Running with others can be an excellent way to mix up your running, both physically and mentally. Meet new people, share your experiences and make running social.
Benefits of running with others
Training with others makes you more accountable and turns it into a social activity. Some of the key benefits:
- You are far more likely to do your run if you’ve arranged to meet up with other people.
- Company during harder runs and sessions can really help. Particularly if running with people slightly faster than you!
- Tough sessions will be more enjoyable, the positive peer pressure and competition will push you to hit splits that would be difficult to do on your own.
- You’ll be surrounded by help and advice. Running with others is a great leveller, and you can relate to each other in some way.
- You’ll feel safer when running in the dark and / or off-road.
Cons of running with friends
The downside to always running with others is that you may not have that luxury during an event or race. In longer races, with smaller fields, it’s not uncommon to find yourself running alone for periods of the race. This can be very challenging mentally if it’s not something that you are used to as you don’t have the distraction of others when those negative thoughts set in.
Alternatively, if you spend most your time with friends, family or co-workers you may appreciate running alone, to get that mental space with your own thoughts. Personally, I prefer running alone and with others as both carry benefits which can help elevate your training. For example, I will do a few early runs solo as that suits my schedule, then meet up with others laters for longer social runs.
If you want to read some benefits of running alone see my other posts here.
