The result has been transformational. Resting heart rate is at 60, blood pressure down, my clothes don't fit me anymore, and best of all, I feel better and can concentrate more.
I wish I knew this in my teens. It's like a cheat code.
- weird monkey from Bojack Horseman, paraphrased through my memory
You are going to have bad days.
I remember running 3 miles and feeling great, and then trying the same run a few days later and feeling like crap - gassed myself half a mile in and either couldn't finish or finished at half the pace. I would get frustrated, wonder if I was even making progress, etc. In reality your progress is going to look like a stock price. Some up days, some down days, some very up and some VERY down days (or weeks or months) but over time the line WILL go up and to the right. I once apologized to my fitness instructor that I half-assed his workout that day. He just shrugged and said, "Eh, not every day's Christmas." I think about that a lot now. But yes, going out for a shitty run still counts as a run, and you have to frame your mind around how big of a success that was. You make the most progress on the days you have to fight the hardest and the days you break some speed or distance PR, the gains are minimal at best and destructive at worst.
Happy running everybody.
- Greg LeMond
No we often need days-off to rebuild.
When I'm in a good routine, I run on my treadmill indoors. (I can't currently run outdoors for reasons I don't want to get into at the moment.) However, after a few weeks, especially if work/family life is getting stressful, I tend to stop running just because I want to work on something more mentally stimulating and tangibly productive with my extremely limited free time.
I have tried:
- Movies/TV Shows: I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to enjoying these. The ones I don't care for are boring to watch. The ones I like, I tend to get engrossed in them and pay more attention to the screen than my workout and end up phoning it in. Plus I'm not sure there are enough of these that I can watch one or half one one every single day. (Bonus: I don't watch anything with ads.)
- Music: I don't like most pop music, and the music that I DO like, I try not to listen to every day because I'll get sick of it that way and then I won't have any music to listen to when I want to listen to music. I can deal with high-energy EDM but 99% of it is not great, especially when binge-listening. Also I get tired of staring at a blank wall and so have tried finding live EDM performances to watch on YouTube. This is a lot of work and so far has worked okay but not perfect.
- Podcasts: There are a LOT of podcasts that I want to catch up on, but half the time I want to stop and take notes because the advice or information being given sounds really useful or seems worth following up on. Maybe there are comedy podcasts out there that I wouldn't hate?
- Audiobooks: I love reading but I have a hard time getting into audiobooks. Same issue with podcasts, I often want to stop and research topics and that would take me away from the treadmill.
Be careful to avoid injury, however. I wouldn't recommend this until you've already got a solid running base of miles to build upon.
Like running, keeping notes in your head is something that gets easier if you do it a lot. It's also a really useful skill to have when talking to people in person.
- load chess problems (look at a diagram before getting out the door) and try to solve it while running. Sometimes, I solve it the first 5min, sometimes I get frustrated because it turns out to be too difficult.
- practice polyrhythms. you have a dominant cadence while running, now impose others on top of it.Running never did it for me, I just couldn't stick to it, was always miserable and bored, etc. My main focus is strength training, but for my cardio cycling is what brings me joy. I would dread going for a run, but I excitedly look forward to my next bike ride.
Cycling, swimming, hiking, rowing, even dance will all get you the same benefits so if you're bored doing one, try something else - the important thing is to get moving, the specifics of the activity doesn't matter.
If you really want to get into running, and you have some green spaces or trails near you, give trail running a try. It's the one form of running I sort of enjoy - I get so bored on a treadmill or just in my neighborhood, but I love being out in the woods.
Sounds like you are only listening to non-fiction? You don't need to research topics to enjoy (say) a genre thriller, so listen to fiction.
Playing a computer game for hours on end feels productive when you burn 1,000 calories doing it.
For audiobooks, something I've been wanting to try is to see if I can listen to an audiobook of a textbook for a topic that I'm interested in. But I'm not sure if it would work well, since often textbooks have diagrams and such.
Never did any sport in my whole life, officially obese, but now I’m taking a collective course in a skatepark every week and I’m having so much fun that I’m forcing myself to do more sessions even when I don’t feel like it. And even if I’m still pretty "bad" at it, it’s just amazingly liberating.
I guess you just have to find your thing ?
If going outside is not an option, stationary bicycles are a thing though there wont be any nice outdoor scenery to go with your cycling.
This is how we ran before smartphones, anyway.
Interesting, I started running with my Walkman -> eventually Discman (switched back and forth with some headphones that did FM radio when I got tired of CD skips) -> Early mp3 player (could only fit about 5 songs at a time lol) -> classic iPod. I got injured and stopped running around the time I got my first smart phone, so I never experienced running with a phone.
To get back into running I listened to some page turners, but I’d only listen to them when running. Sometimes I’d do an extra lap just to hear more. And I’d look forward to the next run.
Once the habit takes, I don’t need as much stimulation.
Another idea is political commentary slop or news. Don’t consume any during the day like you normally do (Reddit, twitter, news sites).
Instead consume it only through Youtube on your run. It’s usually stimulating enough to compel the run.
Maybe accept that running, or perhaps exercise in general, is not your thing? You clearly have more pressing interests and there are other ways to maintain good health. My grandfather lived well into his eighties with nigh a scrap of fat on him and, near as I can tell, did no formal exercise after his army days ended. My mother is on the same track despite health issue severely limiting her mobility.
I say this as a guy who rides an indoor cycling trainer 3-4 times a week during the winter and turns in to a raging jerk if he doesn't get his workouts done. If you're not a "gym guy", "runner guy", "biking guy" or whatever, why waste your extremely limited free time trying to become one?
Spouse is also dubious. Remarks that spending 20 minutes on a treadmill or out walking is actually somewhat hard to do. Not wrong, but it only gets easier if you do it. And then it starts to get a lot easier.
This morning, I jogged more than I walked, and almost jogged the entire distance between warm up and cool down.
I haven't decided yet if I will then move to doing a second lap or if I will instead work on speed.
Either way, the daily habit has been surprisingly enjoyable, even if I'm very out of shape. The progress is addicting.
I also find that adding distance makes it easier to improve time. If I can only run 1 mile, it's pretty hard to run that same mile but faster. BUT if I can run 3 miles, it's a bit easier to run 1/3 of my normal distance but focusing on pushing the pace.
I did the same thing but kept pushing harder because my muscles could keep up and I wanted to build up cardio endurance, but I didn't take into account my bones.
Shin splints are no joke and will sideline you for months without warning. It takes several months for your leg bones to build up the compressive strength to deal with continuous high impact running.
Even if your endurance can take it, take your time. Slow and steady wins the race.
Keep it up though. All of a sudden it all sort of comes together. I just ran 9 miles straight last week! I was shocked and so excited.
From my own experience, after 2020 threw me into a bit of a depression I gained a bunch of weight for the first time in my life. I decided I was going to "workout every day" but gave myself a ton of grace about what the definition of "workout" meant. If it was bed time and I hadn't done anything yet I'd just do a couple sets of pushups to "check the box" and go to sleep. I tried to do as much as I could every day, but still gave myself a pat on the back as long as I did ANYTHING that I could call a "workout" ... I lost the weight shockingly quickly and felt a lot better even though most days I was only working out for 10-20 minutes.
Presumably more than a mile a day now