4 tips to make your classic running route more exciting

Runners are time-crunched, which means that runs often happen from home. If you’ve been doing the same route from your house and are beginning to tire of it, here are a few ways to jazz up your route without having to drive to a new location.

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Pro tip: if you get bored/unmotivated running from your house, challenge yourself to see how many perfect 6, 8, & 10 mile loops you can make from your house. ?boom? just took care of the next 6 months of running for you, you’re welcome.

— Grayson Murphy (@racin__grayson) December 21, 2019

Create new loops

Grayson Murphy is the Mountain Running World Champion and a former NCAA standout. The runner says that creating loops is a great way to change up your from-home running routine. “Challenge yourself to see how many perfect six-, eight- and 10-mile loops you can make from your house. Just took care of your next six months of running for you.”

This is an especially good tip for those who are used to doing an out-and-back.

Run your route backwards

If you’ve already move from the out-and-back run to a loop, and are becoming bored with that as well, then try running the loop backwards. Not literally backwards–though we’ve heard that can be beneficial–but in the opposite direction.

Add a few pickups

Adding a few pace changes into your morning run can brake up the monotony. With this addition you’re not looking to turn an easy run into a workout, but simply play with your pace a couple of times.

Literally run your errands

If you’ve got a few things to pick up and a run to do, why not combine them? Throw your credit card in your pocket and a running backpack on, and grab those couple of things you needed from the store while on your run. This way your running route is different, your transportation is free and you’re getting two things done at once.