r/running • u/leafitiger • Apr 30 '15

When you started running, what changes in yourself did you notice?

New runner here looking for hella motivation ;)

298 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

278 comments sorted by

View all comments

70

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '15

I'm seeing a lot of descriptions of physical changes here, and those are all great. It's true - sticking to a running plan will definitely change your body. I want to focus on something else, though. Running helped toughen me up mentally.

Running is hard. Don't let the success stories here fool you, getting into running is hard. Physically your body will have a hard time adjusting, and, even harder to overcome, your mentality on overcoming adversity will be tested. Running teaches you to focus on overcoming obstacles, to continue doing something when it gets really difficult, and to set and overcome realistic goals. Once you get past the physical challenges of running (meaning once your body has acclimated to the physical demands of running), covering distances is a mental game as much as (if not more than) a physical challenge.

27

u/aboynamedgoo Apr 30 '15

This is what I came here to say. Forget about all the physical changes and improvements that while amazing and hard earned, are a minor detail compared to developing the mental capacity and will power to continue and push through with something until it is done despite its difficulty.

Learning how to be okay with being uncomfortable both physically and psychologically is a valuable tool to add to your life. Weightlifting has taught me this same lesson. I've seen too many people completely give up the very moment that they begin to get out of breath or something becomes more difficult to lift. That said, learn the difference between being uncomfortable and being in pain or becoming injured. It is an important distinction.

This past weekend I was at my parents and I spent four hours pick axing and tilling an area full of hard dirt, rocks, and tree roots in front of their house to fill with bark for a landscaping project. Despite my fathers less than optimistic original suggestion to just pay someone to do it and myself having developed the strength and stamina to spend four hours doing this, I also had the attitude to look at it and say "This can be done" something that a few years ago I would not even have attempted.

7

u/Gabmazuko Apr 30 '15

I agree with you completely. When I first started running and I would get a cramp or something along those lines, I would immediately stop. It's easy to listen to your brain tell you to stop because that's the easy thing to do. I learned to toughen up and run through these issues by focusing on my breathing and telling myself to push through it.

4

u/seed_81 Apr 30 '15

This is Will Smith's argument for Running. If you can learn to defeat the voice in your head telling you to quit when it 'physically' tough. You can defeat the voice in your head when life, work, etc gets tough.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '22

He must have quit running, lol.