Whether you’ve been hitting the trails or pounding the pavement, it’s gotten plenty warm enough that you’ve probably noticed the uptick in the number of runners out and about – perhaps you’re one of them yourself! I’m a bit of an unlikely candidate to be writing this post; personally, running has never been my sport of choice (give me a pool or a clean lake any day of the week!) but 2020 made me turn to it more as basically my only consistent option for cardio that also allowed me to not feel guilty about being physically outside of the house. So for all the rest of you who also either 1) do what is known as running, but kind of hate it and don’t really think of yourself as part of the group that would call themselves “runners” per se; or 2) find the very thought of running intimidating and why would anyone do that to themselves – you’re in good company! Which means, if I could learn to not hate my runs – sometimes even enjoy them and think of them as fun (and I’m not even dripping with sarcasm here) – I’m going to go ahead and make this irresponsible claim: you can too. Thank you for coming to my TED talk*. Don’t hold me to it and don’t hold me responsible for whatever happens.
Now that we’ve established running’s wonderful and all, let’s take a look at how you can get started, run faster or for longer distances, or otherwise get inspired to think of running from a different perspective. I’ve also got some alternative titles for those of us who might have tender knees and joints, or just might otherwise not be up for running but would still love to hit up the trails and go for a hike!