Should I Stop Jogging?

monalissanne

I'd be bored to tears too if I had to stare at the same clock and other people moving but not going anywhere for 30 minutes. Get outside where your scenery changes. Also, it's a little bit tougher to run outside because you don't have the help of a treadmill propelling you forward. Maybe that's the challenge you need to make things interesting.

PlunderBunneh

Find a running track. Some gyms have them, some outdoor parks have them. It's a great mid-way between outside running and treadmill running.
Switching to track running and purchasing a heart rate monitor gave me a deep love of running. Before, it was neat that I could do it, but it was what you said, just counting down til I could be done. When running on the track at the gym instead, it's much easier to free my mind, and when I've hit my mile, it's easy to think "oh, I could do that again, and again, and again." And just keep going.
I'd like to run outside more, but the gym offers childcare, so that's where I stay.

beckajw

I hate jogging on a treadmill, but I like to jog outside. So, trying outside may help.

However, there are many things you can do besides jog. Have you tried spinning? I tend to do spinning in the winter and jogging in the summer.

In the end, if you don't like doing it, you won't do it--as you've already noticed. It's better to find something you love and will continue to do.

NMJosephs

How about aiming for a goal? Like a 5K, 10K, or half marathon. I HATE running too. I'd come up with any excuse not to run. But I started training for a half marathon. I never started liking running, but it gave me a goal and once I completed the half I was OK with stopping the running. Now my new goal is NROLFW!

ShannonMpls

I've heard about that zombie game! have you tried it?

I use it every time I run. It's so much fun. It's called "Zombies, Run!" It's available on iPhone and, if not already, Android very soon. Not cheap, but it gets me running.

brianyeager

I run both outside and on the treadmill. When I am running on the treadmill, I watch TV (have to put on the surround sound to hear it). If I am watching basketball or football, l I can get to the point where I almost forget I am running. Outdoors, that is the best. I change routes and love being outside. Right now, it is just too hot here in west Texas to run in the afternoon (the time I have to get in my workouts). So, find something to do while you're jogging to help your mind stay busy. Once you really get into running you'll never want to stop (IMO).

rbrannock

I have been runnnig on my treadmill since January....and I love it but am starting to get bored and have been talking myself OUT of running outside. I can come up with all sorts of excuses.....it'll be too hard, I won't know how fast/slow I'm going, won't know how many miles I've ran, etc. (I have an HRM but the P.O.S. has stopped working correctly, it won't count my calories, so until I can get a new one, I'm S.O.L. on that part) but after reading all your posts, I think I'm going to give it a shot as well. Maybe it'll help break this plateau I've been in for a good month or so. Maybe I'll put the excuses aside and try it tomorrow.

LilLolo22

Thanks guys! During the program, I did jog outside 3 times. I didn't like it because it was still in intervals and it was just annoying to pay attention to the time. Maybe now that I'm finished and can jog for a straight 30 minutes, it will make a difference. I will give it a shot this week and see how it goes! It's raining today...just my luck!

When I did the program, I downloaded these Podcasts which had music and queues. You just put some headphones on and then hit the pavement. No need to bother with keeping the time. Maybe try it that way?

JenniferInNY

Thanks guys! During the program, I did jog outside 3 times. I didn't like it because it was still in intervals and it was just annoying to pay attention to the time. Maybe now that I'm finished and can jog for a straight 30 minutes, it will make a difference. I will give it a shot this week and see how it goes! It's raining today...just my luck!

You can still do intervals outside without staring at your watch. I use a phone app (Android) called HIIT, and it times your intervals for you and beeps with different sound effects when it's time to change pace. You can do all different intervals, alternating, cycles of 5-6 different intervals, etc. I love it. The only downside is I have to jog with my phone in my hand or in my pocket. (Be careful not to put it in your pocket in a way that bumps the screen, though).

astrampe

GET OUTSIDE - the treadmill is a torture apparatus.....

And rain will cause you to get wet, you won't melt...I'm in Vancouver BC, if I have to not run when it rains, I won't ever run...

Btw, if you just started running, don't bother working on speed - get distance in...and get used to running outside, it is different....

JenniferInNY

Thanks guys! During the program, I did jog outside 3 times. I didn't like it because it was still in intervals and it was just annoying to pay attention to the time. Maybe now that I'm finished and can jog for a straight 30 minutes, it will make a difference. I will give it a shot this week and see how it goes! It's raining today...just my luck!

