The blog
Notes on starting, keeping going, and being kinder to yourself along the way.
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The problem with starting again is that you remember last time
Beginning again with a record of abandoned attempts behind you, and what that record actually shows about the weeks it describes.
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You will not always feel better afterwards
Running gets sold on how it makes you feel, which leaves you with nothing to hold on to on the evenings it does not.
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The research phase can last as long as you let it
Learning about running feels like getting ready to run, and it can absorb months without a single evening being spent outside.
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You cannot win an argument with the weather
Nobody talks themselves out onto a wet road while standing at a warm window. That decision has to be made earlier.
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The reason you started will not be the reason you keep going
Most people begin for a reason that quietly expires, and the gap before a new one arrives is where they stop.
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Nobody is going to tell you when you count as a runner
Most people set themselves a private entry exam before they will use the word, and the pass mark keeps moving.
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The way a run ends is the way you will remember it
Most people finish at the hardest moment of the whole session, then wonder why going out again keeps getting harder.
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The same run costs more on some days than others
Effort is not a fixed price, and a heavy day tells you far less about your fitness than it seems to at the time.
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There is no correct hour to run
Running got attached to early mornings somewhere along the way, and a lot of people quit over a scheduling problem they blamed on themselves.
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Consistency looks worse up close than it does from a distance
Most people measure consistency in unbroken days, which is easy to check and quietly responsible for a lot of quitting in month two.
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Wanting to stop is not the same as needing to stop
Somewhere in the middle of a hard effort you start bargaining with yourself, and almost none of that bargaining is information.
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You will not see the progress for a while
Early fitness improves long before it shows up in the numbers people check, and most quitting happens in that gap.
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Your body is not the thing you are fighting
Most people talk about their body like a stubborn employee, and that framing quietly makes the whole thing harder to keep up.
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You are not trying to get back to who you were
Coming back after years away goes badly when you treat your old fitness as the standard you are already failing to meet.
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You get fitter on the days you don't run
Skipping a run carries a guilt almost nobody talks about, and most of what that guilt tells you is wrong.
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It helps if one person knows you are out there
Running is mostly a solitary thing, and that suits it. Doing it entirely unwitnessed asks more of you than it needs to.
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You are comparing your start to someone else's middle
Other people's results arrive with none of the history that produced them, which makes them a poor measure of how you are doing.
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The first ten minutes tell you almost nothing
The opening minutes of a run feel terrible for nearly everyone, and most people quietly take that as a verdict on themselves.
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Nobody is watching as closely as you think
The fear of being seen while unfit keeps more people indoors than any injury does. Here is what is actually happening out there.
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What to do with the week you missed
The missed week is not the problem. What you decide it means about you is the problem — and that part is still yours to choose.
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You are allowed to be slow
Almost everyone new to running goes too hard, because going slowly feels like admitting something. It isn't. It's the whole method.
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The hardest run is the one you haven't started
The resistance you feel before you go isn't weakness, and it isn't evidence that you're doing this wrong. It's just what beginnings feel like.
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