Run Solo Or Join a Group? THAT Is the Question!

Is running better alone or with a group of people? By the end of this blog, you’re going to be able to make that decision for yourself. Hey, it’s Coach Lisa here from The Running University, and I’m here to help you put the fun in your run!

I remember when my running journey started, I could only run ‘with people’. It was the only way I would do it. I didn’t like listening to music and I kind of started off running with a group of people, because that was really what I enjoyed the most. I truly just love being in groups and I hated running by myself. It wasn’t fun at all. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t keep myself accountable running alone. I just really didn’t like it.

Today, it’s a whole other story.

So, is running in a group better than running by yourself or not?? Let me give you some pros and cons for both.

ACCOUNTABILITY

So if you’re somebody who’s not self-motivated, then meeting a group of people at a specific time will help you stay more accountable. Because of this, I would definitely say, from that perspective, meeting with a group will make you more accountable.

Conversely, if you’re already a very self-motivated person, then maybe you don’t need a group for accountability.

SCHEDULING

Maybe it depends on your schedule? A lot of group runs have very specific times and days that they run, so they may or may not work with your own personal schedule. If you are lucky enough to have a more flexible schedule group runs might work for you, but if you don’t, then it might just be easier to go run on your own. That might be in the morning, afternoon, or whenever works best for your schedule.

MENTAL STRENGTH

I would say that you develop your mental strength with both of these, maybe in different ways. If you run alone, it does require a lot of mental strength to initially get motivated to get out there on your own and to do some of those harder workouts on your own.

With a group run, you might have a little bit of the different mental strength being worked with as far as, once you’re already out and moving, trying to push yourself a little bit more. Many of use are afraid of being the last person in the group, so if you know you have to push yourself a little more to keep up and avoid that, then maybe that’s also going to strengthen your mental capacity performance.

PERFORMANCE

You might be better with one or the other at different times and for different reasons. Again, this is going to be on an individual basis. Sometimes running with people who are maybe a little bit faster than you, it might help push your speed workout a little bit more, so that would be a great performance benefit to running with a group.

It’s also sometimes easier to get motivated to go run those harder performance-focused runs with groups, whether it’s hill workouts or track workouts. Whereas, if you can do this better when you’re running alone, you also might be more motivated to do those things on your own. Again, a lot of this depends on your own personal motivation.

SAFETY

Safety is something to consider I definitely always feel safer when I’m with a group of people. Of course, this also depends on what time of the day you’re running, but from a safety perspective, you know when it’s better to be with a group of people vs being by yourself. Running by yourself, you just need to remain super aware about staying safer and also about expending energy.

FOCUS

I know that when I’m running with a group of people, I tend to talk a lot more, which also helps the time go by but I’m also expending more energy. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I can’t really focus on my technique as much, so I’m probably a little less in tune with my body when running in groups.

When running alone, I definitely can focus inward better. I can feel what’s happening in my body. I can be more in tune with what’s happening. Choosing to run alone or with a group might depend on your own personal running goals for that specific day, whether you want to focus on technique, body sensing, or if you just really need to be social that day.

COMMUNITY

One of the biggest reasons for me is really that sense of community! Sometimes, I just really enjoy being with an awesome group of people! I love the energy that I get from running in a group. The time goes by so much faster. I’m often chatting a little bit more. I know maybe I’m not running as hard, but I’m just having a good time that day using that time to be more social. This is one of the ways I like to make running fun for me.

I do a lot of group runs with my athletes and we do those because they’re a lot of fun! Sometimes, at group events, they become even funner, because we create themed events. I’m the organizer for Running For Brews – Tempe, so sometimes we’ll have specific themes. Like, we’ll do a pajama night, or maybe a Hawaiian theme. Sometimes, by working with a group of other runners, you get to experience some different runs, which makes it a lot more fun.

Finally, as somebody who leads a lot of group runs consisting of runners at various and different levels of speed, abilities, and distances, I’m going to tell you THE BEST WAY that I have found to to keep a group somewhat together when you’re running.

I always like to to have each person coming into a group run feel comfortable in their pacing, so I call my groups, ‘Nobody Left Behind’! (OK, you might be left behind for a little bit, but not for too long!) It really depends on all the other people that might show up that are at that pace group. Usually what I like to do is that I want people to be able to do their own pace for that run, so I will instruct all my faster runners to go run at their own (faster) pace, too. So, they’ll get a little bit ahead, whether we’re on a trail or canal, BUT… then I’ll give them either a time or a mileage to turn back around. So what happens is that the faster runners get to go farther ahead at their own pace. Maybe I tell them, “OK, after each mile, turn around and run back toward the last person in the group.” So what happens is that they’ll run back and they’ll collect the other people (running at a slower pace) on the way. That way, the faster runners end up being at the end together with the slower-paced last runner. We all stay together and run for, you know, maybe a few minutes to chit-chat, and then I send the faster runners back out again.

So, that way, the people who are faster will also get a little extra mileage because they’re looping back, but also the person at the end, whether they’re running alone or running with somebody else at their own (slower) pace, will still get the chance to be with the larger group.

So that’s my way of keeping everyone more-or-less ‘together’ in my group runs. I actually have rules and I tell people, “If you don’t like looping back, or if you don’t like being looped back in as the last person, well then, you probably don’t want to come to my group runs, because those are the rules and my intentions for our group runs really are about social and all the extra camaraderie on our longer runs.”

That’s all! It’s about getting the mileage and having fun! Sometimes, we go out to breakfast after, so, again, for me personally, now that I’m a running coach and I’ve been doing this for a while, I really like both, honestly. Based on all these points that I shared with you, sometimes I just want to focus on myself and focus on my form and to, you know, be in my own body and work on my own technique.

Then, other times, I just want to socialize and just get the run done, so we can get to breakfast and chat.

Both of these work for different reasons and different times!