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Starting to Run

#running

This is how, when and why I started running as a hobby.

Let's start with "when": It was precisely on Sept 6, 2022. I had quit my only other regular sport, Karate, 6 years prior. Playing with my kids, who were 4 and 6 at that time, made me notice how quickly I got out of breath, all sweaty, and had to take breaks, and sometimes playtime left me with sore muscles for multiple days.[1] I started following Reddit's Recommended Routine for strength training, and my wife encouraged me to at least try running. This is "why".

The "How" can be summed up as: Very slowly.[2] I followed my wife's advice and ran intervals: one minute of running, one minute of walking, rinse and repeat. I did not wear any dedicated running shoes, I just wore the stuff I had that was closest to being suitable for movement. I ran up to a landmark around 1.5 km away, turned around and ran back - one minute running, one minute walking. It took me around half an hour, in total, before I was done.

  1. My kid's favourite game was the Toothbrush Pony, where they would ride on a magical pony (me) which carried them all the way to the bathroom, to brush their teeth. The resulting back pain was probably the main motivator to start training. ↩︎

  2. but still too fast ↩︎

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