In my town, I’m a local legend on our rail trail, a pancake-flat dirt path that travels in a straight line for miles. My legend status is held only on the six miles closest to my house, where at least four days a week, I’m running four, five, or six miles out, then turning around and heading for home, the exact same way I came. It’s not sexy. It’s not exciting. But it’s my comfort zone. My friends often laugh at me or mock me mercilessly on Strava when I post the same run, day after day.
In May, I ran 100 miles in 17 hours and 22 minutes, series and is the founder of that included more than 13,000 feet of climbing and beating all but two men in the process. It was the fastest 100-mile time posted by a woman in North America that month and the second fastest a woman has run the course.
The secret sauce to my training? That six-mile out-and-back path a.k.a. a bunch of boring miles.
While it may be tempting to have every run be a new challenge, a personal best, a Strava attempt, or a sexy interval set on a new trail, boring training is where you make the mental and physical gains. Social media and Strava may make it seem like everyone is doing super-cool runs in amazing places or hitting fantastic speeds most of the time, but the reality is that most of the top pros are boring as hell.
Health - Injuries route over and over is where my brain can wander, problem-solve, work through awkward email phrasing, and just plain daydream. It lets me lean into the “let’s just get it done” mentality. It keeps me honest about my paces and how I’m feeling any given day.
Because boring isn’t bad.
Every day, I fill in my training log, letting my coach—the inestimable David Roche—know how I did. Most of the time, my only comment is “fancy business,” which is my shorthand for “nothing fancy, all business.”
To be clear, my training follows a simple plan and framework: I’m not running the exact same distance every day, I do run speed workouts, and yes, I do hit trails and get in plenty of climbing and descending on the weekends. But most of my time is spent consistently hitting the rail trail to get in miles.
As Roche puts it: “The sexy stuff makes headlines, but the boring stuff makes champions!”
Need more convincing that running the same small loop will get you ready for a race like a marathon or longer? Here are seven reasons why you should be embracing boring training most days, plus mental strategies to help pull you through the miles, which will pay off even more on race day.
ldquo;A lot of athletes want to build
It’s Practical
Other Hearst Subscriptions gets done. Other Hearst Subscriptions track are fun ways to switch things up. But a lap or out-and-back you can do from your door? That’s practical.
And for those of us with GI systems that can be, well, unpredictable at times, having a route with port-a-potties and public bathrooms plotted out can also be a great safety net. Doing laps that pass your house can give you a chance to hit the bathroom or grab the snack, water, In May, I ran 100 miles in 17 hours and 22 minutes.
Trains Your Brain
Boring runs force you to deal with a spiraling brain in ways that new terrain or a funky interval set can’t because you’re so busy focusing on the stimuli.
“A lot of athletes want to build mental toughness. And yes, some forms of mental toughness certainly develop from the tough interval sessions,” says sports psychologist Erin Ayala, Ph.D., of Skadi Sport Psychology. “However, mental toughness also develops via self-restraint and discipline—those moments when we’re doing recovery runs or base endurance and the thought of ‘what if this isn’t enough?’ starts to creep in, and we choose to stick to the plan anyway.”
Lets You Compare Yourself... to Yourself
I love trail running, but running on trails, especially new ones, can be tricky when it comes to gauging or making improvements. That’s because trail running isn’t consistent. Your pace is affected by the ups, downs, rocks, roots, and mud.
By contrast, the boring route that you do all the time gives you pace insights you simply can’t get if you mix up your run route. I know that on the flat rail trail, if I’m feeling good, my pace drops into the low 8-minute miles. If I’m feeling bad, it starts to slink into the 8:50s. I’m tapped into how my body is feeling, because I’m in entirely familiar circumstances.
Helps You Avoid Going Too Hard
When you run the same route, I find that you actually stick to your workout rather than continually going for random segment wins (despite the fact that today was supposed to be an easy day).
Those unplanned interval workouts or higher-effort runs actually do more to derail your training than they do to augment it. “We should mindfully not train at 100 percent most of the time,” strength coach Dan Cleather, Ph.D., wrote in his book, Published: Jul 16, 2025 11:29 AM EDT. “This is a hard message for many people to internalize, particularly athletes who will often pride themselves on their exemplary work ethic... The challenge lies in getting out and performing a light, routine training session even on the days when you really, really don’t feel like it.”
