How do you make running feel less like a chore?

Running becomes a chore in a very particular way. The same loop, the same pace, the same watch beeping at the same kilometre, all in service of a target nobody asked for. It is less a sport than a commute with no office at the end. The fix is not more discipline. It is more pleasure, deliberately designed in.

Give the run a destination

We like to think of a run the way we think of an evening passeggiata: it goes somewhere and it ends with something. Running can borrow this shamelessly.

• Run to coffee. Out to the good café, an espresso standing at the bar, slow jog home. Carry a card or a coin in a zipped pocket.
• Run to the bakery and come back with the bread for breakfast. This works especially well if other people in the house are still asleep and will think you are a hero.
• Run one way. Take a train or bus out and run home, or run out and get a lift back. A one-way route feels like a journey, not a lap.
• Run to water. A lake, a river, a beach. Look at it. Go home.

Change the route more than you think

Most people have one route, maybe two. Try a different one every week for a month. Run your usual loop backwards. Go down the street you have never been down. Run in the park at a different hour and notice it is a different park. A map app can suggest loops, but getting slightly lost in your own neighbourhood is part of the fun.

Slow down, properly

A lot of runs feel like work because they are run at a pace that is just a bit too hard, every time. Try a whole week where every run is at chatting pace. If that means walking up the hills, walk up the hills. Things you notice at a slower pace: architecture, gardens, dogs with personality, the smell of someone's lunch. Things you notice at a slightly-too-fast pace: your own breathing.

Bring people, sometimes

Company changes everything. A friend who runs at your pace turns the outing into a moving conversation. A social run club, the kind that ends at a bar or café, turns it into an evening. If you do not have a running friend, a non-running friend on a bike makes a surprisingly good companion. See our guide to finding a running club that isn't intimidating.

Leave the watch at home

Not forever. Just once a week, run without anything that measures you. Go out, turn round when you feel like it, come home. It is surprising how much of the chore feeling comes from the little score at the end, and how light a run feels when there is no score to keep. If you love your data, keep it for the other runs; we discuss the trade-off in should you track every workout.

Make the before and after nicer

The run itself is only part of the ritual. Lay out the kit the night before so starting costs nothing. Have something to look forward to afterwards: a proper shower, a good breakfast on the balcony, a cold drink in the shade. If the ten minutes after a run are lovely, the run inherits some of that glow.