When I did the program, I downloaded these Podcasts which had music and queues. You just put some headphones on and then hit the pavement. No need to bother with keeping the time. Maybe try it that way?

Interesting. Where do you get those podcasts?

legnarevocrednu

I have been runnnig on my treadmill since January....and I love it but am starting to get bored and have been talking myself OUT of running outside. I can come up with all sorts of excuses.....it'll be too hard, I won't know how fast/slow I'm going, won't know how many miles I've ran, etc. (I have an HRM but the P.O.S. has stopped working correctly, it won't count my calories, so until I can get a new one, I'm S.O.L. on that part) but after reading all your posts, I think I'm going to give it a shot as well. Maybe it'll help break this plateau I've been in for a good month or so. Maybe I'll put the excuses aside and try it tomorrow.

I think that's my problem! I used to use the fitbit but got tired of it as I don't have wifi at home and I just couldn't keep up with it. So I'm definitely going to try my jog outside today (as long as it isn't POURING rain). I'm a little put off that I won't know my calorie burn or distance (although I can estimate that), but I'll figure it out! Just gotta push ourselves!

Flab2fitfi

Thanks guys! During the program, I did jog outside 3 times. I didn't like it because it was still in intervals and it was just annoying to pay attention to the time. Maybe now that I'm finished and can jog for a straight 30 minutes, it will make a difference. I will give it a shot this week and see how it goes! It's raining today...just my luck!

When I did the program, I downloaded these Podcasts which had music and queues. You just put some headphones on and then hit the pavement. No need to bother with keeping the time. Maybe try it that way?

Interesting. Where do you get those podcasts?

Just type in c25k podcasts into Google - the nhs do them if you are in the uk. You can also get post android and apple apps for it.

Keely012012

Once you run outside being on a treadmill will never be the same! I hate the treadmill. I only do it when it's raining or too cold outside. But running outside is awesome! I suggest you go back to running outside. I would suggest even a track would be better than bein on a treadmill. I hate it!

cycleholic

Thanks guys! During the program, I did jog outside 3 times. I didn't like it because it was still in intervals and it was just annoying to pay attention to the time. Maybe now that I'm finished and can jog for a straight 30 minutes, it will make a difference. I will give it a shot this week and see how it goes! It's raining today...just my luck!

So get outside and run for fun! I know you're following C25K, but you can also just get out and run/jog/fast walk at a pace you can sustain, and focus on enjoying the scenery once in a while. It doesn't ALL have to be serious training. In fact, if your exercise is always serious training, I respectfully submit that you might be doing it wrong.

And if you are serious training, are you training for an actual 5K? I find that training for an event really helps with motivation (but for goodness sake, real 5Ks are outside and if you have only trained on a dreadmill a real honest 5K is going to be completely different - train outside as much as you can!)

If you're not training for an event, try something different. Go find a tall, steep mountain and hike up it. Use those buff powerful legs to find something worth looking at. :bigsmile:

^^This!!

I'm training for my 1st 5k on next Sunday. Running outside is NOTHING like running on the treadmill!!! Get off the hamster wheel and get outside lol!

You had the determination and stamina to do this program, just take it to the next level. Please try some of the suggestions listed here before giving up. Happy running

SelkieDiver

again try outside - I have a treadmill at home but never use unless I'm stuck inside due to poorly kids or even the weather gets really bad. I like jogging outside as each time I get a new target to reach and once I get better I can change my route.

^^^^^^^^
This! I can run for an hour outdoors, but inside on the dreaded treadmill 10 minutes feels like an eternity! There is nothing to distract you, nothing to vary your pace unless you remember to punch buttons. its sooo boring! And if you haven't, sign up for a race. That gives you a goal to work toward and then after that first race, you have a PR time (personal record) that you can then strive to beat. Collecting all the medals and numbers is a bit addicting..

As to tracking distance and calories, a basic rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile. You can plot your route afterwards on active.com, or if you have an iphone, get the mapmyrun ap. Carry your phone and it will, thru the magic of GPS trace your distance, time, pace, calories, etc, ets. And its free.

Roadie2000

Give it a try outside, but if you don't like it then don't force it. Not everybody wants to run, and that's okay. The trick to staying in shape and keeping with a program is (for me at least) finding things you like and don't make it feel like a chore. That way you're more likely to stick with it in the long run.