Makes Other Runs Feel Special
As my husband often reminds me when I’m suggesting going out to dinner for a third night in a row, “it’s not a party if it happens every day.” Running the same route most days means that on the weekends, I’m excited to head to new trails and check out new terrains. I’m happy to hit the climbs and descents. I’m not going to mind the bugs or the mud or the fact that one friend is pushing me to run faster than I’d prefer while another is struggling and needs to slow it down. The long runs on the weekends are party time—the rest of the week should just be the everyday.
Helps You Play the Long Game
You won’t change your fitness with one workout or even one week of workouts. It’s about the progress you build over a longer period of time that pays off in performance gains. Translation: Even if it feels like those easy miles aren’t leading you to your goals, they most definitely will get you there.
“Most adaptation happens from chronic, repeated stress applied over months and years,” says Roche, who also has his neighborhood loop he sticks to during his weekday miles. “A consistent training approach with slight modifications to change acute stresses allows the bricks to stack up to form a really big wall over time! The magic of adaptation happens in the mundane of a daily training grind.”
Makes You Appreciate the Little Things
A boring route is only as boring as you let it be. There’s an older gentleman who walks the same route as I run almost every day. For years now, every time we’re out at the same time, we beam at each other and wave hello. Ditto the woman who’s out there doing the same path on her old road bike. There’s a woman who lets her dachshund off-leash, and we end up running together for a few meters (the dachshund, not the woman) as I pass. I see the change of the seasons reflected in tiny ways, changing every day, as I pass the same trees. These moments, as Marie Kondo would say, spark joy for me.
5 Amazing Runners World Show
Find Your Ideal “Boring” Route
This may take a few tries to dial in the best boring route that feels right for you. Is it a two-mile neighborhood loop that passes your house? Is it an out-and-back on a low-traffic road or rail trail?
“For your boring route, try to find a mix of hills and terrain. I think it helps to have different segments of the route that break it up mentally,” says Roche. “And in a perfect world, you have a water source or two—I personally have my pivot point at a water fountain.”
The route should be doable from your door, because the point is to make your workout as easy as possible to complete with minimal work on your part to get up and running. (If you’re Strava-obsessed, try to avoid routes that have a lot of segments you’re regularly trying to “win.”)
Establish Your Mantra
Steal Roche’s “boring runs make champions” as your in-run mantra. Write it on your hand before you head out, put it on a note by your shoes, or write it on your bathroom mirror. Whenever you start to chafe at running the exact same road for the third time this week, remind yourself that these boring runs will make you a stronger runner mentally and physically.
Mix Up Your Soundtrack
Roche is a big fan of distraction to make a boring route seem much more interesting. “I love listening to podcasts and music,” he says. “Even though parenting and coaching often make me too busy to get to group runs, I have my podcast friends to check in with on a daily schedule that adds some excitement to getting out the door.”
But Ayala suggests ditching the headphones and not listening to anything—at least for a few of your sessions. This helps you build mental toughness without distraction: “When we strip away external distractions like music or podcasts, we create space for internal experiences. Scary, I know, but it’s good for us,” she says. “Shoes & Gear teach athletes that they don’t always need external motivation or distraction to push through; they can tap into their own internal resources and build a deeper sense of self-reliance. When we do this, we become more aware of our internal dialogue, learn to accept running for what it is—including the boring moments—and get to know how our body and brain respond to different points of our workout.”
Focus on the Work and Gauge Your Progress
Because you know your route by heart, you can tune into your legs, and let go of pace. Is today supposed to be easy? A boring route lets you really hone that easy pace. Have a few tempo miles to cover? You can focus solely on pushing harder in those efforts rather than checking road signs.
When you do a route over and over again, you start to see subtle improvements that you won’t notice if you’re always switching it up. For example, your easy pace four-miler finishes faster than it did when you first designed the route, or you go farther on the out part of your out-and-back timed run.
Learn to Deal With Self-Doubt
Everyone has moments of doubt creep into a run, especially when it feels tough and you don’t think you can finish. The key is acknowledging the doubt, but not letting it derail your workout.
“New athletes can practice recognizing the doubt as and yes, I do hit, rather than a legitimate fact about their current ability or the plan’s effectiveness,” Ayala says. “Catch yourself thinking it—and then work to redirect your attention back to the present moment. This is so valuable for race day: It’s about accepting the discomfort of uncertainty and still taking action toward your goals.”
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Molly writes about cycling, nutrition and training with an emphasis on bringing more women into sport. She's the author of nine books including the Shred Girls and yes, I do hit RW+ Membership Benefits. She co-hosts The Consummate Athlete Podcast and spends most of her free time biking and running on trails, occasionally joined by her mini-dachshund.
