"But At What Cost"

Jogging is the worst. I mean running is actually the worst. But I'm not confident I've ever actually run before. Maybe for a minute. Back in 6th grade. When playing tag.

...

Even then it probably wasn't a full minute.

I just don't like it. Any part of it. Well that's not true, I like the feeling afterwards. Sort of. I usually kind of feel like I'm going to throw up.

I've just never hit a runner's high. I really don't even know what that means. Intellectually I do but not in any real way.

And I have tried to run. Or jog. I have. I've done the couch to 5k training thing many times. And it's great. Except by week 5 you're actually running for extended periods of time rather than jogging for 30 or 90 seconds. So at that point it's pretty terrible.

I did get to a point where I could run the whole 5k without completely wanting to die. Still never hit any kind of high though and it was still awful and I was also bored.

What are people thinking about when they run? Honestly. Is their mind really going blank? I'm legitimately only thinking about how I don't want to be running. I'm thinking that I wish I was walking but if I start walking then I'll have to start running again soon after that so I might as well just keep running. Except that solution means I never stop running so I'm still running and I'm kind of out of breath, which means I should focus on my breath but that's even less interesting than focusing on running itself.

You also have to run regularly to make any kind of progress. I understand that's a very obvious statement and can also be made for basically anything in life that you're trying to get better at but still. You have to run like every week because if you take time off then all of a sudden you can't run again and have to start all over.

Which you already don't want to do. Because running is the worst.