feeling bored while running

[Judy2]

i'm training for a 13km run, and what i have noticed so far is that the physical exercise is the easier part. what's much harder is the mental aspect of motivating myself and busying my mind during the 10, 20, 30 min on the treadmill or outside. (10 is just post-workout but it's long enough to get me bored and i could go longer physically, if it weren't for my mind.)

music helps a little bit, but not that much. podcasts are a bit too slow-paced.

last time i went running with my brother, who's super fit, i begged him to tell me something interesting and he just went "no, you have to learn to deal with the boredom, too" and quietly kept on jogging beside me. 

i'm curious if we have any runners here who might have some tips on how to handle the mental aspects while running.

Edited 8 hours ago by Judy2

[UnbornTao]

I'd agree with your brother - learn to do one thing at a time. It trains your mind to focus. 

Edited 7 hours ago by UnbornTao

[Rigel]

You need more consciousness of what is actually going on when running. Podcasts & even music pulls you away from your own rhythm. Running is highly musical to begin with. Running with headphones is like listening to 2 songs at once. Are you going to appreciate either? Probably not.

Edited 7 hours ago by Rigel

[Judy2]

37 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

I'd agree with your brother, learn to do one thing at a time. It trains your mind to focus. 

 

11 minutes ago, Rigel said:

You need more consciousness of what is actually going on when running. Podcasts & even music pulls you away from your own rhythm. Running is highly musical to begin with. Running with headphones is like listening to 2 songs at once. Are you going to appreciate either? Probably not.

aaah...not what i wanted to hear, but okay:) 

 

so it's like meditating, but worse. 

[Rigel]

Drawing sin waves on the pavement with my trajectory, jumping over obstacles, moving through weird terrain & doing some sprints intermittently while running are ways I keep engaging with & enjoying running. Pay attention to gate. There’s no end to how in tune your gate can be. It’s def not just about cardio in my experience.

Edited 7 hours ago by Rigel

[Rigel]

Oh & breath of course. The relationship between breath count & step count is like a dial for intensity.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

I agree that it's kinda boring; all solo exercises kinda are. Personally,n egative motivation seems to kinda work for me at the moment; imagining old, crusty version of me as weak, feeble, and out of breath as I'm pushing up the stairs; and this version of me is imagining what I could've been had I put in more effort into exercise and cardio. It's not the most jolly thing to think about and it doesn't give me tremendious amounts of motivation either, but it tends to get my ass moving. Could be applied to a more soft skilled endevours as well I guess

Edited 7 hours ago by NewKidOnTheBlock

[Judy2]

3 minutes ago, Rigel said:

Drawing sin waves on the pavement with my trajectory, jumping over obstacles, moving through weird terrain & doing some sprints intermittently while running are ways I keep engaging with & enjoying running. Pay attention to gate. There’s no end to how in tune your gate can be. It’s def not just about cardio in my experience.

what's gate? 

i mean the 13k will be an obstacle run, so that should be fun and on that day i expect that my system will loosen up more reserves because of the excitement, adrenaline, etc. 

[Judy2]

Just now, NewKidOnTheBlock said:

I agree that it's kinda boring; all solo exercises kinda are. Personally,n egative motivation seems to kinda work for me at the moment; imagining old, crusty version of me as weak, feeble, and out of breath as I'm pushing up the stairs; and this version of me is imagining what I could've been had I put in more effort into exercise and cardio. It's not the most jolly thing to think about and it doesn't give me tremendious amounts of motivation either, but it tends to get my ass moving. Could be applied to a more soft skilled endevours I guess

my brother told me about that. but i think it'll drive me mad if i have to count 1,2,3, 1,2,3  for thirty minutes or longer.

[Judy2]

3 minutes ago, NewKidOnTheBlock said:

I agree that it's kinda boring; all solo exercises kinda are. Personally,n egative motivation seems to kinda work for me at the moment; imagining old, crusty version of me as weak, feeble, and out of breath as I'm pushing up the stairs; and this version of me is imagining what I could've been had I put in more effort into exercise and cardio. It's not the most jolly thing to think about and it doesn't give me tremendious amounts of motivation either, but it tends to get my ass moving. Could be applied to a more soft skilled endevours as well I guess

i am not sure if that is healthy for my mind.

[Rigel]

44 minutes ago, Judy2 said:

what's gate? 

i mean the 13k will be an obstacle run, so that should be fun and on that day i expect that my system will loosen up more reserves because of the excitement, adrenaline, etc. 

Sorry I meant gait*
It’s basically coordination of the movement patterns involved in running. It’s how you hold your glutes, hip flexors, abs & so on. It’s the angle of your tibia relative to your foot & a jaw dropping amount of other considerations. It’s even the shoulders because they are general expressions of the spinal wave that moves your forward.

The only reliable way I found to improve it is to pay more attention & use more intuition but there are general principles to keep in mind. The biggest probably being the bilateral nature of humans. Weight transfer & mastery over where you place your centre of mass is a huge part of my conception of gait.

Edited 6 hours ago by Rigel

[Judy2]

@Rigel i watched some videos about that online, most of them by this woman:

but tbh i think this supersedes my skill set and i feel like i'd need a coach to observe me and help me implement the above (and all the rest that's explained in the other videos).