Overcoming "I Hate Running"

Acadia National Park, August 2019

Many friends tell me that while they appreciate my stance on fitness, they simply “hate running”. When we delve into the why, a few commonalities pop up.

Let’s work through each of these thoughts:

*It’s too hard for me.

I had this same thought when I started running. At the time, I thought I had to try to go out as fast and as long as possible to get a decent workout accomplished. This resulted in feelings of disappointment when I would get tired and out of breath quickly.

The game changer for me was learning how to run slowly. Finding a pace at which I could sustain a conversation, allowed me to run in a much more comfortable way, without becoming short of breath. I found I could run longer and with much less fatigue. It finally felt doable! 

What if we embraced our current fitness, wherever that happens to be, and simply ran with it?

*I could never run like that.

We see runners in our neighborhood or at the gym, and maybe we don’t think we belong right there with them for whatever reason. Maybe we think that we aren’t fit like them, that we could never be fast enough, that we could never run long enough. I’d like to encourage us to take the focus inward and concentrate on what we can do right now.

What if we allow ourselves to remove the comparison factor?

What if we just laced up our sneakers and started?

*In my previous sport in high school or college, running was used as punishment.

Growing up, my sport was dance, so thankfully, I never really experienced the association of running with punishment. But for many athletes, they have taken memories of running from their youth into adulthood. Mess up the workout - go run laps. Miss the play - do sprint repeats. Poor team performance - everyone go run a mile. With this particular wiring, the brain thinks about running and automatically recalls the negative experiences and feelings of the past, leading to inaction, resulting in zero desire to run.

What if running didn’t feel like punishment?

What if it could feel good to our bodies?

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At this point, I’d encourage us to grab our training journal and a pen. Pick one of the above thoughts that may be holding you back from running, and then write what comes to mind for 5 minutes. If you’re having some difficulty with the process, some questions to consider: 

Is there a memory associated with this statement? 

What is that memory bringing up for you? 

What feeling does the statement or memory evoke? 

Where do you feel the feeling in your body? 

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Next time we find ourselves saying, “I hate running,” let’s encourage each other to get beyond that thought. Let’s figure out WHY we might have this thought. Then, we put our minds in a much better position to come up with alternative thoughts that serve us in a more positive way.

It IS possible to go from the thought: “I hate running,” to “I love running.” To be sure, the evolution in thought does not occur overnight, but we can most definitely create this for ourselves over time.

For additional reading on the thought work presented above, see my earlier post on the Thought Model.