How I Learned to Like Running

I have spent a lot of time running after sports balls in my life - on tennis and squash courts, soccer fields, and baseball diamonds. But running just for the sake of running has never appealed. It’s been a good way to train for other sports, but for me, an excruciatingly boring one. Whenever people tell me they actually enjoy running, I find it hard to understand. There’s no ball to chase, how can that be fun? 

But that has changed! Since lockdown here in Seattle, I have been unable to play squash, which removes my main source of aerobic exercise. So I decided to try, yet again, to see if I could develop a sustainable habit of running. I have now run almost every day for a few months, and I actually like it! Here are some observations about this interesting new experience.

I am surprisingly bad at running  

I should be half decent at running. I have the right body shape - kinda skinny with long legs. I played soccer and squash my whole life (aerobic fitness required). But when I go for a run, I am easily passed by people that I would expect to run circles around in a ball sport. It’s an interesting example of the specificity of fitness. Squash and soccer require endurance, but the pattern of activity is intermittent/high intensity, not continuous/moderate intensity. Maybe my running ability will eventually catch up to my ball chasing ability, or maybe not. I am still improving quickly, and don’t know when I will hit a plateau.

Starting slow was key 

On multiple occasions in the past I tried and failed to make running a regular habit. Whenever I ran more than 2 times per week, I would quickly get injured, burnt out, or just insanely bored. But this time I found it easy and even fun to keep going, and I mostly credit this to starting at a very slow pace. This was based on a conscious decision to be extra careful about applying basic principles of graded exposure, and also following advice from the excellent book 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald. The main argument in this book is that most runners spend too much time running at a moderate/hard pace, and not enough at an easy pace. This claim is based on research from Stephen Seiler, who studied the training logs of elite endurance athletes in multiple sports, such as running, cycling and cross-country skiing. Seiler found that the training methods were different in many ways, but shared a common factor: 80% of the work was done at very low intensity, while only 20% was high intensity. Novice runners tend to gravitate to the middle zone (race pace), while elite runners spend more with “polarized” training.  

In applying the advice in the book, I realized I had to run so slow I almost felt like I was walking. While this was at first kinda boring, it was also very easy and sustainable, and eventually … not bad. After only a few weeks, I noticed that my speed was increasing steadily even as my heart rate remained low. I was surprised to see so much improvement with so little effort (other than just showing up.) This is a reminder of a very fundamental point that is usually missed: most results come from long-term consistency, not heroic and unsustainable bursts of effort. 

Running helps pull-ups?  

Since running, I've cut way back on weight lifting - I’m just doing a few sets of pull-ups, pushups, squats, and lunges per week. But my pull-ups and pushups have actually started feeling easier. Yesterday, I decided to see how many pull-ups I could do, and hit 20, which is a lifetime PR (I’m 52!). I assume that running improved my general endurance, which had some carryover effect to the long set of pull-ups. My takeaway is that the there may be some validity to the popular (but contested) claim that developing an “aerobic base” is a good prerequisite for general sports performance. . 

I feel great

In the past, running always irritated my feet, ankles and knees. Nothing too bad but just …. not good. After running, I would look at my feet and think: “of course running doesn’t feel good, look at those bony things.“ But now my feet feel like perfectly appropriate things to pound my whole body weight into for thousands of reps in a row. Also, I feel more energetic, alert, with better concentration. And I’m sleeping better. 

Beer tastes better after a run than lifting weights

But not as good as after a soccer game or squash game. C’mon.

My major takeaway from this experience

Despite a lifelong interest in exploring different ways to improve my movement health and performance, I somehow managed to avoid picking a very low hanging fruit - long slow endurance training on a consistent basis. A reminder that there are many different areas of the movement landscape that are worth exploring, and that each provides unique benefit.