I was a varsity track and field athlete all four years of high school, so I have definitely done a lot of running in recent years. To be fully transparent, running is often a grueling activity, and when you compete, you push your body to its limits. I have never pushed myself in many aspects as hard as I have while I am running. As a sprinter, I ran the 55m, 100m, 200m, and 400m, and I will never forget the breathless gasps and burning muscles. However, I don’t regret my experience as a track athlete, and I don’t think I will ever let running exit my workout routine.
Running is undeniably miserable at times, but it does not always have to be! Training for competition requires hard, and often unenjoyable, work, but running is a form of cardio that could benefit and be enjoyable to non-competitors in addition to dedicated track athletes. Even though I am no longer competing, I still run at least once a week along with other gym workouts. I branch out into different workout types such as HIIT, body weight exercises, weighted exercises, and more. Although I’ve tried a variety of workouts, I still find that running is one of the best ways to get my heart rate up, which is an essential part of fulfilling your daily aerobic exercise recommendations. That’s why I thought I’d share what makes running fun for me.
- Listen to music or a podcast. Especially for distance runs, it’s really peaceful and enjoyable to listen to your favorite tunes or podcasts while doing something productive for your body. If you’re the type of person to have a long list of content you want to get through, this is the perfect time to do so. Listen to new albums by your favorites artists or fresh podcast episodes.
- Enjoy the runner’s high. Running is one of the best ways to destress and focus on yourself. It’s common that when you run, you simply focus on the task at hand and worries tend to melt away. Also, once your endorphins kick in, you may feel yourself falling into a running groove and enter a state of euphoria.
- If you don’t like the weather, run on a treadmill. Not everyone has access to a treadmill, but if you do and the weather is uncomfortably hot, cold, rainy, windy, etc., you can still run in conditions you’re comfortable in.
- Explore new areas. If you get bored on a treadmill and want some scenery, you can get to know your area better or nearby trails and cities. Practice common sense when running on roads or in unfamiliar places. The monotony of running can definitely be crushed by some interesting new views.
- Customize running to what you like. Sprinting or distance or both? I like distance when I’m going at a very slow pace, but when I want to push myself more, I love sprinting in intervals. Switch up your workouts if you get bored. You can run 3 miles one day or do 10x200m another day–it’s truly up to you.
- Not all your workouts have to be difficult. This ties in with tip #5. Obviously you feel the most accomplished when completing a difficult workout, but it is easy to feel burnt out, and it’s not ideal to be constantly completing very challenging workouts if you want to reach top speed. If you don’t “feel” like running, you could always do a slow jog/walk through your neighborhood. Do what is enjoyable.
These are just a few tips that I personally think makes running fun. I hope that after reading this, you’re at least considering going for a run or starting to reconsider your dislike of running!
I love this post! While I never ran varsity in high school (the opportunity didn’t exist in my international school,) I still love to run every other day, so I obviously relate and agree with your statement on the value of running as exercise. I also agree completely with the tips that you list, and I think it is very valuable to try to get more people into the sport by explaining how it can be a source of enjoyment.
This post is very thorough and I agree with your ideas. I also do not like running but I do it anyway because it’s good for my health. I utilize many of these tips and to someone who either doesn’t run frequently or has never tried some of these methods to make running more enjoyable, this list would be a perfect way to get them into running.
(Pressed Enter too quickly) This post is very thorough and I agree with your ideas. I also do not like running but I do it anyway because it’s good for my health. I utilize many of these tips and to someone who either doesn’t run frequently or has never tried some of these methods to make running more enjoyable, this list would be a perfect way to get them into running. Lastly, the final tip about not having to run at maximum speed expands the target audience of the blog to pretty much anyone instead of just runners. I believe it’s the most important tip you wrote for that reason.
When I think about running, the idea seems really appealing to me, tough part of me romanticizes the idea of running. While I have never really enjoyed running, looking back I realize that I never gave it a real shot. Running to clear my head, listening to music and exploring new parts of State College would really be worthwhile.Though I need to start doing that before the snow hits!