Finding Enjoyment in the Return to Running

I recently decided to return to running after a 12-year-long break from it. While the idea of returning to running was a little bit scary and uncomfortable, I have found three teachable moments through my experience that you can apply to your own life, whether it is running or something entirely different that you want to make a return to but are apprehensive about.

Key Takeaways

If You Want to Find Enjoyment in Returning to an Exercise Such as Running, You Should:

Find another way to do your cardio that you can tolerate

Find an intrinsic motivation to train for

Find some sense of joy in doing whatever you are doing

Cardio and Strength Training Go Together

Some of you may not know that I used to be an endurance athlete. I focus more on strength training rather than cardio in my public work because when we look at the data, more women meet their cardio minimums than their strength training minimums. 

However, we need a balance of both strength training and cardio to see the results that most of us are looking for. It takes a combination approach for all of us to achieve our goals, no matter what our goals are.

Find Your Intrinsic Motivation 

Sometimes, exercise is uncomfortable and hard. It is a way that we build in a way of controlled discomfort. But finding other things that we enjoy about the experience makes it that much richer. This has been my main takeaway when getting back into running. 

Finding intrinsic motivation is key to putting yourself out there. Even if you do not love the exercise itself, finding joy in the other aspects of 'the thing' instead of looking for external validation will keep you going. It is possible to find a way to incorporate what scares you into your daily routine; you just have to take the first step.

Have you been looking for a way to reincorporate something such as running that you may have had on the shelf for a while? Tell me your story in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode Why I decided to make my return to running after a 12-year break (3:18) The steps I took to get back into running to prepare for future events (12:29) How you can find a new or alternative way to return to a specific exercise (14:45) The importance of continued motion and purpose for your longevity (17:27) How to find motivation and joy in whatever activity you are doing (22:52)

Quotes

“If you were wondering why I go on and on and on about fueling and why I became a sports nutritionist, it is to help other women, especially women, avoid those pitfalls that I fell into all those years back.” (4:45)

“I knew that I was going to have to find a way of reconciling the fact that when I left the sports world, I was doing a lot of things for the wrong reasons.” (13:55)

“There was definitely an apprehension for me or kind of a burnout in putting running on the shelf for an indefinite amount of time, and as I started to return to things, I wanted to do it very mindfully.” (14:33)

“For so many years, we have swung the pendulum from only doing cardio to only doing strength training, and we need both.” (15:47)

“Sometimes it is the extrinsic stuff that is enough to get us in the door, but it is more the intrinsic side of things that keeps us going, and I very much have felt that with running.” (22:38)

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FYS 410: The Power of Intrinsic Motivation in Fitness