Becoming a Person who Runs and Enjoys it

My Introduction to Fitness

At the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, instructions for those living in the UK told us that we should stay indoors except under the following circumstances:

Essential shopping/Medical needs
Travelling to work (not applicable to me, as I was working from home)
One form of exercise per day.

Superb, I thought, so I won't be going out for a while then...

Before these restrictions on day-to-day life, I would not have thanked you for the privilege of exercising once per day. In fact, I would have struggled to tell you the last time that I might have done any exercise. As far as I thought, I would be out of the house for shopping once a week and that would be it for me. Overall though, I was confident that I would make it work. Since I spend the majority of my free time playing online video games I figured that it would be a breeze. The chance to stay inside permanently, without expectations or obligations. Party time!

Bizarrely though, it took only days for the boredom to set in. While I tried to adjust to this new lifestyle that had been imposed on us all I did something unimaginable.

I bought a pair of running shoes.

Let me be upfront if you are a person who doesn't run and you decide that you would like to start running:

Congratulations, it's great! I promise.
The first few weeks aren't going to be fun. I think it is better to just be upfront about that. You will use muscles that you don't normally use for walking, and you will tire quickly. This part is a prerequisite to getting better, which you will.

Couch to 5k

I started with Couch to 5k, and you should too. The NHS has a neat phone app that takes you through it bit by bit, lasting nine weeks in total. If you can dedicate just 30 minutes every couple of days then I strongly recommend giving it a go.

The idea here is that you start in the early weeks following a plan to run for short periods, and walk between these periods. The surprise for me in the early stage was how hard this turned out to be. Running for minutes at a time was exhausting to me (at the time) and I struggled to imagine improvement.

Despite this, I persevered. After all, going outside was illegal if not for this, so what else would I do? I became aware that I wanted to be outside doing this daily, but the C25K app and google both told me I should take a rest day between my runs. I took rest days reluctantly, unwilling to cause myself an injury.

Initially, I felt paranoid that everyone was looking at me and judging my inability:

"Check the state of this guy trying to go for a run, let's throw rocks at him."

Eventually, though, I realized that this was nonsense. People are too busy worrying about themselves to pay any attention to me, or you.

I remember wanting to give up several times, but improvement is inevitable here and progress quickly becomes tangible: You become capable of running distances you couldn't run before. It is very satisfying watching yourself improve in this way. It isn't about how fast you can go, not yet anyway. Speed comes later.

Some days I would experience runner's high, which is pretty difficult to describe but feels lovely. The way I see it, this is your body releasing a bunch of feel-good endorphins to encourage you to keep doing it.

Eventually, it was the big week, week nine. This was when I found out that I could run a 5k in just over half an hour, without intervals. The app gave me a little trophy on my screen for being such an impressive athlete. It felt excellent.

Onward Journey (Running Faster, and for Longer)

In the weeks following my Olympic achievement, I kept on going out and repeating week nine. I continued to find it challenging, quite close to the limit of what I could do. I wasn't concerned about how fast I could complete the run, and only wanted to be able to complete it comfortably.

This continued for some time. After a little more than a hundred 5k runs, I eventually decided to try more distance. Distance brought a new and interesting sense of accomplishment, as we approached the end of the first year of the pandemic.

Disclaimer: Your results may vary here. I learned after the fact that you are supposed to build up slowly. I'm a bit foolish so I didn't increase my distance gradually like I was supposed to.

Not long after that, it was time to go home and see my family for Christmas. A pleasant surprise here was that I was informed that I was in noticeably improved shape, which I found equal parts flattering and surprising. A couple of days before Christmas, I went on to blindside myself by running my first half marathon. How festive.

I figured at the time, somewhat irresponsibly, that if I ran ten kilometres out of town then I would have no reasonable option but to run back. Let me be clear here, this is a dumb idea, but it did work. Do as I say but not as I do.

I remember that it was tough, but not impossible, and I genuinely surprised myself by doing it. The feeling of running a first half marathon is pretty hard to beat, especially when it starts and ends in your hometown where your last memories of exercise were being bad at gym class! My legs were very sore afterwards, and this persisted for a little over 24 hours, but it was worth it and I was back to full strength by Christmas!

What does Exercise mean for me Now?

Just in case the tone of this post hasn't been blatant enough, I kept on running because I think it is great.

Without sounding too unbearable, running for me is proof that I can do things even when they are difficult. Depending on what sort of run you go out for, it can be incredibly relaxing or challenging, and I now feel that I would be on edge quickly after just a few days without exercise. To be clear, this is an addiction, but maybe it's a pretty good addiction.

Reflecting on the last few years it has been something I've done in the background throughout the pandemic. Running, and my associated progression has been a constant even though the world went a bit weird.

It has boosted my self-esteem and it has kept me upright during all the weirdness: After getting my first vaccine, I ran. After recovering from COVID, I ran.

I have booked myself into my first race, a 10k around Glasgow that I look forward to reporting back on. I still can't believe this is the sort of person I am now.

As we begin to emerge (I hope) from the pandemic I am discovering that exercise fits nicely into the sort of life I'd like to live. When I go on holiday, I am the sort of person who likes to go for a run, just so that I can see what that is like in a new place.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse