Since I got into exercising about 8 years ago, there have been different types of sports that I have either seriously gotten into or done occasionally.
The beginning was a serious gym phase which eventually shifted to working out at home. I have also done about three far distance hikes and like riding my bycicle around the area, though that does not happen as often as I would like it to.
One sport that I have not really given a fair shot until this February was running. Though I was motivated to push through a non-competitive one hour run a handful of times over the course of several years, running never really stuck with me. There would be circa one practice session before the event and I would drop the sport either then and there upon finishing the actual run or soon afterwards.
This changed in February 2026! I decided that it was time to take a more serious shot at running. I grabbed an affordable pair of running shoes and took my phone out to track my runs.
The first run of this new season was, expectedly, rather lame. It lasted for 38 minutes and was good for getting accustomed to what I was going to put my body through regularly now.
I settled on the one hour run as the discipline of my choice. That's a good benchmark and it is more on the endurance side of the speed-endurance spectrum, aligning with personal preference. The second run went on for 11.00 km in 1:05:23. I probably went for an extra 5 minutes on top of the hour in order to convince myself that running for an hour straight would not be that bad to suffer through.
I have been in the habit of running until July now. It has been five months since I started. The general rule is one run per week, down from 7 runs in the first month. This is usually easy enough to find some time and motivation for, though it may happen that two runs fall into one week (for example, monday and saturday), while a break can span an entire week. Here and there, my running schedule gets bent around trips or other things that take priority.
The run itself still feels like a chore. Our psyche tends to shy away from effort - especially from hard effort over a long period of time. But I always feel great afterwards! And just as you can energize yourself to get started by watching motivational videos, you can push yourself to finish a run by playing the right mind games on yourself. What works for me to stay motivated in the second half is thinking about how much time is left, with thoughts like "Less than half of the hour to go", "Only a fourth left to go", "Only a tenth left to go" and so on. Also, there is nothing quite like coming home all sweaty and rewarding myself with some homemade (honey-sweetened) ice cream! The runs have also been a good opportunity to listen to interesting long-form stuff. Though the effort of running is consuming some of my focus, much of it still gets through and it eases the pain.
No later than the middle of March, I had found a wet weather route. The ground on this one is made up of concrete, asphalt and pavement, which makes it an optimal second choice for times when it has been raining. The main (or dry weather) route is focused on getting out of town as soon as possible, with a little river crossing and much exposure to the sun. The ground there is uneven for a lot of the run, and it gets muddy and sticky when it rains. Hence, I settled on a route for dry weather and one for wet weather. Both of the options feature some uphill and downhill motion, especially the main one. Running in a stadium or some other artifical setting may yield faster times, but it feels good to have more variation instead. I have recently read a statement along the lines of "When running outdoors on natural surfaces, no two steps are the same", and this is how I want my runs to be. After all, we want to get in touch with the outdoors in a wholesome way with healthy variation. Enough of daily life already feels like a repetitive strain injury, so I want my runs to be an exception from that.
After just about a month of running, I seemingly beat my goal of 12 km in an hour. However, due to some goofy mishap, I put the tracking app into pause mode for about three minutes in the middle of the run. That means that the tracking result can go right into the bin. But it only took me one more run to finally hit 12 km on the wet weather route, and two runs after that to do the same on my main route.
Summer makes the body lose more water, which sounds bad for a long run. My wife found a cheap running belt that can carry two small bottles. I started running with a few sips of water in the belt, which seems to help. I have been performing below my best though, so it might be time to switch to a format that works better for the summer. Perhaps doing a 5K once or twice a week would be more suited for this season.
This week's run is not happening because I got some recurring pain in my left foot after not listening to my body's signals last time. "Running through the pain" sounds cool, but only until you are limping or hopping one one leg when you're back at home. Lesson noted!
Overall, I am happy about giving this sport a fair shot and I feel like this habit has improved my life. It is good to put the body through a challenge while getting better and better at something that is as natural to our bodies as running.