Do you really enjoy the running, or is it just that it's worth it for that feeling of smug satisfaction when you've done it?
If you actually enjoy the running, at what point in the programme did that start to happen?
I'm in W6. Physically it's challenging but doable. Mentally, it's boring. 20 minutes of running probably prolongs my life expectancy by 20 minutes, and I'm not entirely sure that it's worth it (half joking here - I do realise that it also probably improves my chances of a healthy old age, which I guess is why I'm doing it).
I don't hate it, and I'll keep going, but I keep hoping that I'll at some point have a light-bulb moment of actual pleasure.
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Honestly? No, I don't always enjoy it. In fact sometimes *whispers* I absolutely hate it.
But I love the feeling afterwards and I love bits of during it, especially downhill bits. I love scenery and being outdoors and fresh air. I love the community it has brought me into. I love my new stronger fitter body. I love that I have two big bags full of running kit, some of which is now too big and/or worn out. I love that I have medals. Me! Medals! Yes, I know that you get a medal in a running event just for finishing it rather than for winning it but still..medals!
I'm much the same. Can't say I enjoy it, but I enjoy that I DO it, and I do like the getting out in the fresh air thing (even if it's peeing down), and the endorphins post run and, yes, the smugness, make it all worth while. Plus, of course, my lovely friends here
I have had two 'Establishment' medals for 'special' deeds. Quite honestly - they live in a drawer. While I appreciated the nice people who figured I should be awarded them - I've always figured I was just in the right place at the right time and it could have been the person before or after me so big whoop for me LOL. They made some in my family proud and that is about all I can really say for their importance to me
But - I have the 'Bridge to 8.04672 K Certificate' y'all made for me printed off and hanging on my Den wall THAT is something I am proud of - not only because I ran it, but you all ran with me and that is splendid indeed
Lovely AnneDroid - medals themselves are just bits of metal, but its how they end up with us that can make them truly something to be proud of and happy with Cherish yours and NEVER add any 'if's ands or buts' to them OK ?
You earned them honestly and by your own efforts, Puts you WAAAY ahead of a lot of OBE's, MBE's and etcs !
I like that thought very much Irish-John . I ran in a 10k event last night, a fundraiser for a school. There weren't any medals unfortunately and I was fourth last. But I still feel proud and satisfied because I completed the thing, and as you put it, honestly and by my own efforts. Non one else's legs carried me round. Mine did!
Yes. I LOVE running when I'm having a good run. One of those days where I start fully recovered and manage to keep my pace down so it is just a nice and easy jog. Particularly if it's somewhere I have never run before, so that there are new views to enjoy and things to admire and contemplate. Add in a bit of sunshine but still not too hot. When it turns out that like, I absolutely love it more than almost anything else. Almost.
The downside is that in order to be able to run like that, a certain base fitness is needed. And that means that sometimes I go out on a run not because I want to or because that particular run is any fun, but because it keeps me fit enough to do the runs I love.
There is no, probably, about it.. it will improve your chances of a health-ier old age.
There is a great deal of sound scientific knowledge why. Not half-baked Media reports, but strong, sound, research based studies and facts, proving that regular exercise (150 minutes per week, which is about 30 minutes five times per week) gives many health benefits. Studies have shown that running can help prevent obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, some cancers, and a host of other conditions. And many of us, not just the scientists, realise that running can, improve also, the quality of our emotional and mental life.
Sorry.. I guess you know that, yep, I really love my running
I don't get smug satisfaction.. I just get pure pleasure...and yes, sometimes it can be hard, but I can, hand on heart say I have never thought.. " Oh I don't feel like running today". It is not the passion of my life to the exclusion of all else, far from it... but it is a really happy portion of my lifestyle now
I started at 65 to run for heart health... then I discovered ...I really enjoyed the whole experience, and when I had run, I enjoyed writing about it ( as my long suffering chums on here will know). Two and a half years on... (and healthier) I still do
I love being outside, across the fields and tracks, my running changing alongside the seasons...even pavement pounding through a world of sleepers tucked up behind curtained windows, when the weather or conditions have made the fields dangerous...looking at everything around me, and being a tiny part of it all.
I have felt lots of things, wet, cold, windswept, hot, sometimes a bit scared ( wet and dark winter mornings on a deserted country lane just before graduation),elated, giddy...but never bored.. ever.
I don't know if you will get a light bulb moment... I hope you do... I wish you could But it is not for everyone, and go you for doing it despite that
Every single time I start a run, I think, "WHY? aM i DoiNg ThIs? I should just stop now. Just mark this as a bad run day and pack it in. Why do I think I'm a runner? Who do I think I am? I can't run!!" and when I push past the first 5 minutes and shake the gremlins off (because really, it was them not me saying all that), I start feeling like I really can run. I am capable, I am strong. I'm going places. Smug? nah. I've got nothing to be smug about - but I sure am proud of what I can do.
