One of my neighbors, Abby, is an amazingly talented blogger and sewing designer of stuffed animals. While She Naps is a great place to learn more about making stuffed animals, and even a great resource of information about improving your blog. But Abby isn’t just a designer and writer. She’s also a runner.
A while back, she wrote a post called How I Made Exercise a Part of My Life. I recently pasted a link to it at the bottom of a post about running and our bodies, because Abby had some powerful things to say on that subject.
As I was re-reading her blog post on making exercise a part of her life, I was struck once again by how Abby systematically dismantled her previous roadblocks to exercising. She brainstormed all the problems that had previously kept her from running, and found solutions. Simple, and yet brilliant.
I think this is a fantastic strategy to employ whenever your running, or something else in your life, isn’t going right. What are the problems? What’s keeping you from getting out there and accomplishing what you’d like to? Figure out what the goal is, what the problems are, and come up with some solutions.
Here’s a revelation I had about problem solving: I used to think I could choose between two options: an ideal situation, or nothing. Example: I will feed my child organic, homemade food, or nothing! Reality: My child ends up eating Chipotle because I had unrealistic expectations of my own meal planning and grocery shopping abilities that week. You’re not choosing between ideal world and not doing it… you’re trying to figure out what a practical solution is. We eat a lot of frozen vegetables now, because for a while I was buying raw vegetables, running out of time, and feeding my kids meals without vegetables. When I started using my brain, I started buying and microwaving the frozen vegetables. Be honest with yourself about whether the solution you’ve come up with is something you’ll actually do!
Sometimes, the solution may not be ideal. Sometimes I go for a run while I’m paying a babysitter, even though I should be meal planning or cleaning or folding laundry. I basically gave up television during my half marathon training so that I could catch up on housework in the evenings that I’d gotten behind on by running more during the day.
But if it’s important to you, it’s worth figuring out.
In Abby Glassenberg’s style, here are some of my previous roadblocks to running, and how I’ve solved them:
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| Sometimes running is worth making a little sacrifice for. |
Problem: Couch to 5k is designed to help you get to a fitness level where you can run 3 miles without stopping. This is awesome, but it made me feel pressure to never take any walking breaks on my runs. This meant that I wasn’t enjoying my runs, because when I lose my breath too much running, I feel panicky and like I’m drowning and want to stop. So, I was running really slow, all the time, so I wouldn’t have to stop, and I wasn’t enjoying myself. If I did take a break, I felt bad about it.
Solution: I let it go. I paused at stop lights on my long runs, and took photos, and just enjoyed being out there and running the miles I was running. I stopped telling myself that I’d just run 3 miles four times, and appreciated the fact that no, I ran 12 miles, thank you, and it was hard and awesome and I deserved to pause a couple times and rest during that. I also realized, after my half marathon, that taking those short pauses on my long runs didn’t negatively impact my training. If anything, they improved it by allowing me to run further and appreciate and enjoy my running. I still take a break after running hard for ten minutes… I save the drowning, without air feeling for races.
Problem: I seriously dislike running in high heat, sunshine, and humidity.
Solution: I run early in the morning during the summer, or listen to podcasts and run on the treadmill where there’s air conditioning. I keep afternoon runs when it’s hot capped at 3 miles or less, and I run them slower. I sign up for more spring and fall races than summer ones. A note on early morning running: if you do it regularly, you will start going to bed and falling asleep earlier, and then it won’t be as hard!
Problem: I sometimes feel like everything should be perfect in order for me to go for a run. I should be perfectly hydrated, have plenty of time, not have had a glass of wine the night before, etc. I used to treat every run like it was a race day, where if I was overtired or not pefectly prepared, I would just skip it rather than having a frustrating run.
Solution: I relaxed. A twenty minute run when you’re pinched for time is better than no run at all. If you cramp, you can start walking, so don’t worry about whether you’re perfectly hydrated, go find out. I’ll throw on my running shoes and hit the ground and do the best I can under the circumstances now, and I find that it gives me extra runs in my weeks that otherwise wouldn’t happen. Sometimes, I’m surprised by how well these runs go!
Problem: I will never be as fast as my husband, I can barely keep up with the mother’s forum running club, and I feel like everyone I know runs faster than I do. Except, inevitably, when I say so it turns out I’m talking to someone who runs slower than I do and then I have to apologize profusely.
Solution: I started a running blog to connect to other runners, and have since realized that my pace doesn’t matter. I get out there, and I work hard, and I run, and maybe it takes me more time than you to achieve my miles or less time, but we still share this amazing, common experience of working hard because we believe that running will make us, and our lives, better. So who gives a rat’s bacteria how fast you are compared to someone else? What matters is how much you’re enjoying whatever goals you’ve set for yourself now, whether it’s running regularly, running longer, getting faster, or using running to meet some new people.
Thanks to Abby for her great post on running that still has me thinking months later!
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About this blog
I just found your blog the other day, and I have to congratulate you on finishing your first half marathon! I am also training for my first half, which is Oct. 12th, and our running “history” is pretty similar. So it gives me hope!
My problem is that I run early in the morning before anyone wakes up. That’s great in the summer when it’s light out and still cool. Now, as we get into Fall, it’s cool/cold and dark. My bed is much more attractive at 5am than the dark street. But I bought a head lamp and some reflective gear, and I just tell myself “shut up and run” (another fantastic running blog, btw). When there’s no one else around to tell me to just do it, I have to be mean to myself!
There are still some mornings where the bed wins, but then I run in the evening (which I haaaaate!) to make up.
Thanks for blogging and putting yourself out there!
Anyone willing to buy a headlamp so they can get out there on those early morning runs has my utmost respect! Sounds like you’re a pretty awesome problem solver. I agree, morning runs in the summer are much more fun than in the fall/winter months when it’s cold and your body just wants to hibernate. I suspect I’ll be doing more afternoon running now, and probably once January hits I will do more maintaining and less distance running until spring!
Glad you’ve found my blog, and GOOD LUCK on your first half marathon! I would LOVE to hear how it goes so please let me know either through comments or the contact form 🙂
Great problems and solutions. I have the same issues with thinking I need to run non-stop or that I have to run faster (because I always compare myself to other people). These are some good points to take into account.
Those were big hurdles for me, and it took seeing myself be able to run my first half marathon despite taking brief stops on my training runs to appreciate that my level of fitness wasn’t impacted when I took a breather here or there. It makes me want to run more, and enjoy it more when I do, to take a little of the pressure off!
do you have a twitter that i can follow
yes – I am on twitter as @iamrunningthis 🙂