Stats: 28F 5'3" SW: 185 CW: 166 GW: 152
Yesterday night, I ran 3.5 miles outside without stopping, the first time I've run that long of a distance since 2017. (That said, it was a slow 13-minute pace.) More importantly, it didn't even feel hard, it just felt like being on autopilot and like I could go on for a long time, which wasn't the case in the past. When I used to run, I did it to lose weight and because I felt good afterward, but I hated it while it was actually happening. Some thoughts and tips for others who want to run:
- I didn't do Couch to 5K. A lot of people have and it works, and I completely respect that, but I personally found it psychologically demoralizing. I could run for 30 seconds at a time, but if it felt tough, I would be like "man, I can't even do 30 seconds without getting winded? I'm never going to make it" and give up. Then, I was like "if I can't even do Couch to 5K, the app everyone recommends, I will definitely never be able to run at all." But then I saw someone write that they just waited to run until they could comfortably do a full mile (because they'd lost enough weight that it was easier/were in better cardio shape from other exercise) and realized I could do that too. Again, if C25K works for you, that's great, but if it doesn't, that method isn't the only way. While I agree that it's good to start exercising now because it's good for health and mood and such, for high-impact and somewhat emotionally loaded stuff like running, it's also fine to wait until you lose more if that's more physically or psychologically comfortable.
- I'm one of those "I hate the treadmill, I feel like a hamster" people, but started running on one just because my friend made me go to the gym with her, and I think it's helped for training. One big reason is that it made me accept that my natural stride is really short and basically my walking stride. Outside, I want to do big, loping strides because they look cool and fun, but there's barely any point in doing that on a treadmill, and getting used to running short strides there was good for form. Also, I think the treadmill was useful because you just set a pace and keep going, which is good discipline for doing the same thing outside. Before, I'd sort of wildly vary in rate as I ran outside and had no consistency.
- Yesterday's run really drove home the idea that the first mile is sort of a "wasted" mile. Not in terms of progress and gains, of course, but for a lot of people, the first mile is bad and uncomfortable because they're warming up. Similar to my C25K attitude, I used to be like, "if the first mile is hard, I definitely can't do more than one," not realizing that the second and third mile are actually sometimes easier because your body is prepared.
- I'm prone to self-consciousness and kept being passed by other people, but I found myself thinking that it was okay. If a lot of those faster runners came to a ballet class with me, they probably wouldn't know the correct form for a plié or a rond de jambe. (Here, insert anything that you are good at that other people might not be.) I thought that if they were in my class as absolute beginner dancers, I would show them goodwill and compassion and I hoped that they would show me, a beginner runner, the same goodwill and compassion too.
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