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How long until running stops sucking? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I apologize for how negative that sounds! It's been 3 months. I unfortunately can't be as consistent as I'd like because of chronic utis. I currently go about 8-10 km/h for 20 mins at a time, 2-3 times a week when I'm healthy. I keep at it because I've noticed a boost in my general energy and mood, but I hate pretty much every second of actually running. I read that that's normal as you start out, especially if you start from zero like I did. But I've also read you eventually start to tolerate and then later enjoy it. How long did it take for you to get to that point?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Running never stops sucking. If you train at it, you can go faster, but the actual running pretty much always feels the same.

What does happen is that is that you may find your aerobic base pace some time after starting. Many novice runners have trouble hitting a maintainable aerobic pace because for them it falls into a mechanical dead zone between running and walking. So they end up making every run into a tempo run

So if you want to feel better while running, slow down. Make it a contest to see how slow you can run. Don't be afraid to run-walk if you have to.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I've heard that the best thing to do is increase your aerobic capacity before you start running, so that you're able to run in an aerobic zone, rather than an anaerobic zone.

I'm still working on it. I had been doing intervals, and was up to about 45 minutes of actual running a day, in five minute intervals, with about 1 minute between, but fuck me, my heart rate would go up to 160, and that's waaaaaaay outside of my aerobic zone. So I've backed off to try and build aerobic capacity first.