The first Wednesday of each month, the Deb from Deb Runs will be providing a word about which to blog. Kind of like a nice little blog prompt. Posts can be fitness or health related, but don’t have to be, so really anyone can play along. Just be sure to link up with InLinkz on Deb’s main post, and share the love by reading and commenting on other’s participant’s posts.

This month’s word is CHOICE

Life and RUNNING are all about CHOICE.  Everyday we make CHOICES.  Sometimes we make the right CHOICES and unfortunately, sometimes we make the wrong CHOICES.

So how specifically does RUNNING involves CHOICE?

• RACES

There are a lot of races.  How do we choose which ones to run?

—Location – Local or Race-cation?
—Surface – Road or Trail?
—Distance – 5k or Half Marathon or even longer?
—Course – Flat or Hilly? Point to Point or Loop?
—FOMO –  Who else is doing it?
—Date –  Are we free that weekend?
—Swag/Bling
—Previous Experience or New one
—Goals – One in every state, PR, Half Fanatic
—Cost
—Sponsorships – Rock n Blogger or ZOOMA ambassador, etc.
—Food
—The Cause/Charity

I ran this half (Celebrate Life) because my good friend had been diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer.

• RUNNING  PARTNERS

If we are lucky, we  have many options here.  Why do we choose to run with certain runners?

—Convenience – they work or live nearby
—Schedules – they run at the same time of day
—Speed – they run at our pace
—Training Goals – they help us get faster or help us slow down during long runs
—Style – they run/walk or they don’t walk or they run certain intervals
—Races – they are running the same race
—Friendship

I started to run with Alyssa because we worked close to each other but then I switched jobs. Now we run together because of many of the reasons above.

• TIME OF DAY

If you work, you may have limited choices.  But still, you can choose to run before work or during lunch or after work. Weather may also be a factor such as running earlier in the summer and later in the winter. Or maybe your running partner influences at what time of day you run.

ONE of the very few times that I ran before work. I almost always run after work when I have more time.

• HOW OFTEN

Do we choose to run everyday?  How many rest days each week do we choose to take? Again, there are factors that impact our choices:

–schedule
–injury prevention
–injury recovery
–racing plan or coach
–family obligations

playing tennis is often the reason why I do not run

• LOCATION

Where do we choose to run? On the road, on a bike path, on a trail, on a track, on a treadmill?  What impacts our location choose?

–weather
–injuries
–type of run
–running partner
–convenience

there was a track where I used to work and sometimes this was the most convenient location to run especially during my lunch break

• TYPES OF RUNS

Unlike me, you may have a racing plan or a coach which helps you choose whether to do a tempo run, hill repeats, progression run, intervals, easy run, etc.

when I was part of a running group, the coach chose our runs

• FUELING

If you make a mistake in this category, it could be costly. Just sayin. So how do we choose what to eat?

–what others recommend
–what has worked in the past
–something new
—cost
–easy (who has time to make their own?)
–how far we are running
–what we like
–what we can carry

my new favorite – tastes good and has no caffeine

• RUNNING ATTIRE

In the winter, this is my most difficult choice.  What do I wear to not be too warm but warm enough? What do we think about when we choose our running outfit?

—weather
—space in our bags/luggage
—comfort
—theme (in a race or for a holiday)
–-color (we have favorites)
—what looks good on us

I froze in this outfit for most of the race

Yes, there’s endless CHOICES that we have to make as Runners.

I’m also linking this post with Susie and Rachel and Debbie and Lora for the Running Coaches’ Corner.

Happy Running! What is the most difficult CHOICE that you deal with in your running?  Please share.