A personal account of never exercising to running 5 kilometres every day, 463 miles so far this year in fact. Zero to... running... hero! Yeah shut up, you get the gist.
Virginity
I started running in March this year. I say running, I did 1 kilometre, stopping every minute or so, panting, gasping, making that weird sound smokers make when they laugh, and I tasted blood during and hours after that.
But that was the first time. I'd never done any proper exercise before, and because I thought I was a pretty fast runner, it was actually a shock to me how awful I was at jogging slowly for a while. My stamina sucked, my legs ached, and I had difficulty breathing.
How to Not Give Up
Now that is a complete turn off for anyone, so I figured I'd get an app on my phone to log what I was doing. Think of it as motivation, vanity (I shared some runs on Twitter, shamefully), whatever. I wanted to see how I was doing, and plot my routes on a map. So that spurred me on. I kept at it.
It wasn't just the fact I was recording what I was doing. If you do run, you'll find that when things are going great, you tend to get a great euphoric feeling. Both during and after. I noticed I started looking forward to the next run, and never got into the mentality that it was boring - it's you alone pushing yourself. And it feels very cool.
Initial Schedule
I started on a route that my flatmate (who'd started around February) devised - about a 4 kilometre course. It had hills, (because Sheffield, it's fucking hilly). Hills suck.
My schedule at this point was all over the place: basically a "go when I can" ethic. So in March I got about 9 or 10 sessions in. They were spread out pretty sparsely, sometimes 2 days between them, sometimes 5 days. At this point I was still stopping and starting, but the times between stopping and starting got far further apart.
Tightening Up
I carried on like this 'till May, and then I tightened up the schedule a bit. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday worked great at that time. Then in the middle of June I got more serious - I felt confident enough to start going every day (usually skipping Friday and Saturday). I also slowed down considerably - I realised that I was going far too fast to be able to keep up my energy, which took me way too fucking long to work out in hindsight. So I slowed down.
That's where I've been ever since. I changed up the route a bit as I got more confident, upped it to just over 5 kilometres (with a hill right at the end!) and do it in times varying from 23 to 25 minutes. I'm really happy with what I've achieved, and aside from some silly beginner mistakes (such as going too fast and wearing myself out too fast), I feel good about how I got here.
Running is Cool, Kids!
It is. You don't have to pay for a gym membership, and you can just start from wherever you live - and run somewhere. I fit it around a full time job, and that works great. No-one can interfere. And that's why it's awesome.
Things I've really started to love doing: running in the late evening, and running in the rain. And both. There is nothing quite like going for a run in the rain- which sounds a little absurd, I know, but it's lovely. So refreshing. I'm not the only crazy one either, I see more people out running when it's tipping it down than otherwise.
A Few Tips
If you are going to start, it's well worth investing in some good (specifically designed for running) trainers. That's the only expense to it, and it means you don't mess up your knee joints in later life.I'd highly recommend starting - for whatever reason. It's a great way to build up your stamina, leg muscles, or just another hobby. Whatever you deal is. At least try it for a month - anything less than that is a cop-out - then make up your mind. It doesn't matter if you think you look stupid, think you're doing it wrong, nobody cares. It's for you.
