Lots of new runners, when they're starting out and particularly when wanting to use running for weight loss, come to see it as punishment.
I had lots of alcohol, i need to run it off
I've eaten so badly this week, i need to run it off
I'm so unfit, I need to start running
Running is seen as a price to be paid for some perceived failing, moral or physical. It burns off the calories you shouldn't have eaten, it is a health thing you can do as payment for an unhealthy habit. Or it's just an activity you find hard that is your punishment for something else.
The underlying thought is that running is negative. It's a slap on the wrist or a parking ticket. It's the thing you do to make up for the things you think you shouldn't do, or are failing at.
A lot of people, you possibly included, approach the sport this way, as punishment, and are somehow surprised when you feel deep dread at the thought of going for a run.
You've personified the simple act of walking but quicker, running, as a punishment. As something that kids are terrified off and that only follows something bad or to be avoided. Why are you surprised that you don't enjoy it?
Why do people treat running as punishment
This is a simple answer: running is hard, painful and exhausting.
These are three traits that generally also exist in punishment in one way or another. At the very least, activities with this trait are generally things that you don't often wish to repeat. You don't generally go out seeking parking tickets, slaps on the wrist or 30 minutes in the naughty corner.
Why is treating running as a punishment such a bad thing?
Treating running this way teaches you to dread the act itself and it tells your brain that you deserve punishment for doing normal things. The simple act of using running as self flagellation shows that deep down, you probably know running is good for you. If you think it’s good for you, it might be something you want to do better, or more consistently. And put quite simply, putting running in this punishment box in your brain will always lead you to not consistently running.
But more than that, this cycle reinforces the idea that your actions are something to be monitored and, when wrong, punished for. You are most likely, not a child. The mistakes your punishing yourself are don’t need or deserve punishment. If punishment is actually needed for your actions, that’s called a crime. Ironically, running them becomes your best course of action as you run away from the police. Your actions are just actions, they’re not inherently good or bad, they just are. Learn from them, feel guilt, shame and anxiety. Feel the normal human responses and if running helps, then do it in a productive, positive way, not as punishment. If you can’t treat running this way, don’t do it, find a more productive way to move on from your mistakes.
Lastly, and I’ll expand on this more in a moment, but running deserves a brighter spot in your life, than as the thing you do when you mess up. Running as a sport or act is a miraculous thing, and by using it as punishment, you’re robbing the act itself of its main powers, and you’re robbing yourself of experiencing the incredible things consistent running has to offer.
What’s the alternative to running as punishment?
It’s easier said than done to transition from this punishment mindset to something else though. Most people I see with this mindset are newer runners. The phase of being a new runner where every run is painful and hard. Where you cannot imagine how on earth or why someone would do this or much less, enjoy it.
Transitioning from that state of mind to a more productive one isn’t easy, but it’s possible. And doing so makes the experience so much better.
The alternative is to treat running for exactly what it is. Don’t try to paper over it, or use it in a way so as to make it feel like something else.
Running is hard, it feels hard. It feels unnatural and you feel self conscious.
That’s not a flaw in your running ability, that is just how running is.
Working through that pain, doing it anyway when motivation is low, is the cost of admission for being a good runner. There is no runner alive who you’d consider good, who hasn’t absolutely hated running a lot of times during their life.
That being said, whilst gritting your teeth and just getting it done is a requirement for being a good runner, there is also a mindset shift that I’ve found universal amongst the people who go from hating running, to loving it.
The mindset needed to enjoy running
It’s easy to get caught in how hard running is, but lingering in that state of “I hate my life, why do I do this” isn’t going to help you. Running is hard, no amount of you feeling sorry for yourself is going to change that.
This may sound harsh, but it is true. Running is hard and you’d be better served by not expecting it to be easy.
The mindset that makes this possible (in my experience), is that those who excel in running, have two distinct feelings about running.
The joy of movement
Running as meditation
The joy of movement
The joy of movement is as it sounds, instead of feeling every ache and pain with your soul, feel overjoyed in the fact that your body is doing what it’s built to do. Every muscle in your body is working as a single unit to move you through the air. You’re able to bounce, skip and stride like kids do when they have new shoes. That isn’t a god given right, it’s a privilege. Enjoy it.
Every step you take, the wonderful machine that is your body is perfectly synchronising a few really big muscles along with hundreds of tiny ones. Your brain is sending perfectly timed signals to your legs so that you don’t fall over, your feet adapt on a millisecond level to keep you balanced and stable. This happens every single step and is nothing short of a miracle in my eyes.
One day in your life, you won’t be able to run any more. One run will be your last run. You’ll stop your watch for the last time. Don’t you think that after that day, you’d probably give everything to be able to move like that again, so maybe you should enjoy it.
Run and move freely, skip over puddles, bounce at the rhythm of the music in your headphones. Your runs are limited by the human condition, probably best to not waste them.
Running as meditation
This is an often used phrase by people who love running. Whether you have headphones in or not, running is a meditative experience for human beings.
These days, there are almost no consistent experience that forces you back into your own head like running does. The act of running, alone, down an empty path, bottles up your thoughts, stresses and feelings, and pops them back into that little head of yours. They are yours, and you’re alone with them now.
Even if you have music playing, it only acts as the elevator music for your little thought session. Happy songs guide to thinking about what you enjoy or are excited for. Fast paced banging anthems make you feel powerful.
There is a huge benefit to having true alone time like this. It’s rare in our modern society to not be barraged with things to do, think about or scroll through.
Running is the most productive way for you to be mindful. It’s a dedicated period of time where you can just think. The act of running itself stimulates huge blood flow to your muscles and brain, it’s pretty hard to be more awake and aware than you can be whilst running.
Even in this, your body does amazing things. The motion your eyes get whilst you run (side to side and gently up and down) actually causes your brain to fall into this state of active meditation. This little meditation ritual has been given to you by nature and your biology.
Take advantage of it. Think about work being a nightmare, think about the argument you had with your partner, mull it over whilst running. It has the glorious double impact of giving you solo time and space to think, whilst also adding in positive chemicals that you get naturally from running, making even the most stressful thoughts sting a tiny bit less.
