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Friday Five 2.0: Running with Friends


It’s Friday so I’m linking up with Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness for the Friday Five 2.0 linkup! Join in! Don’t forget to link back to your hostesses and visit some other bloggers.

My topic today is: How to Run with Friends

This post is a result of a conversation with some running friends.

This past Saturday, we met up with a new group of runners.  Since we all run at different paces, we paired up.

After the run, we went out to brunch and chatted. My friends complained about one new runner that ran with them.  They said that all she did was complain about how she ran too slow to run with the others.  Why should she drive and meet them if they didn’t run with her, yada yada yada. The result was that my friends said that they will never run with her again.

So here are my tips.  Maybe one will work for you.

1. Suck it up and run their pace

In other words, skip the intervals and if running without walking is too fast for you, just run fewer miles.

Faster fewer miles = slower longer interval miles

2. Run Slower

If your friends run slower than you, then add some miles before the run so you are running with them when you are tired.  Again you can run more miles if you are running them slower.

3. Do your Workouts and Drills at another time.

We all have goals, race plans or maybe a coach, but running with others is not the time to practice your race paces.  You can do this when you are running alone.

4. Meet Afterwards for Food

Runners all like to eat. So if you can’t run with friends, suggest meeting somewhere after where there is great food.

5. Be Encouraging

Nobody likes a Debbie Downer.  We all have bad runs and aches and pains.

Try to be the cheerleader and focus on the positives of a race or run.

So these suggestions may not work for you.  You may just like to run alone or running with others doesn’t fit into your schedule or you just want to do your own thing.

I can can say YES to all of the above but I also know that 10 miles while chatting with someone is much less painful than 10 solo miles.

Happy Running! Do you run with a friend?  Any other suggestions to add?

 

18 thoughts on “Friday Five 2.0: Running with Friends”

  3. Sometimes we all start together for the first quarter mile, and then everyone breaks off with their own pace…but it’s nice to know that we’re all out there, and of course we congregate for food afterward, LOL.

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  4. I love running with running buddies now and then. My biggest tip is to play around when you’re running with others. If they are faster than you, try to make it more of your speed or tempo run day, if they are slower make it your easy run day. Sometimes it totally worth adjusting to have someone to run with.

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  6. Finding a running buddy with a similar schedule, pace, and goals can be like finding a needle in a haystack, but once you do it’s amazing. I’m not very good about adjusting my pace/goals to others, but I don’t mind starting out together and splitting off.

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  7. These are perfect tips. I don’t do any speed work with others unless we’re on a track and all running our own workouts. I keep running with friends for easy run days when I could care less about pace. I’m just out there to have fun and what’s the fun of being a Debbie Downer when running with friends?!

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  8. Even if schedules, abilities, etc don’t allow for people to be able to physically run with friends, virtual support is also important. I’m so incredibly thankful that I virtually trained last year for my first marathon with a running friend. I’m not sure that I would have gotten through it without leaning on her for support, especially during those hard, long runs.

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