Runners: How to avoid BURNOUT during social distancing

Surviving Covid-19. It’s more of an ultramarathon…than a sprint!

You’re fit, healthy and been training for months hoping to peak just in time for spring marathons and then something none of us ever thought could or would happen, happens. Covid-19! Elite athletes will miss out on the chance to perform at the Japan Olympics and you will be prevented from getting to your next parkrun milestone. Life has been turned upside down for all of us, no one has been spared. Working from home, panic buying, home schooling, relationship problems, isolation, businesses being on the verge of bankruptcy, all present a significant amount of psychological and biological stress. Stress that if not successfully managed could lead to burnout.

But what exactly is BURNOUT and how do we avoid it?

Burnout is a state of feeling depleted, exhausted and negative about life/work and is brought about by not successfully managing stress. It happens when we ask too much of our body and mind and don’t think to replenish resources. Often this is because we feel trapped and believe we must soldier on through to get all the tasks ticked off our to-do list. We allow stress to be an accepted part of what we’re experiencing without questioning it. Worse still, we often add to it by drinking alcohol, not getting enough sleep, eating a poor diet AND TRAINING A LOT in order to cope. Yes running (unlike the others) is proven to enhance mood and help people manage stress, depression and anxiety… BUT the amount needed is actually less than you think. Clinical research has shown that even 20-30 minutes easy-moderate intensity exercise is enough to improve mood, lower depression and relieve stress.

This may be hard to believe! For a lot of us running is our therapy. We enter races and build up our parkrun tally to help us justify why we run sooo much. When in fact, what we don’t often admit, is that we really believe we ‘need’ to run. Running gives most of us a sense of control, certainty, accomplishment, belonging, and clarity. Without it we are terrified that we will become mentally unwell.

So, what do we do now that we are limited to one hour running per day (or a ration run as I’ve taken to calling it)? There’s a temptation to run every day, take on challenges and rush into crazy trends on social media just to get our fix. BUT doing this simply adds ‘reactive training’/’junk miles’ to life stress. Training should be planned and periodised with an outcome or endpoint. If you’re just running for the sake of running to manage your mental health you increase the risk of over-reaching and/or burning out. Why? Because initially running gives us that high so we want to do more and in fact, we start worrying about how we might cope if we can’t run. So we take on bigger and tougher challenges. But there is another way to maintain your running AND avoid adding training stress (e.g. committing to challenges like running 10km everyday) to life stress (e.g. home schooling, forced unemployment or working in the NHS). Here’s my advice…

None of us know how long social distancing/lockdown will last. To use a running analogy, what we’re facing now is more synonymous with an Ultra Marathon (most likely a multi-day event) than a sprint - how well we get through it is has more to do with how well we refuel, rest, and look after ourselves than it has to do with our running on the day. If we neglect self-care and recovery, we increase our chances of not finishing the race, regardless of how well trained we feel. It’s the same in life. BURNOUT, (which is defined as a state of feeling depleted and exhausted) occurs from insufficient nutrition, sleep, rest and far too much mental or cognitive stress. To avoid it and give yourself the best chance of staying healthy and fit to run another day, you need to invest more time in lifestyle management and re-consider how much you run.

Gigantic aeroplanes don’t rely on just one engine when they fly.

Skydivers don’t have just one parachute.

We even keep a spare tyre in our car!

So, despite evidence to support its use to combat stress and mental illness, let’s not expect running to be our only/main strategy for managing it. If we do, I believe we run the risk of experiencing low mood and anxiety should it ever be taken away from us through illness, injury or indeed a global pandemic.

How can you adjust your lifestyle to better manage stress? Check out my top 10 tips here.