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 Monday at 09:20 AM by Judy2

[UnbornTao]

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

Edited Monday at 10:29 AM 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 Monday at 10:28 AM 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 Monday at 10:37 AM 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 Monday at 10:42 AM 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 Monday at 11:26 AM 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).

[gettoefl]

Running is modern-day public flogging for me. Certified suffering and not much satisfaction. Personally I prefer jump rope. I do hour a day. According to AI it works the whole body and burns 800 calories - which I need since I sit all day. I ran most days for years but won't run again. If you have a good target to aim at like you do then running can be fine.

[bazera]

@Judy2 What I do is, if I have a long run like 10km (or even a short one), I split that distance into multiple chunks, like I roughly know a run around this block takes me 15 minutes, okay, then comes a long road that needs 20 minutes, and then a small uphill that's a bit tough for 10 minutes, etc, till the end of a run. That keeps it engaging because instead of full one hour+ goal, I have small 5-15 minute goals in my mind that I need to accomplish. 

Also, if you have smartwatch, you can track your pace, and try to improve in some way on each run, that also makes it more engaging.

Not sure about treadmill though, it's boring for me as well. I have a treadmill at home and I just turn on some video on YouTube plus some music to keep the run engaging. 

[Judy2]

1 hour ago, bazera said:

@Judy2 What I do is, if I have a long run like 10km (or even a short one), I split that distance into multiple chunks, like I roughly know a run around this block takes me 15 minutes, okay, then comes a long road that needs 20 minutes, and then a small uphill that's a bit tough for 10 minutes, etc, till the end of a run. That keeps it engaging because instead of full one hour+ goal, I have small 5-15 minute goals in my mind that I need to accomplish. 

Also, if you have smartwatch, you can track your pace, and try to improve in some way on each run, that also makes it more engaging.

Not sure about treadmill though, it's boring for me as well. I have a treadmill at home and I just turn on some video on YouTube plus some music to keep the run engaging. 

yes...i'd like to get a fitness watch at some point. 

 

i wonder if professional athletes know some sort of mental techniques for this...maybe they start labelling the colours they see while running and get into some kind of Zen state, who knows. 

[bazera]

@Judy2

Quote

maybe they start labelling the colours they see while running and get into some kind of Zen state, who knows. 

Maybe they just tough it out. 

What's the longest that you have run? For me it was 17km, and boredom wasn't an issue because something was happening every minute, if you try to notice the condition of your body, your breathing patterns, the current challenge (maybe slights uphill on the road), that makes more engaging.

But aside to that, just accepting the boring part of it as well.

Just imagine someone like David Goggins, or Andy Glaze or some ultrarunner who run days, not hours, there can't be any technique that they can use, maybe they start labelling colours for some hours but I can't imagine doing that for 40 hours or more. 

Maybe they just tough it out and that's where their strength is.

[Judy2]

@bazera i don't remember, maybe 30 or 40 min. my brother mapped out a 5km route for me to practice on, and at the gym i usually go on the treadmill after strength training, so i usually only do 10-15 min, 30 min on special occasions.

the 13 km this summer will be a first, but i think that should be manageable. the organisers said i should aim to run relaxed for 60 min before the race, and i can work my way up to that in the months to come.

13 km sounds like exactly the right distance for it to push my limit but still be fun, so i'm excited:) maybe i'll do more the year after, who knows.

Edited 2 hours ago by Judy2

[Sugarcoat]

If your goal with the running is health, you could gain similar benefit from doing shorter runs (like intervals, 800 meter repeats or something).
It can remove the boring part. Because for me, when I do intervals, I’m running high tempo and intensely, it’s not possible to be bored because your mind is laser focused on propelling you forward, it’s like you’re zoomed out from everything and all you’re aware of is the feeling of running, and it’s so intense that yes it will be hard, but not boring, the boring gets replaced by the struggle of it being intense.

I’m not saying you should go extreme, you run at the level you can handle, but just that shorter more intense running takes your mind to a different place where boring will be the smallest problem 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Sugarcoat