If you’re a normal person, you probably don’t like running! 🏃♀️Hear me out!! Some people love running but most of us really don’t.
When we were little children we’d run around the garden or park 🎠pretending we were horses or just to play. We didn’t think about how many miles or kilometres we had run, we had no goal, no idea about pace or speed, it just felt good to run, skip and play. It wasn’t something we forced ourselves do either. We didn’t worry about getting tired, if we were out of breath we’d stop, did we even get out of breath?!
Then we had ‘games’ at school. Some children were naturally good at games – netball, lacrosse 🥍tennis, rounders, gymnastics 🤸and so on – while some were a bit rubbish, I never understood why? Luckily I was naturally good at sports, well good enough 🏅. Except swimming 🏊♀️ Swimming should have a separate ring in Dante’s 🔥 inferno! Having to get undressed when it’s cold, walk through a gross footbath, the heat of the air in an indoor pool and the warm temperature of the water. Having to wear a balloon-type 🎈material hat on your head, the breathing techniques that I understood only a month ago. Then getting out of the pool, freezing cold and change, walking back to main school with wet hair in freezing conditions, on the coast near Brighton – school has put me off swimming for life!
However, I enjoyed playing sports but once you leave school most of us stop playing any type of team sports for good. We join gyms, lift weights 🏋️ and do cardio – the treadmill, cross-trainer, and stationary bike. I used to run for 30 minutes on a treadmill, do 20 minutes on a stair master and once did 5 minutes on an exercise bike. When I got off the bike I fell over because I couldn’t feel my legs, so humiliating!
I’ve tried spin classes (and not fallen over) Pilates 🧘♀️ yoga, and resistance training but I always thought runners looked cool. Runners don’t need any equipment, can just leave the house and run. Apart from the running shoes 👟 it’s free! I kind of dabbled with lots of things but hadn’t run for years and it was never my thing. I do resistance training now – we all know it’s the best thing to do for maintaining muscle mass and living a long, healthy life. But my daughter runs and I wanted to as well!
She doesn’t just run, she runs ultra-marathons up mountains and dances and sings 🎶 while she does it, loving life. She feels happy ♥️ when she runs, can’t wait to go on a run, can eat what she likes because she burns so many calories. 100k to her is fun! Eating whatever you like – wow if anything is going to encourage me to take up a sport, that is! 🍰🍫🍪🍟
I bought a pair of running shoes, sure not the same ones as my daughter, they’re literally hundreds of pounds but I bought a decent pair, some Lululemon leggings, a sports bra and armed with a couch to 5k app (who decided ‘couch’ was the word to use? It’s a sofa!), I started the program.
Never has a minute ⏱️ been so long and arduous. A minute of running followed by a minute and a half of walking and you have to do another minute of running again! All the time I’m ‘running’ I’m thinking ‘this is awful, I want to stop, this is just awful!’. How are these runners running along for 5k, 10K, 170k?
Did they start running and during the first minute loathe every incredibly long second (apparently they did!)? Did everyone overtake them, even old ladies with pull-along shopping baskets? I persevered, how I did I don’t know. I continued to loathe every second of it, even when I reached the 5k destination. I loved how I felt after I had run 🏆maybe I should call it jogging since running sounds much faster than my limp-along pace.
Sometimes it’s too cold, icy ❄️ or too hot ☀️ in summer and I found that I didn’t keep it up. I started again, stopped again. Then I lived in Thailand 🇹🇭 for six months where I walked everywhere and did resistance training five days a week. I needed to do more so I started the ‘couch to 5k’ app again, this time on the treadmill.
The treadmill is much easier in most ways than the road – it’s an even surface, predictable and you can choose your speed and just keep at it. The treadmill can be unbelievably boring though. 💤 Boredom can be a real problem. Your mind says ‘stop!’ – your heart and lungs are fine, legs are fine, but it’s effort, and it’s boring!
To combat the monotony of the treadmill I looked for entertainment to keep my mind occupied. I played upbeat music 🎵 and listened to podcasts. Podcasts can be your best ally – you can choose informative ones that inspire you or fun ones that make you you laugh out loud, realising how nuts you sound to anyone else in the gym! Entertainment really helps! Not only was I getting better cardiovascular fitness, but I was learning things and actually enjoying learning!
Once back in England 🏴 I was in the Cornish Hills, so that’s where I had to run as I was determined to keep it up this time. When running uphill you really feel it, ⛰️it’s really hard, your legs ache, you’re exhausted, often I would just stop then immediately regret it! So I kept going, after all what goes up must come down! Downhill I could do forever! ‘I’m so fit’ I think as I speed up downhill then it flattens and the ground starts to rise and it’s hard again!
It can be tricky running in country lanes, there are no pavements, some car drivers are angels 👼🏼 and slow down when they pass, some whizz past quickly🏁 but mostly it’s the hills, the unrelenting hills! But something started to happen! I accidentally started to get faster. I genuinely would think I was going slower but I was faster, 20 seconds, then a minute. ⏱️ It started to feel less heinous. Don’t get me wrong, it was still an ordeal but there were moments I actually enjoyed. This has given me hope! Admittedly I’d think ‘I don’t mind this!’ – quickly followed by actually yes I do!’
Little by little it became less difficult, dare I say easier! I know I’m not selling this! I think the better I became at it the less awful it became. ⚖️ Perhaps, maybe, in the future, I’ll be good at it. Maybe just maybe, I’ll actually look forward to going on a run? I concede I’d definitely prefer running in a non hilly, flatter version of the country but I can sort of, almost see a time in the dim and distant future where I might actually enjoy it!
Strangely, where running a minute had been so difficult, I found I could run ten without even noticing. Running became a bit like walking. I could do it without thinking, I could walk or run, be out in the sunshine ☀️ and feel good!
I started to visualise myself running and enjoying it, running further, I can almost see myself enjoying it?! The solution focused model of imagining 🧠 doing ‘the thing’ the inner rehearsal, scientifically makes it something your mind can achieve, quickly followed by actually achieving it. Small goals so we don’t alert the amygdala that change might happen, (our amygdala doesn’t like change), and bit by bit, we can go further, faster, get better. Anything that we’re good at is much more fun so perhaps part of the secret to enjoying anything is to give yourself the time and effort to get good at whatever the goal is, running 🏃♀️ speaking a new language 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸driving! Once you’re good at it you obviously will want to do it more.
So I need to imagine myself being really good at running, fast, fit, happy and in theory, that’s what will happen? Will I lose my normal status as a person who doesn’t enjoy running? I do hope so!