Does Running Ever Get Easy??
I think we are long overdue for a bit of running psycho babble and this one was initiated by a comment Lynne from Coolum made to me on Saturday. When she saw me she got stuck into me about how sore she was after the Beach Running (don't worry Lynne you weren't the only one), she described how bad her legs were and what an awful time she had at work during the week because of it, she then said " I'm going to give it until next year and by then I hope I'm feeling really fit, with no pain and running well.", she must of saw the amused look on my face and she asked "What?"

I told her I've been running for over 20 years and I still had to hold the banister rails on my stairs when I walked down in the morning after the Noosa evening beach run, taking each step one at a time...it's a myth that running and hard cardio workouts become so easy that after a while it is a sheer joy to participate in them...if you think that you really are in la la land.

Listen carefully... it does sometimes get a little easier but mostly it's still bloody hard! Everytime I go out for a run there is a part of it that I find hard and I don't like..that's right everytime.

Everytime I go out I sweat and huff and puff and look like a lobster..that's after 20 years of running. I've run ultra marathons, marathons and half marathons easily and then there are days I've dragged my butt around my local course on a 10km run, and felt like I'm going to die...how do you figure that one out? It certainly mystifies me.

It could be due to the fact that the more you improve the harder you push, either by running faster or further. It is also about how mental state is, how your body is feeling on any given day, there are a lot of factors that come into play when you are running.

It's a myth to think that when you reach the magical 10km mark that every 10km run you do after that will be a breeze. I guess it's like the golfers and tennis players, some days everything goes right and they play well and other days they crash and burn, they have the same talent and same level of experience but they play differently each time.

My theory is that when it does become so easy that I feel nothing after a hard run and I don't struggle, that will be the day I give it all away, because it will bore me and I won't have anything to challenge myself with.

Lynne and probably everyone else who joins in the next beach running will be sore afterwards, because it is a challenging session and each time you do it you will challenge yourself more and push harder and improve your fitness..and that's the way it should be, but yes ,you will feel the next day (and week) that you have done some hard work.

Muscles will only react, grow and get stronger when they are pushed and are out of their comfort zone. Don't look at this as a negative thing, it is making you a stronger, fitter person. If it helps, all my runners suffered after the beach session, no matter what level of fitness or how fast they can run-all levels of fitness pulled up sore after the beach running session. You just need to enjoy your running, when it's hard think of the positives, you are improving and you are becoming better runners...but sorry Lynne it will never be always easy and pain free!!