Habits That Propel: Revolutionize Your Running Routine with Tiny Changes

Transform your ordinary running routines into extraordinary accomplishments with the secrets of habit mastery. Ever wondered why your New Year's resolutions crumble by February? Discover how shifting from resolution-focused thinking to a process-based approach can revolutionize your training routine. Drawing insights from James Clear's "Atomic Habits" and Dr. BJ Fogg's "Tiny Habits," I reveal the power of starting small and celebrating every victory, no matter how minor. 

You won't want to miss our special challenges, like February’s Gloves On, Booty Strong Challenge and March’s Playbill Playoffs, all designed to ramp up your motivation and performance throughout the year. 

February’s focus is on building strength in the posterior chain and lateral stabilizers—critical areas for female runners who are often quad-dominant. This strength helps prevent injuries and improves performance. Space is limited, so sign up now to get started on a stronger 2025.

Sign up for February’s Gloves On, Booty Strong Challenge or commit to the next three months:
Register Here


Plus, I share updates on my own running and invite you to join the Women of World Marathon Majors Facebook group to connect with inspiring female runners from across the globe.

We dive deep into building a robust identity as a runner, with a particular focus on the role of strength training for women. Learn why heavy lifting is not only about muscle gain but essential in boosting endurance and warding off injuries—especially by strengthening that all-important posterior chain. 

Understand how to adapt your workouts to the seasonal ebb and flow of your mileage and why maintaining a disciplined schedule is crucial in a hectic lifestyle. 

Additionally, I tackle the challenges posed by California’s wildfires, offering practical tips for training safely amid smoky skies. This episode is your guide to prioritizing health, staying adaptable, and ensuring open communication with healthcare professionals as you chase those ambitious running goals.

Chapters

• 0:00 Creating Habits to Achieve Running Goals
• 12:40 Creating and Maintaining Healthy Running Habits
• 25:04 Building Habits for Running Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey friend, welcome to Extraordinary Strides, the podcast where we transform ordinary efforts into extraordinary achievements One stride, one habit and one spark of inspiration at a time. Hello, I'm your host, coach Christine, and I'm here to guide you through the ups, the downs and everything in between on your journey to becoming a stronger, smarter and happier runner. Friends, can I just tell you that today, officially, is National Quitters Day. It is the second Friday of January, a day where many people say I don't want to deal with these New Year's resolutions. What was I thinking? And they throw in the towel. But guess what? We're not quitters around here, we are striders. But we also don't do resolutions. What we do around here is habits. Today I'm going to dive into the science of why resolutions fail and, more importantly, how to create habits that stick. But before we dive in, thank you for the incredible response to the Ignite your Stride, glow Up Habit Challenge For January. It's sold out in just one weekend. Thank you for the incredible response to the Ignite your Stride, glow Up Habit Challenge for January. It's sold out in just one weekend and if you missed your chance, don't worry. I'm opening up more spots for February's challenge, which is all about being booty, strong posterior chain and core strength workouts that will have you running stronger than ever before ever before. And looking ahead, march is going to bring the Playbill playoffs, where we find out which musical reigns supreme, all while you get to tackle cross-training activities to again make you a more efficient runner. But that's not all. We're going to finish up April with the Fit Games. It's going to be a Join your District, a team-based fitness challenge with fun prizes. All of these challenges come along with fun prizes and just some of the prizes we've given away in these themed monthly challenges. We've given away Sparkle Athletic, gooder Flock Sportswear, crown Sprints and so much more. So I've got exciting plans for this year and I want you to be part of them. So use that link in episode notes to learn more or to join on in Now.