I know all the well-researched benefits; for me personally, it's keeping me off cigarettes, helping with the perimenopause symptoms (ie. keeping my family alive), and giving me goals.
I started really loving it when I was running while on holiday in Ireland (week 6). Running by the sea, the sites and the sounds enveloping me, sunrises I'd never otherwise have seen: it was beautiful. I lose track of time when i'm running: that's one of the things I like about it.
l am in the final stage of C25k; this sounds a bit weird and loopy but," lts not me who does the running as the running runs me". I think l'll finish here.Stevy.
I'm only in week 5, but it really varies... there are days when I really enjoy it and feel amazing during a run, and then there are days when I'm just kicking my own butt to get through it... either way, though, two things are always true: 1. while running, I'm definitely getting a much needed break from everything else. I'm only focused on that specific task and no stress from the rest of the world. It takes so much of my focus, there's no room for anything else. 2. That smug satisfaction is always there after each run, even the bad ones, because I know I'm improving in some way or another each time and that feels amazing. So overall, it may not always be "enjoyable" but in its own way, it's become pretty therapeutic for me.
It's weird because I mainly hate it while I'm doing it. I'm too heavy, is a factor, I think. I have to lose myself in music or thoughts and when all else fails, repeat the mantra that "this is the enabling part of an otherwise happy and healthy life".
The weird bit: when I finish, I can't wait to do it again.
I hate the first 10 mins but then begin to enjoy it. It helps I live in a nice part of the world. Exercise always makes me feel.better after I have done it.
Yeah I think this maybe describes my thoughts better. The first 10 mins are awful but by 12-15 mins, I feel like I could run all day. (By 25, I remember that I can't though!)
I live and run beside the sea on the south coast and when I can stop fixating on the pavement just ahead of me, I do love the scenery.
I love every single minute and have done from the very first run even though I thought I was going to die from a heart attack and it was so so hard. But I got the bug then and after four years I still love my running.
Yes, there are some runs that are cold and wet and hard and they hurt and I just want them over with but I still get a certain masochistic thrill from knowing that I'm doing something a lot of people will never experience and I just love testing my body just to see how far I can push it. It makes me feel alive more than anything else and I'm not giving that up. Does that sound smug? Perhaps but who cares? I'm doing this for me and I'm intending to run towards eternity...........🏃🏃🏃
I would say I love running almost every time I go out. There has been a few runs that were incredibly hard and not fun at all, but very few considering that I have run 885 km since I started using Endomondo exactly a year ago.
If you get bored, try running in a club! I almost always run with others, we chat and laugh but we also compete and spur each other on. I love it!
I really sometimes worry what would happen to my mental health if I got injured and couldn't run anymore...
For me I live the way that running makes me feel. Afterwards I always feel amazing, bright and more alive than usual. The first 5-10 mins is always hard but once the rhythm starts it's just nice. However I don't push myself, I'm quite slow and I think it it felt too hard that would take the pleasure out of it for me. Good luck finding your groove and I hope you find your joy in running.
Yeah, for about the first 5 weeks I liked the feeling of *having been* running. I think it was week 5 when I first had moments of actually enjoying the run. And it's gradually grown over time. Don't get me wrong - I still have bad runs, still struggle to prioritise it enough to get out as often as I'd like (tonight being a case in point) - but I've been at it on and off (mostly on. Ish) for four and a half years now, so there has to be some kind of enjoyment in it to keep me going.
actually for some unknown reason this mornings run was a brute. Doesn't happen often. A lot of the times its not so much 'fun' I feel but more a sense of satisfaction and achievement - kind of a quiet inner joy and peace
This morning sure as heck didn't leave me feeling that way - but on the ohter hand, as I walked home I did once more feel part of this Forum and all the friends I have made on it because I ran and did not quit before getting to the target point
That's whats so great these days - I run on my own but I never feel alone
I am now somewhere around week 5-6 (on few week break). I don't like running, I don't feel the urge to run. Every day that was the run day, i was thinking - do I REALLY want to do this? And few times I did stay at home. BUT, there was 1 run when I sooo enjoied it, it was so light adn easy, I could see what is around, be proud of myself. And I want to feel like it again. I am on another long break for running (knee issues), and from time to time I have this feeling that I want to go back to running. I want to achieve my goal - become a runner, stop envying everybody around that they can do it (even if they over 60yo and me in my mid 30s I cannot), I want to prove myself that I can achieve anything I want, show myself that I am strong and capable. I don't know i I will continue to run after graduation. It depends if I start to like it, but it is easiest and cheapest cardio I can do, so I amy run once a week or something like that.
