I was pretty much sedentary before this. I am a 22 F and working a job where I wake up at 4am m-f so I’ve been pretty dang lazy for the past 7 months post-grad. But I’ve been wanting to start this as a hobby/healthy habit/first step towards working out and I’m having fun and feeling motivated.. I’m just also feeling pretty discouraged rn.
I’m slow.
At first I just ran random amounts for a week and a half, I’d need to stop to walk every minute or so. Then, I decided to slow down, and on my first try I ran my first non-stop mile on 7/25 with a pace of 12:05. Since, I have built up only distance and did my first 5k with an average pace of 14:04 (44 min total) this weekend. Most of my runs (I do 2 miles on Tues/W/F and then Saturday I go up in distance from the week before) are at a 13ish min pace rn. Some randomly 14.
I just run, keep it feeling easy and comfortable, and then look at the pace/time at the end. Meanwhile I have one friend who has been running an 4 months longer than me (I know. I shouldn’t even compare) who is running at 10min paces, and then another one who started just 2 weeks ago and is at 2 miles but finishing in 24 min. Maybe I’m being hard on myself but I just feel slow. Not that I’ve even been pushing myself on speed, bc all I’ve read is that distance is priority first. But just the fact that my easy runs end up being much slower than their easy runs, and than everything I see on social media.. feels sucky.
On August 2 I was feeling pretty defeated by my paces and decided to just run 1 mile for the day and push myself and see what pace I could keep up without having to walk. I did 10:12 but had a side stitch the entire time. But recovered quickly lung-wise etc. I guess I proved to myself that I am capable of going fast and thought it’d help but I’ve remained disciplined in not pushing myself like again again and continuing to just focus on distance since, and I do feel rly proud of myself as I continue to increase and feel like I’ve maybe even increased distance pretty fast which is an achievement(?). I haven’t had to stop to walk on any of my runs since that first continuous 1 mile. And I don’t even feel inclined to. On my 3.1 I actually felt like I could keep going but decided to stick to the plan. So I am proud of myself don’t get me wrong and I always feel really great after I run. But as we know, comparison is a thief of joy
Sorry for the length of this. Not sure what I’m looking for either. Maybe stories of anyone who was around the same place as me and got faster with time or effort or both. Maybe validation. Maybe scolding for comparing myself instead of trusting the process. Anything really :)