Speaker 1: 2:08

I've mentioned a couple times we're going to be out in quite a few different places. This weekend we're out at Run Disney and, of course, we cannot wait to cheer on all of our Run Disney friends through 5Ks, 10ks, marathon, half marathon, dopey, goofy, all of them in between, and we all keep that fun going this year with all of the run Disney events that are here in Walt Disney world. So we'll be back for princess, we'll be back for springtime surprise and you'll find us again at the end of the year at wine and dine. But, as I've mentioned, I'd love to see you join on in and meet us up at Shamrock. And, of course, I can't wait to start telling you more about Bourbon Chase as we get our team together to tackle 200 miles in a weekend. Yes, it's going to be a whole lot of fun and friends here.

Speaker 1: 3:01

On a personal level, I have decided I'm going to go for gold, or maybe a gold star, and I am tackling Sydney and latter part of August, all on the quest to get my seventh world marathon major star. Because I am also just if you haven't heard, if you haven't seen on social media, I'm fired up. I learned recently that the disparity between six star metal finishers being in the female component and category about 33, 34% where men are dominating that six star challenge. And I know it's for a variety of reasons. It's social, it's cultural, it's financial, there's a whole host of reasons. But I am on a mission to even that playing field and started the Women of World Marathon Majors Facebook group where we can support, encourage, share motivation, share ideas, learn some strategy, really, where we go to be together, not gatekeep any information support each other whether you're leading the pack or you're back of the pack, everything in between. I really do feel that this is a very important endeavor, because girls do run the world, or at least it's going to be my mission that they do so if you want more information about that, feel free to hit me up christineatextraordinarystridescom, or use that little message there to text me that you want some more information, but please include a way for me to get back to you, because unfortunately, the texting service does not send that my way.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Without further ado, we're going to talk a little bit more about those resolutions and habits. Right, I said that we were going to do so, so we're going to talk specifically about the top 10 running resolutions and the habits that you should be considering instead, because we're going to break down those top 10, why they fail and how you can pivot to better habits to actually stick. Before we get into that, let's set the stage of why resolutions fail. By mid-January, over 80% of people abandoned their resolutions. Why? Well, because resolutions rely on motivation and we all know as runners that motivation can be quite fleeting. Now here's the kicker According to James Clear's Atomic Habits, you don't rise to the level of your goals.

Speaker 1: 5:16

You fall to the level of your systems, which is why January's habit challenge was really focused on process-based goals, which are those habits, versus really worrying too much about the long-term goal. Because resolutions fail because they are outcomes. They're outcomes that sometimes we truly cannot control, but we can control the steps that we take to get us closer to the outcome that we're hoping for. Habits succeed because they are systems in and of themselves. Now Dr BJ Fogg's Tiny Habits backs this up. He goes with the philosophy of start small, tie habits to something you're already doing and celebrate every single win. Again, today I'm going to take you through the top 10 resolutions that I hear from a lot of runners and show you how to turn them into habits that stick.

Speaker 1: 6:04

So, my friends, starting in spot number 10, this resolution is quite popular. We see it quite frequently. It usually happens around the holidays, and that is the resolution, or the commitment to run every single day. Yet why it fails is because running every day may sound great until life gets in the way or your body needs a rest, so burnout and injury are almost always guaranteed. Now I know there's a few of you streakers out there that have been able to buck the trend, but for the most part, I think that when you rely on running every single day, it gets into that trap of perfectionism. It also starts to focus on quantity over quality. So a better habit is to aim for consistent running and training, not perfection planning and aiming for three to four consistent runs a week and celebrate showing up. Also, take that extra time that you'd be using running on some of the other activities that require that are required to help you be a more efficient, healthier runner. Remember, rest days are training days too. My friends, we're on to resolution number nine. This is a big one.

Speaker 1: 7:22

Everyone wants to get faster. So, improving your speed which, of course, we totally get it right, you do want to get faster. We want to see progress in our running. However, jumping into speed workouts or, even worse, doing every single run as a speed workout is again really, really going to heighten that chance of injury, which guess what that does? It takes you out of the game. Can't get faster if you can't get in any runs because you're sitting on the sidelines injured, right.

