Teach Me Your Ways
Can you teach someone to learn to love running?
Afew months ago, I stumbled upon this tweet from a former classmate: “People who run – voluntarily, joyfully, even – teach me your ways,” Iva wrote. “Tell me what I am doing wrong and how I can stop hating it so much.”
The tweet quickly racked up 52 likes and I rushed to add my voice to the long chain of replies. I like to think I know a thing or two about enjoying running, considering I’ve been enjoying it ever since I ran my first cross-country race at age seven. But I struggled to come up with something to say that might help her.
I thought of a scene from the first season of the hbo TV show Girls, when one character is trying to convince another to finish a run. Lena Dunham’s character says, between gasps, that “endorphins don’t work” on her. Then she takes off her running shoes and lies down in the middle of the street in protest.
I’ve tried to convert non-believers, but have never been successful. In high school, I persuaded friends to join the cross-country team but most of them didn’t stick with it. Friends and colleagues tell me they feel a sense of accomplishment after finishing their first race, but I can tell they’re still enduring, not enjoying the effort.
People often complain of being out of shape and ask if running gets easier as fitness improves. I assure them it does but don’t have the personal experience to back it up. I’ve always loved how f luid running feels, no matter how fit I am, and though pain sometimes comes, it’s usually only during races.
I’ve always thought people should stick to the sports they love so that exercise is a pleasure and not a chore. But I also I want more people to genuinely love running. Can you teach someone how to enjoy something you’ve never had to learn to love yourself ?
Tom Youngell thinks you absolutely can. Youngell, a 58-year-old runner, loved running when he was younger, but fell away from the sport and struggled to return to it later in life. He told me he grew to love running again after gradually increasing the amount he ran, minute by minute.
Youngell had family members and friends who hated running, but he figured he could turn them on to it by convincing them to follow the same gradual buildup that he had. After some success with people in person, he published “The ‘I Used to Hate Running’ Plan” on iusedtohaterunning.com, in 2010.
The plan has two main ideas: mixing running in gradually with walking and to stop running and walk if discomfort arises. His plan has worked for people; every few months a stranger contacts him with a success story.
I get that a new runner would be wise to take things slowly, but I’m not entirely convinced that everyone who tries this method will come to love running. After years of swimming lessons, I can swim for an hour comfortably, but that doesn’t mean I like doing it. When does enjoyment come, if it doesn’t arrive with fitness?
With that question in mind I contacted Julie Cloutier of Longueuil, Que., who blogs about running ( juliecloutier.com/blog). Cloutier started running on the treadmill in 2012 but hated it. During a 5k trail race at Lac-Beauport in June 2013, though, she experienced a fleeting but life-changing moment of bliss. After reaching the top of a big hill, she began to run down it and felt like she was f lying. “I didn’t start enjoying running from there on, but I knew that I could feel great,” she said.
It took her about two more years before she came to experience this feeling on a more regular basis. Cloutier said the joy came gradually, as she increased the length and frequency of her runs. Though she doesn’t enjoy every run, she says she has come to rely on always feeling happy afterwards.
Cloutier encourages people to seek out trails and find a group. Like Youngell, she also advocates slowing down. Focusing on breathing or one’s surroundings, she says, can help beginners through those moments of struggle.
I don’t know if mixing walking with running or slowing down might help my former classmate, but I do think patience and persistence can go a long way. I was also thrilled to learn that Lena Dunham – and the character she plays on Girls – both eventually found those elusive endorphins in the end.
“I’m not about to embrace that triathlon life but it’s a true joy to continue getting more connected to my body and its powers,” Dunham wrote in a gushing Instagram post about discovering running. That post got over 144,000 likes.