I'm not crazy about running actually. I live in Michigan and we only have acceptable running weather for a few months out of the year. The rest of the time it's freezing with snow on the ground, it's raining, or it's sweltering hot and humid. I see a lot of people running in bad weather, it's just not enjoyable for me. I often find myself having to basically start over every spring, because I get lazy in the winter. I do enjoy going for a good run outside on a nice day, but sometimes they are so few and far between it's hard to get into a rhythm. So these days I just go to the gym, I enjoy it most of the time and it's easy to get into a rhythm. I still run a quick mile or two on the treadmill until I get bored with it, but I mostly just lift.

rbrannock

again try outside - I have a treadmill at home but never use unless I'm stuck inside due to poorly kids or even the weather gets really bad. I like jogging outside as each time I get a new target to reach and once I get better I can change my route.

^^^^^^^^
This! I can run for an hour outdoors, but inside on the dreaded treadmill 10 minutes feels like an eternity! There is nothing to distract you, nothing to vary your pace unless you remember to punch buttons. its sooo boring! And if you haven't, sign up for a race. That gives you a goal to work toward and then after that first race, you have a PR time (personal record) that you can then strive to beat. Collecting all the medals and numbers is a bit addicting..

As to tracking distance and calories, a basic rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile. You can plot your route afterwards on active.com, or if you have an iphone, get the mapmyrun ap. Carry your phone and it will, thru the magic of GPS trace your distance, time, pace, calories, etc, ets. And its free.

That's funny, I JUST uploaded mapmyrun about an hour ago as I have it in my mind now to run outside as all of you great people have suggested. And on my wall I asked if anyone had used it and how well it worked, or if it did. So have you tried it? If so, do you think its pretty accurate? Gosh I love MFP!!! Ya'll are awesome....I'm so excited to try my outside run tonight and thanks to OP for posting this!!!

ki4yxo

Love the treadmill, it's in the A/C! During the winter
when it's comfortable, I'll go outside. I did a short 5K a couple
of weeks back, but it was only in the 60's. (That was doable)

cjmas

Basically: what everyone else has said.

I hate treadmills with the intensity of a thousand suns. Running outdoors is cool, though. Once you get to a certain level of fitness, it can be very zen-like. When I was training for my first half marathon, my favorite level was when my weekday runs were 5 miles. It was long enough to get a runner's high, but not so long it totally dominated my day.

FOR ME, I don't run w/ my phone. Honestly, women's running shorts aren't designed for it, and I don't want to carry it. So, I'll map out my run on gmap-pedometer. I also hate running laps for distance, (so dull), so I'll map out interesting routes in my neighborhood. If I'm feeling really ambitious I'll even drive to a spot in a nearby marina or something, but I always feel silly driving somewhere to run.

I use a cheap-o HRM, so I can calculate my average speed old-school style. I only recently started trying to improve my time (which has slowed considerably as I'm getting back into shape), so once a week, I go to a track and do interval training. (My interval training is stuff like 6x400 5k pace instead of run fast for x minutes.)

Anyways. Run outside. I'm about to move to a place where it SNOWS, but I'm looking into cold weather running gear... treadmills are awful.

natalie412

I run outside. I map out different routes - that really helps, and I listen to audiobooks while I run. That REALLY helps. Every now and then I turn it off and just listed to the birds chirp - especially on an early morning run. For me, it is ME time - no distractions, just me and the road and my book!!

I ran ONCE on a treadmill when there was too much snow outside, and hated it.

arcticfox04

I hate treadmills so much. Outside is the way to go. Like everyone said plug in some music and just jog away.

Jaxper

Thanks guys! During the program, I did jog outside 3 times. I didn't like it because it was still in intervals and it was just annoying to pay attention to the time. Maybe now that I'm finished and can jog for a straight 30 minutes, it will make a difference. I will give it a shot this week and see how it goes! It's raining today...just my luck!

Instead of focusing on the time for your intervals, make it a little more relaxing and less strict. Just take your iPod/mp3 player with you and form your intervals around the songs. Run for two songs, walk for one, or something to that effect. It won't be as set in stone as running for 6 minutes and walk for 3, but it'll make it less of a strict task and more of a relaxing workout.