Speaker 1: 7:53

So what I'm going to suggest instead is a better habit of learning how to incorporate quality sessions into your workouts and your training plans, balancing those speed sessions with those easy runs, those recovery runs, those long runs, trying some intervals with recovery jogs, and also it still is a very outcome-based performance metric. So, instead of focusing on just getting faster specifically for a race, focus more on again the quality, your form, your efficiency, the things that you can control right here and now, every single run that you take. I may not be able to control exactly the speed that I'm aiming for, but I can make sure that I am really setting myself up for success by supporting, with good form, with good efficiency, with good mindset, sleep, nutrition, hydration, all of those things. So I'm not telling you to tackle them all, but instead of having just getting faster, look at the habits that help you to support to be a faster runner. Which likely leads us to the next conversation that I have quite often with folks, which is the resolution of losing weight because we want to be a faster runner, or losing weight through running. And why it fails is because running alone doesn't guarantee weight loss and focusing on weight can steal the joy of your run.

Speaker 1: 9:24

A better habit is to shift the focus to performance and what you can control, specifically how you can fuel your body with nutrient-dense foods and celebrate milestones like stronger, feeling stronger, eating healthier by incorporating more produce, incorporating more protein, varying the nutritional components of your diet by introducing more really nutrient-dense produce. We'll be doing a lot of that in April. For the record, by the way, did you know that you should have 30 different types of produce weekly to really introduce the different micronutrients into your diet? That will benefit you to be the healthiest you can be? I want you to take a quick little run through in your brain how much do you really consume of different varietals of produce? Lots of us, myself included, will get stuck with some of our favorites. So I think that when we shift the focus instead of just losing weight and learning how to fuel for really feeling our best and for health performance, that will absolutely invariably take you the long run of what you also want to achieve through that resolution. But beyond, it's a habit that can stick. It's a habit that you can learn more from and a habit that you can gain time and time again about feeling healthier and better and more energetic.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Okay, on to resolution number seven. I feel so seen. With some of these I do not set resolutions, but I know that the conversation comes up quite frequently of I'm going to start stretching more, go to yoga more. So why it fails is because stretching is often seen as I kind of should do this, coulda, shoulda, woulda. Well, friends, I'm going to ask you right here now to make you, pinky promise, quit shitting all over yourself. I'm not kidding you, right here and now.

Speaker 1: 11:20

If you've been shitting all over yourself in your habits and your day to day, well, you are approaching things from a place of frustration or shame. Let's take it from a more positive mindset and what we're going to do with stretching, instead of focusing specifically on again also very generic, kind of non-specific goals. So if you're going to have a goal, let's make it a bit more specific than that. But pair stretching with something that you already love and that's why, really, habit stacking your stretching or your mobility to your current running program is beautiful. Not only does that dynamic stretching and that dynamic movement beforehand help you to run stronger and feel better for it, those static stretches afterwards can help to ensure that you are running as injury-free as possible and because you know you're going to get out for a run habit. Stacking those lovely little items bookending your runs with it will help you as well. Again, it's all about trying to find ways to tweak our habits to really create what we are aiming for in the long run, the identity that we want to have, which the next resolution I actually love and I want to hear more of it, but I want to talk about how we can make sure that we do not quit on it, and again, it's focusing on our habits.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Number six, that identity that we're looking toward getting, is to being a better, faster, stronger runner. For the most part, I think that's the most of us happy and healthy as well, and I hear a lot of individuals talking about strict training, especially around this time of year, but it usually falls by the wayside pretty quickly because it feels overwhelming. It feels like yet another thing to juggle with our runs, our work, our life, and a lot of runners don't know how to really prioritize it alongside mileage or their specific training seasons, and it should be adapted depending on what you're aiming to do and what training season you're at. But I want to say for my female runners, my friends, I really, really, really for 2025, I'm asking you to pick up the heavy weights and put them back down. That is going to be absolutely pivotal for you to keep you strong and healthy for the long run.

