A Return to Running
11 November 2021
I started running regularly during high school. I must have been about 15 years old. One day, around 2010, my friend Evan and I just decided to go for a run. I guess. I don't remember.
What I do remember is that it was a very casual decision that led to a fulfilling and rewarding shared hobby, and we ended up running semi-long distances together fairly regularly. I'm 26 years old now, and for whatever reason, this practice isn't a part of my life anymore. I haven't been able to keep the habit for more than a few weeks at a time during a good stint, and a day or two during a bad one.
Some reasons I can think of that possibly contributed to the lack of commitment:
I know I presented the issue in such a way that would suggest I didn't know why I'd stopped running regularly, but I guess the truth is I do know, and I just laid out all the reasons (without much trouble either).
But the reality is that I enjoyed running very much when it was a habitual practice, and now I can always find a reason not to. And when I do run, it's too taxing to stick with it long enough to "get back into it." But I know that if I was able to get back into it, I'd feel a lot better than I have been lately. Physically, mentally, probably even spiritually.
A related observation is that I used to prioritize and care about my health much more than I do now. And I'm not unhealthy or physically out of shape now, but I certainly take less care in making sure I eat the things I should be eating, or do the things I should be doing. I'd really like to get back to the mindset I used to be in, the one that pushed me to care about the state of my body more. I'm thankful that my metabolism has always been good. If it wasn't, I might be dealing with a lot more out-of-shapeness to overcome, and amid the added stress in my life, that would be a serious challenge.
I would like to have a more capable stress response, so that I could more easily deal with the stress I face lately. I know that running regularly would be a good step toward that. Ideally, I'd like to get back into biking as well. I used to trail bike around the same time, and that was a lot of fun. I'm interested in cycling, trail biking, and swimming, and I'm hoping that I can stay on this path and get to them.
All this being said, I ran yesterday for the first time in probably 3 months. It was a 3/4-mile run at a pace of 10 minutes/mile. That's pretty bad. It was also pretty exhausting, both physically and breathing-wise. Nonetheless I'm glad I was able to get outside and run. I want to do it again today. I might even devote a special page of this website to my running statistics, for the sake of documentation as well as motivation and accountability, assuming at least one person reads it.
Anyway, wish me luck!
— Derek Andersen