To Hate Running Less: Run with Friends
It worked for: Ross McCammon, MH special projects editor
About two years ago, after Id put on about ten pounds, I sent a text to two friends at 8:00 on a Sunday morning, saying, Im going running at 9:00. Would either or both of you like to join? Although wed never discussed running together, I got a Yup from one and a Sure from the other. Then I got an I dont understand whats going on from the Yup, buttoo late!we had a plan.
An hour later, we met up and ran five miles at the slowest pace Ive ever run, and weve run virtually every weekend since then.
Ive been a runner for seven or eight different periods of my adult lifeall stretches of two or three months. Each time, I quit not because my body broke down but because my soul would. To me, running alone is crushingly boring, depressing, andsince theres nothing to distract you from the painpainful. Id rather fold someone elses laundry. Id rather have a lip-sync battle with my dad. Id rather walk. I hate it.
Now its a ritual. Were a lot faster, but that isnt the point. We keep it up because we want the exercise, sure. But we also dont want to fail at the opportunity weve created. When else do three fathersthree peopleget an hour of uninterrupted weekly conversation? That the conversation has the added benefit of regulating our breathing, keeping us at a sensible pace, means we never go too hardand going too hard is probably one of the reasons I used to stop running.
To Hate Running Less: Exploit the Turkey Trot
It worked for: Matt Goulet, MH senior associate editor
I grew up buttressed by two brothers who had always been faster than me. The older was all-state cross-country in high school. The younger was a varsity runner as well. I was slow and hated the mild humiliation of being the merely sub-9 sibling. But as I got older, I started running more for me. Thanks to inverse fitness trajectories after high school, they got slower and I got faster. And I knew it. So when the Turkey Trot in our town rolled around a few years ago, I used that wholesome event to institute a redemptive challenge. Smoked them. It felt great.
If youre only going to run once a year, make it a Turkey Trot. It allows you to partake in that great Thanksgiving tradition of hashing out old grievances without disrupting the peace of the Thanksgiving table. With more than 1,000 Turkey Trots (or Mashed Potato Milers or Stuffing Struts) happening annually across the country on Thanksgiving Day, its easy to find a local 5K to offset roughly 300 of the thousands of calories youll be gorging on later in the day. And if you start training now, you can build up enough speed to challenge and subsequently smoke family members youve been looking to one-up for years.
To Hate Running Less: Dont Run. Glide. Bound, and Sometimes Walk
It worked for: Bill Strickland, editorial director of Runners World and Bicycling
As the editorial director of a group that includes Runners World, I spend more days than not surrounded by real runners, so what I am saying to you is not opinion but lived and learned fact: Real runners rarely seem to be running. They glide. They bound. They kiss the earth with their tippy-toes as a courtesy to gravity rather than a necessity of physics. I run as if I had three too many shots and got myself into a brawl with a much bigger opponent and am already paying for it.
Yet: I run. When Im crunched for time, Its more efficient than cycling (my sport of choice), and its easier to manage when youre traveling. Its more appealing to me than gym workouts, because it feels more like an adventuregets me outside and gives me a chance to immerse myself in whatever community I happen to find myself in.
I highly recommend getting the shit kicked out of you by a run. But you cant be afraid to walk. If you only run for as long as you can actually run, youre not going to be out there long enough to do yourself much good. When I started, the only way I could do a 30--minute run was to run for a few minutes, walk a few, then run some more. Walking is not only okay but pretty much mandatory. Real runners know this and wont shame you for not running while you run. Anyone else can go suck it, because theyre not even in the damn fight.