept feeling good and going faster and faster 
  • Definitely gave me a lot of excitement during/after the run
  • Didn’t feel pain from day 4 at all, probably bc i was running on dirt the whole time
  • Good recovery shake after to keep spirits high
  • Had to cut myself off towards the end to prevent over training!

Experience:

My experience with this is probably different from someone just getting into running since I ran competitively in high school, but not much since then. I feel like once I get into the rhythm, it’s pretty easy to stay motivated, but it’s finding the right rhythm/balance with running, work, sleep, fun, etc. that can get difficult. I think that trying to get the run out of the way early in the morning works really well when I have a somewhat packed schedule that day. However, if I have a free weekend day or 2+ hours sometime later in the day, I feel comfortable running then with time to shower/eat post-run. I really liked this goal/behavior change because I’ve been wanting to get back into it for a while and it felt nice to reflect on each run during/after. I wonder if this assignment helped me be more conscious of this behavior to stay on track more. Or maybe knowing that I would have to post this to the class blog would make me want to stick to it more, I don’t know.

Models:

1. I think it’s kind of obvious that getting into a habit of running will keep you running. However, it’s interesting that being in that running habit/cycle can also lead to injury which takes away from everything else in the cycle and generally just reduces quality of life unless you substitute the running with some other activity/exercise.
2. This model is much simpler: it’s obvious that asking a friend to keep you accountable will keep you accountable, in this case to run. I think it’s interesting that the run does not complete the cycle of asking your friend to run again. I found myself sometimes scheduling another run right then and there with my friend, but the vast majority of the time it was some random time just texting them instead… not necessarily part of this model.

What I’d do differently next time:

If I were to do this again, I think I would try to systematize it more. I didn’t really come up with any questions for before/during/after each run for each day, nor a training plan to stick to. I think having answers to the same questions each day for motivation/reflection would make my results feel more scientific, as opposed to just a general reflection of my feelings towards running that day.