Yesterday, July 27th, marked a month of consistent running for me, except for the week after I got my wisdom teeth out, but I have been running 2-3 times a week otherwise.

I have a fairly active background. I never labelled myself as an athlete, and I’m more willing to do so now than in the past, but I did grow up figure skating competitively and after that part of my life ended, I transitioned into pilates, yoga, and then weightlifting. Since I started weightlifting (over four years ago now!), I’ve become stronger, more excited to exercise, and more open to trying new forms of movement: indoor cycling, gymnastics or calisthenics, and I’ve been meaning for a long time to get into swimming lessons, but that hasn’t happened (yet). Throughout that time, I’ve reached a lot of goals, whether that’s particular figure skating skills, lifting a certain weight, or doing a front flip for the first time.

None of those accomplishments, however, feels quite as rewarding as finally getting into a running program, building a routine, and sticking to it. I have tried and failed multiple times to run regularly, to create goals for myself and to reach them, but something has finally clicked for me, and–I never would have believed I would say this, even a year ago–I actually enjoy and look forward to running.

I’ve always associated my dislike of running to the thump-thump and the impact on my legs and the amount of effort required to go a particular distance; proportionately, I could go much faster and much further on ice with less effort. Running, in comparison to skating, always felt clunky, awkward, and laborious. That comparison still stands, but my relationship to the clunky, awkward, and laborious feeling has changed completely.

The reason I enjoy exercise now is because I am a very mental person. My thoughts never stop. I think things very quickly, and I can never just turn it off–and I didn’t realize that this was something that other people actually can do until very recently. Meditation doesn’t come easily to me, although I do appreciate it and believe in it when I remember to do it. When I exercise, I feel fully present in the body and space that I’m in. This approach was actually informed a lot by yoga, which I don’t practice regularly anymore, at least formally: yoga taught me how to breathe and be present in such a way that influences everything I do with my body now. I love the steady rhythms of repetitions in the gym, or breathing while running. My brain is still going, so to speak, but I find the attention to rhythm to be so helpful–when I’m stressed or anxious, certainly, but also just in general, even when I’m feeling mentally healthy.

My point is, running is still clunky, awkward, and laborious physically, and certainly this is more true when I consider running relative to yoga or figure skating, but it’s worth it. Like with yoga and meditation, running relies so strongly on concentration on breath, and on opening your body in order to create greater capacity for breath, and I find it not only mentally soothing, but physically so rewarding. It’s still early days, so I know I enjoy this privilege for only a short time, but I haven’t had a bad day yet. Every run has a different purpose because of the training program I’m on–some days I’ll run faster for a short period of time, run longer, run fairly fast over a longer period of time, etc.–and that gives me so much room to smash every goal. It’s truly been so rewarding and I’m so excited to keep going.

As the Nike+ Run Club coaches say, “There is no finish line–we’ll see you at the next starting line.” 😉