Time Saving Tips For Runners

There can be a lot of reasons why you're short on time and this is definitely not an article to analyse your life and find time that is being wasted. For me, I find my heavy training period leaving me needing extra time for recovery, so every extra minute I can get during the day, gives me extra time for recovery at the end of it.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has any other ideas on time saving tips, but for now, I have put together my 9 favorite tips for saving time to help my training.

1. Use Your Commute to Run To Or From Work

I think this is the first thing that took me from someone that ran occasionally to a consistent runner. I started by running home on Fridays. Then I started running home every day of the week. This then turning into running to and from work on most days. Now that I'm consistently training daily and also live a lot further from where I work, I now only run part way to work, or will run to the gym to workout with my girlfriend. Its a great way to use dead time, if you have the chance.

2. Run On Your Lunch Break

Not everyone has one hour for lunch but if you do, it's a perfect time to get an extra run in. A one hour lunch break should give you enough time for you to fit in a nice 30 minute run, while still giving you enough time to get changed. Hopefully you can also eat back at your test when you get back to work.

3. Focus On Quality Not Quantity

If time is something you are short on, you may want to look at removing longer slower training that would not giving you much of a benefit. Increasing the intensity of your run could increase the quality of your runs while reducing the volume. HIIT is also an option to help reduce the amount of training you are doing and if you would like some more information, feel free to [checkout my latest post for the @runningproject]
(https://steemit.com/runningproject/@runningproject/hiit-training-deep-dive-for-the-runningproject)

4. Family Training

Getting your family involved is also a great way to spend more time together while getting your training done. You might want to run with your kids as they ride their bike. Alternatively you could take the family to the park and organise some family sprint work, making sure you are giving everyone else a good head start before each of your sprints.

5. Train Alone

Sometimes fitting training around other people is a big way to use up a lot of valuable time. It is also nice to get a coffee with friends after a run, but do you really need this. It may be worth heading home early after your run every second run with your friends. I completely understand if running with friends is a way to help your motivation and get your run done.

6. Have A Gear Bag Ready At Work Or In Your Car

Basically have your gear ready with you at all time. For me, I need to have a laptop with me a lot of the time, so I also have running gear and a small towel with my backpack that I carry my laptop in. This means I can run from almost anywhere as well as get to the gym if I am close by.

7. Stretching Off The clock

I think @chelsea88 mentioned it best in a recent post. This is a lot of things runners don't do and probably more so when we don't have any time. So why not make some use of time when your not specifically training to have a stretch. You could probably perform some light stretching when you shower, you can sit on a tennis ball if your sitting at all during the day to massage any tightness out of your legs, and you can always foam roll if you are sitting and watching TV later in the day.

8. Turn Your Errands Into A Workout

You don't always need to get into the car to run your errands. Getting to the store could mean running the "long way" to add in a run session and then walking home when the shopping is complete. A lot of the time, Doctors, Dentists and other professionals won't be too put out if you are a little sweaty when you meet them for an appointment.

9. Use Your Calendar To Schedule Time

This seems like a no brainer, but it you have a lot on, schedule all your training sessions into your calendar. This means any new appointments you add won't conflict. If you have it available to your partner and family, it will also help them work around time you already scheduled.

My latest post for the @runningproject is a "HIIT Training Deep Dive", so feel free to look it up below:
https://steemit.com/runningproject/@runningproject/hiit-training-deep-dive-for-the-runningproject

If you have found this post useful or interesting, please consider Commenting, Upvoting, Following and/or Resteeming @run.vince.run