Also, as the others have said, running outside adds endless opportunities for variation. Mapmyrun.com is a tool that I use when I feel like changing it up a bit, or if I need to measure one that I tested out beforehand.

P.S. Running in the rain is among my favorite things! I say you start today (unless there are t-storms going on)!

ccmccoy09

They don't call it the dreadmill for nothing. Get outside!

I second everything everyone's already said; go outside (even in the rain), download a great run mix (I like Rockmyrun.com), sign up for a race. The Zombie run IS awesome: http://runforyourlives.com/?gclid=COfZ5O6kybACFQ5bhwodiVHRYQ

I don't know if anyone else said this, but for a lot of runners, miles 2 and 3 F'N SUCK every single time. There's a reason a lot of people don't ever get past running a 5k. For me, I get to about 1.5 miles and start thinking "this sucks," "why do I do this, it's not fun," "what made me think I was a runner," etc etc. But then I get into mile 3 or 4 and I'm warmed up and have set a comfortable pace and the next few miles come pretty easy. Not to say that you should add 2 or more miles to your run right now, but maybe keep that in mind as you start to add distance. For me, mile 5 is where things start to get really zen. It's awesome.

macnotes

I support your "I dislike jogging" thoughts. Even running outside (which is the only way I've run) by myself is really hard to do. What makes me do it is joining a group. If I join a group with at, say, "The Running Room" I meet people in my same pace group that I can chat with. It makes the workout a social group. It really helps for the 4 hour long runs we'd do for marathon training. Getting to chat and exercise was like getting a reward for doing something good for myself...So I would say, keep doing the running (I stopped and wish I hadn't) but mix up how you do it. I now do boot camps outside which integrates running into the workout. I love it. Not sure if I'll join another group, but it's nice to have others to "suffer" with

ccmccoy09

I have been runnnig on my treadmill since January....and I love it but am starting to get bored and have been talking myself OUT of running outside. I can come up with all sorts of excuses.....it'll be too hard, I won't know how fast/slow I'm going, won't know how many miles I've ran, etc. (I have an HRM but the P.O.S. has stopped working correctly, it won't count my calories, so until I can get a new one, I'm S.O.L. on that part) but after reading all your posts, I think I'm going to give it a shot as well. Maybe it'll help break this plateau I've been in for a good month or so. Maybe I'll put the excuses aside and try it tomorrow.

If you think about it, you probably know at least generally how fast you're running. Just go out and run for time, and maybe map your route when you get home (Google maps will chart for walking). You can get a pretty accurate estimate of calories burned if you know the time and distance you ran, especially if you keep a steady pace (e.g. I'm 140 lbs and run an 11 min mile; I burn about 330 cal in a 30 min run). You can do it! Get on out there!

thefreebiemom

again try outside - I have a treadmill at home but never use unless I'm stuck inside due to poorly kids or even the weather gets really bad. I like jogging outside as each time I get a new target to reach and once I get better I can change my route.

^^^^^^^^
This! I can run for an hour outdoors, but inside on the dreaded treadmill 10 minutes feels like an eternity! There is nothing to distract you, nothing to vary your pace unless you remember to punch buttons. its sooo boring! And if you haven't, sign up for a race. That gives you a goal to work toward and then after that first race, you have a PR time (personal record) that you can then strive to beat. Collecting all the medals and numbers is a bit addicting..

As to tracking distance and calories, a basic rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile. You can plot your route afterwards on active.com, or if you have an iphone, get the mapmyrun ap. Carry your phone and it will, thru the magic of GPS trace your distance, time, pace, calories, etc, ets. And its free.

That's funny, I JUST uploaded mapmyrun about an hour ago as I have it in my mind now to run outside as all of you great people have suggested. And on my wall I asked if anyone had used it and how well it worked, or if it did. So have you tried it? If so, do you think its pretty accurate? Gosh I love MFP!!! Ya'll are awesome....I'm so excited to try my outside run tonight and thanks to OP for posting this!!!

I use it. I have used it for in the mountain hikes and walks/runs on my neighborhood jogging trail. Works great. It does underestimate calories burned though, but it just uses a basic formula just like every other calculator and estimator. At least its below and not over so if you eat your exercise calories you aren't going over on your calories thinking you burned more then you did. I use an HRM for my calories. For C25k I use runkeeper because it lets me set up intervals to tell me when to walk and when to run, but it basically does the same thing. maps your route, tells you calories etc.