It’s Wednesday, so it’s time to link up with Debbie for her Wednesday Word weekly link up!
Click the button above to see who else is linking up this week and to join in. This week’s word is accountability.
When you’re trying to keep a regular running/workout schedule and especially when you’re training for a race, sometimes pure willpower isn’t enough. You need things that help keep you accountable to yourself. Here are a few things that keep me accountable….
- A Running Buddy. One of the things that helps the most with accountability is when you have an individual or group to meet up with. Knowing someone is waiting for you will get you out of bed before the sun on a Saturday morning when it’s 40 degrees and raining. It also really helps just to have someone to check in with and talk to about your running.
Me, Nicki, and Kim at the 2012 Blue Ridge Half Marathon - A Training Schedule. Making a plan, whether it’s to workout four days a week on M-W-F-Sa or an 18 week training program for a marathon, will keep you accountable. Especially if you are type A like me 😉 When I know what the plan is that week, I can make adjustments in my schedule as needed to make sure everything works out.
- A Running Log. Naturally, if you are following a plan you’ll need somewhere to write it down. It could be tempting to just cross a workout off of your plan and skip it. But it’s harder to do that when you have to go tell your running log. Writing down your workouts is also really useful for tracking trends – what works and what doesn’t, developing injuries, etc.
- This Blog. I have been blogging since January 2013. For most of the first year, I blogged nearly every day. I don’t even know how I did that back then! Now I blog three times a week. But either way, it definitely keeps me accountable. Sometimes social media can be overwhelming, with everything people post on it. But it can keep you accountable, too, if you want to be able to post as well! Specifically, this blog gives me a place to share my thoughts and (sometimes) vent my frustrations. And it gives me a place for support and encouragement, and to interact with others and hear their stories.
What keeps you accountable?
Turkey Runner 
Life keeps me accountable.
LUD.
That would definitely keep you accountable!
I definitely agree that having a plan helps keep me accountable. I also love having a group to tell about my plans. Even if no one is going to say “Hey Alison, aren’t you training for XYZ? How’s that going?”, just knowing that I put it out there keeps me going!
Choosing to tell a few people (or a lot of people) what your goals are will definitely help keep you accountable, whether or not they’re checking in with you on it!
Oh, yes, my blog keeps me accountable! I put it all out there, and I hear from people how that keeps them motivated!
Blogging creates a great give and take between the person writing it and the people reading. All of those interactions definitely keeps you accountable.
I agree, I need a plan, even if it is a loose plan it helps me to tackle the week 🙂 Blogging buddies, even though I don’t post much, really got me through summer.
If you don’t have that plan, everything else that happens during the week can quickly take over and workouts get shoved to the side.
Ooooh, good point about the journal! I LOVE my Believe journal and this is the very first year I’ve managed to keep it up the whole year (so far). I’ve started & stopped before. It’s really helpful.
Social media is definitely overwhelming at time. I seriously don’t know how people do it. I don’t work & there is just no way I’m blogging everyday. My husband asked why I don’t on the weekends usually, and I said quality over quantity.
I’ve seen those Believe journals – they look really neat. Great job keeping up with it this year! It will be great to go back and read sometime. Occasionally, I like to reread my old training logs.
This sounds silly, but my running clothes keep me accountable. If I lay them out, I have to run. It’s like they are taunting me until I get up! It’s a little mental trick that works very well.
It’s all about those little tricks that work for each of us!
My dog here lately keeps me accountable to my walks in the morning too. He is just so excited about going walking until it’s hard for me to say no to him!
It’s hard to say no when they’re so excited!
Definitely my blog keeps me accountable! These days I no longer write down my training plan, but have it stored up there among the cobwebs in my brain. I used to have it written down in great detail, though.
It was great seeing you on Sunday! Thanks for the run and for sharing your trail with me.
Thanks for linking up!
Great to see you, too! I’m glad I got to show you some of my stomping grounds 🙂 Another time we will hit up Pandapas or go further down on the NRT where it’s more picturesque.
Running buddies for sure! That’s the biggest one. So many times I’ve been snuggled up on the couch and would’ve stayed there if running buddies didn’t ask me to run. The other things you mentioned help me as well!
Oh yea! Having a buddy to meet up with is what gets me out of bed early on a Saturday morning when it’s freezing and the wind is howling 🙂 That so would not happen without that accountability.