Speaker 1: 13:33

But let's talk a little bit about why it's important first. First of all, as a female runner structurally we are built to be more quad dominant I will say that a majority of our strength lies in our lower body and we want to make the most of it by training ourselves to be able to go the distance with focusing on posterior chain strength, the glutes and hamstrings, along with lateral movement, to keep us as injury-free as possible Also helps you to get up those hills if you have a hilly race on the horizon. And, my friends, that is again why we are primarily focusing in February for Knockout February, gloves on and booty strong. We're gonna really be focusing on that posterior chain, some lateral movement being more explosive and powerful, so that we can translate it directly to our running. Again, use that link in episode notes if you want to sign up and claim your spot now.

Speaker 1: 14:27

But a better habit, instead of just saying I'm going to strength train more often, is to think of strength training as a seasonal aspect, meaning that you're going to strength train consistently throughout the year, but it is going to look a little different. Not every season of running looks the same and your strength focus should evolve too. So in lower mileage season, prioritizing more consistent generalized strength work with heavier weights is an awesome way to create a solid foundation, and higher mileage seasons shift to runner specific strength, but continue to strengthen your glutes and your stabilizers to build that resilience and keep you running strong. So think about curtsy lunges, squats, a lot of deadlifts, some sumo deadlifts, lateral band walks, clamshells All of these are really great movements to add to your list, and they don't have to be. You don't have to think of it as originally going into the gym and lifting your 150 pound squat. You could start small. You could start by getting in some of those resistant band workouts in front of your TV. Prioritize it with family members or start with body weight and, of course, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out about it, because I love to talk about strength training, I love to talk about running and I can't resist those conversations ever.

Speaker 1: 15:47

However, we're going to keep going up this list, right? So, number five I hear this one. I just want to stay motivated. Number five? I hear this one. I just want to stay motivated. Well, my friend, if that is your resolution, I'm here to burst your beautiful little bubble. I swear I'm not trying to be Galinda here and use the wand to burst your bubble.

Speaker 1: 16:06

However, motivation is absolutely fleeting. It's easy to feel fired up at the start of the year or the start of a program or challenge or training plan, or when we sign up for a big race. That spark tends to fade, which is why we continue to rely on that consistent, slow burn of habits. We really need to focus on not worrying as much about being motivated or even on sheer willpower, because they can both lead to burnout and inconsistency. So a better habit to focus on is to shift your focus from motivation to structure. Focusing on structure allows you to build in that discipline, which it doesn't require you to continually, always force yourself. It's about creating those systems that make running feel more automatic, or make that make running feel more automatic, or make your strength training feel more automatic, or whatever. It is that you are looking for. Motivation. You want to rely on those systems and that structure setting up a consistent schedule for yourself that's tied to your lifestyle, pairing your runs with habits you already do, like meeting your gal pals for a run and then a coffee chat, or maybe it's running after you drop off the kids at school or before work but truly creating that structure at the beginning of the week so that you're not just feeling like you have to get your run in in between or getting your workouts in between, as that tends to not happen when we leave it as a afterthought. So creating that structure will help us with the discipline which means generally that motivation tends to follow a little bit easier when we start to see those results and we feel it's more ingrained in our everyday life.

Speaker 1: 17:46

Where this next resolution that I hear, a lot of these are tied to each other. Right, they all are very closely tied. The next one that I hear is kind of a play off of what we just discussed in number five. Number four is I'm just going to find more time to work out, I'm going to work out more often or I'm going to get in more strength training, running, yoga, mobility, and you kind of say it and that's your, your resolve to do that. But then the reason why it fails besides the fact that that's incredibly vague and doesn't have any specific metric attached to it is because life is busy. And again going back to that number five without a clear plan, workouts will often get pushed to the bottom of the priority list. So it's not about having that time, it's about making time. Schedule those workouts as a better habit. Get into a practice and a habit of setting down with your schedule, blocking out times on your work calendar if you're trying to squeeze things in, or adding an exercise confetti here and there. If you're not familiar with exercise confetti, it's little micro workouts that you fit in into your everyday life, like a little five-minute resistant band training or doing some body weight activities while you're waiting for your lunch to reheat. Finding that little exercise confetti is always wonderful, but time blocking is essential and truly using your schedule to work best for you.

