Can't understand this running stuff.....

I just don't get it... when I'm running I'm not enjoying at all, can't wait for it to be over, but as soon as I've finished I want to go again....like a scary fairground ride! Think I must need my bumps felt....

[Windswept1 Graduate]

You are not the only one. I am the same. I don't often actually enjoy the running but I do enjoy the benefits so want to carry on.

[Maysie1 Graduate]

I too am exactly the same.

I sometimes enjoy the first 2/3 of the run, but the last 1/3 is just plain hard work!

As soon as I am back home though I want to head back out ASAP. It must be the endorphins from the strenuous exercise.

[Hidden]

Naughty KittyKat, I didn't mean those bumps... but now you mention it...

[Hidden]

Sometimes I enjoy a run. Not very often, I'm usually the same as you, but the ones I enjoy are fantastic....

[runningfortherainbow]

Oh I can so relate! And when I am on a 'rest' day- I miss my running.... strange isn't it? I walked into our stone fireplace the other week ( I was stone cold sober before you ask) and thought I'd broken at least one toe......I actually cried because it would mean I couldn't go running. Luckily , my toes were fine , just a bit battered and I was off running again.... excited for when it was 'over' and upset when I'd finished!

[misswobble Graduate]

Ouch! Glad you're ok now

Do you run somewhere picturesque Curly? I find distractions make me run better. I run through the local park and round the country trails so I always have something to see, which distracts me from the actual running bit

[Hidden in reply to misswobble]

Yes, it is very pretty, but very hilly, it's the hills I don't like! So looking forward to running on the flat in a few weeks.

[runningphobe_no_more Graduate]

I'm the opposite to Maysie - it's the first five to ten minutes I hate. After that I sometimes get a sneaky feeling that I'm actually enjoying being out there - not just looking forward to it being over. Not always, but more frequently in recent weeks.... And like all the rest of you, the side-effects are so good, I daren't give up.

[runningphobe_no_more Graduate]

Funny thing is, I didn't start this journey for my health at all - it was a faint hope of a dream that one day I might run the London Marathon, after I saw an 80+ couple in it this year, so I searched the net for a first step - and found C25K. What sort of brilliant luck (serendipity?) was that?...

As to THE Marathon - well- it won't be 2015! With luck, that should see my first Race for Life and a 10K.

[Hidden in reply to runningphobe_no_more]

A dream that one day you WILL run a marathon...

It's all possible from here RP...

[runningphobe_no_more Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Aussie - you were one of my inspirations in the early weeks, by the way - so please feel free to take some of the credit!

[Hidden in reply to runningphobe_no_more]

That is so very kind of you to say... Thank you... I'm glad my love of this thing has rubbed off... we need more of us mad folks out there in the rain after all...

Happy Friday and happy running...

[mossy1 Graduate]

I know what you mean CG. I don't care for hills either and whichever way I go I have to face a hill out and back - no circular route round me. I always feel good that I have done it and once I get started I have the determination to finish, it's the getting started that's my problem. Not keen on the old bump feeling idea - I can hardly stand the head massage part in the hairdressers!!!!

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Now all you lot who are not enjoying running, but are doing it because it does you good, really are missing out on something. Once you have graduated, you should have at least one run per week when you don't worry about speed or distance, where you stop to admire the view if you want, where you smile smugly to yourself that your old self could never have done this and that you just enjoy being alive. Sure I understand the feeling that it is hard work and that it would be so much easier to stop than to carry on, but if you continue to set some targets they will slowly be accomplished and new ones can be set. The hard runs give you those results, but it is the less pressured runs that allow you to appreciate your surroundings (and if you run in some grotty urban jungle, do yourself a favour every now and then and run in the coutnryside or along the cliffs or on a beach).

I am lucky, I run through fields from home and never fail to love my environment (except when running at 6.30 am in the depths of winter, with ankle deep mud, illuminated only by a headtorch). It is one of the best gifts C25k has given me. Come on, let's not be puritanical, enjoy the masochism!!