Monday, April 4, 2011

What In The World Am I Doing

I had one of those moments this morning.  As I was sitting out in my car getting ready to go out in the wind and cold to run, I thought, "What the heck am I doing!"  I really love what running is doing for my health, and I love the feeling I get when I finish a run, but do I really love running? 

I think I would enjoy it more if I had someone to run with.  My brother is a lot faster than I am, and I do not want to hold him back.  I would love to have someone who runs just a little bit faster than me, and we could get better together.  I have some friends at the fitness center who said they would run with me on Wednesdays, but they normally run faster than my brother. The whole time I would be worried about slowing them down.

I guess it was just a frustrating day.  I didn't get my full run in.  I had to stop and find a bathroom (I guess this happens a lot for runners), and I tweeked my knee a little.  So I just walked the last half mile back to the fitness center.  I know I have to stay positive, and I know running will get easier as the weight comes off and my aerobic capacity increases. I am allowed to have bad days, and today is one of them.

3 comments:

Kalien said...

I completely hear you out! I had a day where I thought the same thing; and decided I did NOT like running at all. But here I am..still running, and there are those days where it feels absolutely amazing, I had that yesterday. Other days I'm forcing my feet to move. You are doing great, and I love that you recognize it's allowed. Hopefully your next one is a great one. :)

Chris @ Heavy Steps said...

Thank you Kalien.. Its comments like these that give me hope! I have had those great runs and I need to remember how I feel after I run them.

I hope the good runs are going to be more often then the others.. lol

wam said...

Hey Chris, I'm catching up on your blog and as it happens, I happened to have had a bad run a couple days ago as well. It happens to everyone, so don't beat yourself up about it too bad.

As far as a running buddy, I really would encourage you to ignore the differences in speed. It is still quite useful for even fast runners to take a slower run than their normal pace. In fact, for training up for marathons, I've read from plenty of sources that runners are encouraged to run at a slow enough pace that they can maintain a conversation (while maintaining perspiration). This level of effort is good for improving aerobic capacity. I wouldn't feel bad at all if you're a slower runner and a faster runner chooses to run with you. Obviously not every run will be slow, but if someone is willing to run your pace with you, that's not something you should feel guilty about.