Speaker 1: 19:08

Now I want to talk about number three because, as we get higher in this list, it's not that these are bad resolutions necessarily in terms of what we're looking to achieve. It's that we are creating a lot of vagueness. We're not attaching any specific metrics to it, nor are we literally thinking of the most important aspect, which is what are the habits that I need to be able to have this end goal, this outcome goal. Again, talking a little bit about James Clear, we are going to always need to focus on our habits to get us there. However, number three, I hear a lot, and you even hear me say I feel stronger and more energized during my runs. Well, what does that actually mean? It's very esoteric, it's very vague. I love it and we all know what it means.

Speaker 1: 19:53

When we feel it right, when you're in your run and you're feeling super strong and feeling super energized, you absolutely know exactly what it feels like. But how do you get there and are you accounting for the habits that it took for you to get there? Generally, when you strip that through, you can find what the actual habits are that you need to implement more frequently. So why this tends to fail is because runners do believe that they can rely on you know, minimal fueling, not worry about being fatigued, not being concerned about hydration, and their run should still just feel strong. Well, it's not going to, my friend. So a better habit is to shift your mindset to really creating a fueling plan and strategy that works for you, really focusing on all of those other positive habits that help you to feel stronger and more energized during your runs. So let's not blame the run even though bad runs do happen to good people but let's really always settle some time to kind of account for what do I need to tweak so that I do feel better, so I do feel stronger? And if you're already feeling strong and feeling energized, great, take the time to figure out what's working for you right now so we can continue to repeat those habits in the future.

Speaker 1: 21:01

Generally, it just takes a tweak and a little bit of a focus. Going back to basics, okay, we are making our way, continuing up this list to number two. I hear this often I want to run a faster race, I want a PR. This is the year that I'm going to PR. Okay, well, what exactly does that mean and how are we working towards that? So why it fails is because a lot of runners tend to set overly ambitious PR goals without considering factors like age, training, history. When did you set that PR, my friend? How long ago was it? Weather course, difficulty or even life, stress or demands when we are working toward our season?

Speaker 1: 21:44

So I have to give a shout out to Kimberly here, Kimberly Darling, who, when we first sat down and she talked about how she wanted to get back to her. We first sat down and she talked about how she wanted to get back to her faster times in our goal setting session. She knew that her life looked vastly different than those days where she was running these PRs. She's a mom, she's a career woman. She has a lot of other priorities that tie her away from the time that she was able to previously spend on just running. So she gave herself a lot of wonderful structure. We worked together on creating that great structure, but what she really did is that she gave herself the time to get back to those faster paces. She let herself work on it from season to season versus just focusing it on being a very time too constrained of a timeframe. She looked at it as a longer term goal.

Speaker 1: 22:42

So, again, a better habit is shift your focus to the training for a stronger, more consistent race instead of chasing just a specific time. Lay that foundation and then continue to reassess. Additionally, do assess other factors that may be coming into your life, for example, work, stress, work seasons that may be busier than others, family demands, your schedule demands, maybe even hormonally, specifically for us female runners, that we need to take into consideration. What different seasons of life. We're at where we're currently at in terms of our base and where we want to go, so really sitting down in more of a place of really reconciling all the different factors, but focusing on the consistency of the habits to get you there and that identity. Again, you're going to hear me repeating a lot of this, because it's all really, at the end of the day, the same thing. It's about our consistent habits versus thinking about just the outcome. When we want to achieve these big, audacious goals, we're going to go all the way to the top, our number one.

Speaker 1: 23:45

I'm going to take a pause here to see if you have a guess what the number one resolution is. I see it all over social media, my friends, and then we're going to talk about maybe a different variation of it. I know that one of the number one runner goals and runner resolutions is to take on big running challenges of really ambitious like logging 2025, miles in 2025. It sounds super exciting, right? Well then, have you actually sat down with your calculator and figured out how much miles that comes down to daily? Because, my friends, it's not. It's not a little bit, it's a lot of it. Generally, we're looking at over five miles, and while this may be a great practice, if you were looking at doing more movement in your day-to-day, running consistently, five and a half miles for an entire year might be a little challenging. Okay, so another variation is maybe thinking of stepping up into a marathon distance or ultra marathon distance, or maybe even the really fun, like dopey challenges or goofy challenges or multi-day events, that kind of all. We see a lot of runners challenges where you do one event on one day and the other event the following day.

Speaker 1: 25:04

So I love these, right.

Speaker 1: 25:05

I love big, audacious goals. I think this is amazing. It's exactly what speaks to my love language. However, I want it to be looked at from a perspective of setting an ambitious goal with the habits that lead you there, versus a resolution that focuses, maybe, on the outcome and doesn't plan for how to actually achieve it, because I have seen a runner try to achieve these big, audacious goals when it's literally crunch time, when it's towards the end of the year. They didn't plan it out, or life got busy, and so they're trying to get too many miles all at one time, or they didn't train for the bigness of some of these things that they went after, and so it's crunch time, right, we're down to like 30 days and that's when they try to get in all of that ultra endurance, knowing that it really does need to be a season, it needs to be a system, it needs to be training and a focus and patience.

Speaker 1: 26:04

So, if you are going to tackle any of these type of big, audacious goals, if that's your resolution for the year, I'm going to ask you to really take into consideration preventing injury by increasing mileage incrementally, sticking to the 10% rule, making sure that you have easy runs mixed in with all of those miles, scheduling, cutback weeks and, again, if there's nothing that you could take away from this conversation is, focus on your structure, your consistency and your habits. That's really the resolution that we should aim for. That will help us to achieve all of these incredible, big, audacious goals that I want to cheer you on for that. I want to support you for that I really know you are capable of, but do it with a plan, okay, my friends. So I know that, while today is National Quitters Day, the second Friday of January, I know that, as a seasoned runner that you are, as the amazing pro that you are, that you are tackling your habits. You're looking at your structure. You've got your plan and if you don't, and you want to chat about it, you know where to find me, christine, at ExtraordinaryStridescom.

Speaker 1: 27:11

I do want to take a moment and send absolutely my best wishes and my thoughts to everyone who may be impacted by those wildfires in California. Our hearts are with you, friends. If you're directly affected, please know that your safety and your well-being are what matter most and we are here to support you in any way that we can. Now, if you are not in an affected area but maybe you're potentially dealing with some smokier conditions, I do want to share a little quick preview of some things that you should take into consideration. A few quick tips to keep yourself healthy. So, knowing the change of your scenery and maybe take it indoors If you're still training and still trying to get in those runs. Protect your airways you have to use an N95 to protect your airways, of course, also double checking with the air quality index those are available readily online before you decide to go out for your workout If you must work out outside. And, of course, supporting yourself by staying hydrated, nourishing your body for recovery, adjusting your training intensity If you are dealing with some smoke in your area, knowing that it may not be the best time to go out there for those harder effort runs. So please embrace that flexibility, listen to your body and, of course, if you are sensitive to air quality conditions, do reach out to your doctor. Let them know what you're working on and seeing what kind of ways they can help you to prioritize your health through your training season.

Speaker 1: 28:39

My friends, again I want to thank you so much for being part of this incredible, extraordinary community. I want to thank you for joining me during this podcast. I want to hear about your running goals, your running resolutions, but more than that, I want to hear about your consistent habits that pay off for you every single time that you show up to a start line. Remember, while resolutions may fade, habits will build legacies. Please do subscribe, if you haven't already, and share this episode with a running buddy or two. I'd love if you would leave a review to help others find us and until next time, keep striding toward the extraordinary. No-transcript.