Starting running is hard, no doubt about it. Keeping going through those first early weeks and getting to a point where you start to enjoy it takes a lot of perseverance. Throw dark evenings, cold weather and the occasional bit of rain and snow into the mix and, well, it’s no surprise that the sofa looks so tempting.

But you CAN do it.

I’ve been teaching beginner runners for three years now, and in that time I’ve never met someone who I thought ‘maybe running isn’t for you’. I’ve taught women in their 20s to their 60s to run, I’ve helped women who’ve never enjoyed any form of exercise to love running and I’ve seen them go on to inspire their friends to run.

I lead my runners from 0-5k in a 10 week course and the weeks tend to go a similar way: in week one they’re enthusiastic and ready to get going; week two those early nerves about meeting new people or being the slowest have gone and enthusiasm is still pretty high.

The first couple of weeks start off pretty gently with a minute or two of running at a time, but by week three we’re building up. And this is where it starts to get hard – not because of the time we’re running for but because life starts to get in the way.

Once the initial enthusiasm to start running starts to fade, it becomes harder to get out the door to run. We all have other priorities in life – work, family etc – and making time to run can be difficult. A missed session isn’t the end of the world, but it can make getting out for that next run even harder.

It’s not just beginner runners who experience this ebb and flow of enthusiasm, if you’re training for a new distance you were probably keen as mustard at getting those first few weeks of your training plan ticked off. But once the miles start to build up, your legs get tired and your enthusiasm wanes, it gets harder to be enthusiastic about every run.

Here’s my tips to get you through it…

Remember that this is normal – nobody is 100% excited to do every run on their plan. It makes you no less of a runner that you don’t want to go running today.

Establish a routine – if Thursday is when you always run home from work, you’re less likely to let things get in the way.

Make plans to run with friends – you’re less likely to bail on a run if you’ve got friends to do it with. Even better if you can get them to sign up for the same race as you and keep each other accountable during training.

Don’t dwell on missed runs – just pick up your plan from where you feel comfortable. That might mean backtracking a week or to depending on how many runs you missed.

Just starting running? My 0-5k and 5-10k Training Guides  are based on three years of working with beginners and will help you build up your distance safely and gradually.