Question for runners....

fteale

Sometimes I run with my iPod, and either listen to the radio (news channel - radio 4, for those in the UK), or to music, or to my nike 10k training program, which has constant input form a trainer as you run.

Sometimes I just want to think, and just run through stuff that I have done or said, or things that have happened in my head as I run. After my friend died earlier this year I spent a lot of time running just remembering him, thinking of things I would like to have had a chance to say to him, and generally coming to terms with his death. I find running gives me space to think I just don't get in the rest of my life.

I look at the path just ahead of my feet, so I can see tree roots etc coming up, or right ahead if I am on a road. I don't look at my feet, that would put me in the wrong position to run.

I focus on each km as it comes and try to go faster than the last one. Or not too much slower. Sometimes if it is hot and/or very hilly (I did a lot of mountain running in Italy this summer), I just concentrate on keeping going. That's all I can do. Just keep on putting one foot in front of the other and get to the next village and fill up my water bottle!

SueGremlin

I have a playlist on my iPod just for running. It's fast, upbeat music that I like. Some of the songs are totally silly and are guilty pleasures. Like WHAM! and stuff like that. Nobody has to know but you.
I change up the playlists once in a while.

Faeriegirl74

I find it is best for me to run with someone else as a distraction. I too started at Couch to 5k program and would get easily distracted or stop half way... once I joined my local running club (they even have groups for beginners), I realized I wasn't alone. Now I have run 3 half marathons in the past year... I may be in the slowest group, but that's ok. We run 1 min/walk 2 min intervals... having a distraction of someone to talk to makes the miles go by so much faster. On days that the running group doesn't meet - I either go outside and use my iPod (while running the C10k app), or I run in front of the tv on the treadmill.

crux

On longer runs I put my mind completely in daydream land, the time flys by, I run mostly on trails so i have no traffic or people to dodge.

TinaDay1114

Someone more experienced than I am said that the first 2 miles are ALWAYS the hardest -- even long distance runners are wishing they'd never started for those first 2 miles! And after that, they start enjoying themselves. So hang in there. MUSIC always helps me, and slow and steady, walking if you have to.

I used to die trying to jog for 2 minutes, too.

aschultz9

The running part will get easier as you build endurance. I love running because I can be alone and think lol. I think about everything, my grocery list, my schedule for the week, upcoming races I have planned or would like to plan for. Running is just as much a mental feat as a physical one, especially long distances. You do have to train your mind to endure as well.

CVALGAL

Thank you all so much for your input. I am considering everything you've said. I see that running is an endurance in the physical body as well as the mind.


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jjs22

I was a runner in high school (30 years ago), and I'm just barely sorta getting around to thinking about starting again. I always hated running, except for the isolated "good moments." I swore to myself that I would never run again, and I've stuck by it all these years. It's very strange, but I get the impression that a whole lot of runners hate running !

Anyway, this time around I'm approaching it from a bizarre approach that I think of as "C25K, only backwards". The deal is that I started working my way out of couch potato-hood by walking. Just a little. Not enough to matter, or so I thought. But soon enough I could feel the improvement : firmer muscles, lower heart rate, and my body just felt good. And the great thing I like about walking is there's never a moment of thinking "I wish I didn't have to do this !" Whenever I think about walking, I immediately have a sense of enthusiasm, without the gargantuan struggles ("I REALLY don't wanna do this !") that I always had with running.

So the problem with walking is that I've gradually upped my pace, and at the fastest pace that I can walk (maybe 4 mph), I've gotten to where my heartrate is now pretty tame. Elevated some, and yes I'm burning calories, but my once-feeble aerobic capacity is now merely sub-par. I want to up the ante, but only a little.

So what I do is go for a walk, and once I'm all warmed up I'll break into a run. But only when it feels good and I really *want* to. I run until I can feel my heart beating faster and I return to a walk the instant anything feels at all unpleasant. During the intervals while I'm running, I think a lot about my form (my running form, not my body form !). And when I return to a walking, I spend a little time going through my body seeing how everything feels. Good form is super-important to avoid injuries and also to run efficiently. The problem is that nobody wants to think about form when they are on the verge of death, so a whole lot of runners have really terrible form.

Anyway, the "backwards" part of my approach is that I'm introducing the running intervals only to "improve" my walking experience. I'm _already_ doing a 5k every week with the local (pub-sponsored !) running club, it's just that until very recently I have been walking the entire way.

So I know that all this is very, very unlike the approach most people take to exercise. But I think a lot of us MFP people are not cut from the same cloth as the hard-core, "No Pain, No Gain" athletes. My personal approach is "No Pain, Period !" I'm sure I'm progressing at a slower rate than most others, but the most important part for me is that I *am* progressing, and I'm enjoying every bit of it.

Felixelus

Well I consider myself a runner and I always look about 2 metres infront of me. Especially if you're going up a long hill, you don't want to focus too much on the distance :P I find that it's kinda natural since that distance keeps my neck neutral while I'm leaning slightly forward to run (helping with forward motion and all that).

As for what I think about...I guess it's very personal to the runner! But what I do is think about my future alot. Visualise future successes in running (beating my personal bests) and other areas of my life (passing my MSc course...passing my driving test etc etc). I find it keeps me going. However you do need to find what works for you!

Good luck and keep it up!