I've never really thought about whether I love it or not. I am a week or so behind you and I got into this to improve my aerobic fitness. After three months improving my anerobic fitness through HIIT training (was glad to finish that one). I am enjoying the structured programme. I love getting out there and getting the runs 'under-my-belt'.
The satisfaction from running and the progression I can see is enough for me, for now. I am not bored, because I am being challenged. It is a nice place for me to focus my thoughts, until near the end when I am just focused on 'finishing that last bit'.
That said, I don't think I will be trying to increase my distance after graduation. Being a capable 5k runner is enough for me - but who knows. I will keep up with the 5k+ runs with a few park runs now and again to keep me 'match fit' whilst looking to find my next challenge elsewhere. I live on the south coast and quite fancy the London to Brighton bike ride. Or the south downs bike challenge. I'm sure there are many more. Either way the groundwork I have put in here to increase my fitness will stand me in good stead.
I can't say I love running, I don't hate it either though and I am finding it like a little habit that has to be fed (a slightly healthier one than some others😋). Before every run I feel in my head I'm going to be faster, run longer and of course look fantastic 😂😂😂 none of this is ever close to reality. However......and this is the big however, I AM doing it, I do feel enormously smug for the rest of the day AND my trousers are starting to feel much roomier. Hopefully as time goes on (and summer arrives) we will all start to 'enjoy' this running lark a little more 👍🏻
Enjoy is too strong a word! I run to keep fit. I like the feeling after a good run and I like Parkrun, but if I had to stop, I wouldn't really miss it. It's hard work!
On your next run try and run ridiculously slow, and see if maybe you are starting to enjoy it. Perhaps you are simply running faster than you should? That is a sure way to take away the fun. My lightbulb moment was when I realized I am not sure how I can wait a whole day till my next run....good luck!
If I ran any slower, I'd be going backwards! I think that if I'm lucky, I will at some point realise that I'm not worrying about whether I can do it and that maybe that's when I'll start to enjoy it. Or maybe I won't. Hillwalking, I enjoy the feeling of my body working efficiently - as well as the obvious benefits of fresh air and scenery. Logically, there's got to be a fair chance that at some point the same thing will click in with the running. Perhaps I'll report back in a few weeks' time.
Really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to respond. Thank you.
Hi thereTDCT,Yes honestly,it is doable,there are boring momentsas there are moments where l suddenly find l'm inthe zone. These " Moments" probably cancel each other out,in the end,( is there an end? ) l enjoy it so much especially finishing C25k. Now l've got the bug again l cannot wait for it will transform my wife's life,( as is my intension) but also,as like you l want to reach a target,- in my 80's l want to still be running for l hope the shear? Love of it.Stevy.
I have never 'loved' running, but I do love so many things about it.
Being outdoors with my dawg (we walk lots but he likes to go a (tiny) bit faster)
Shedding all the nonsense of work
Feeling a sense of achievement
Knowing 'I can...'
Feeling my body change- getting better, stronger, fitter...
Feeling my brain change- getting better, stronger, calmer...
Having time for myself
Listening to my new BF Laura (she clearly likes me best of all her students)
I used to run and stopped because I was badly injured and I dreamed about running for about a year. It was like I grieved for it.
Anyway, back into week 5 and feeling very positive
The support of this forum is also AMAZING - so many people giving their support and encouragement just because we need it.
These comments are all great!!!! I'm not the only one that feels all of these things😄Because when I see others running all I can see are runners that are not red faced or huffing and puffing for air or even the slightest trace of sweat and just running for the pure joy of it, probably been running for miles too before they pass me!!!!!
Like others here, the getting ready to go out the front door and the first 10 mins or so is the hardest bit. Also, after the 30 mins, my hip or knees begin to tell me that that's enough. The feeling it gives me afterwards is the best bit, for the rest of the day actually. I definitely get more done in my day than if I'd decided not to go.
I prefer going out in the darker evenings though.
That's not to mention all the health benefits already mentioned..........
The feeling I get once I've done it and breaking the mental barrier of wanting to stop for the first 5-10 minutes is definitely the most enjoyable aspect of running.
Every single time, before every single run, I'm thinking: "God, do I have to get changed and do this all over again!" Always. But once I'm out the door, come rain or shine, there's no stopping me. I finish what I start, which isn't necessarily reflected in any other area of my life.
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Week 5 Run 1 - A Bit of a Struggle To be Honest
Procrastinating? Me? No! Honestly! C25k/3 🍀 W5r3 ✅ 
