I run six days a week. I tried seven and kept getting injured, it's important to get some rest or cross train. In a perfect world (or one where I had access to a pool) I would alternate running and swimming.
It should be no different between 6 days straight and 1 off versus 7 days straight. Perhaps more zone 2 running would help, unless you enjoy the day off. I do 7 days a week as my base and then for anything else I want to do I do on top.
Why are people who run so obnoxiously self-important about it?
This post makes no effort to explain why running is supposed to be the center of a human being’s mental universe. People who happen to love running seem unable to understand that it’s not the same for everyone. You don’t see this kind of oblivious nonsense from someone who likes powerlifting or pastel drawing or making sushi.
I definitely see this kind of nonsense from lifting, high intensity interval training, bodyweight exercises, rock climbing, cycling... I think when people get very passionate about something that was lifechangingly important to them, then its very easy to forget other people don't share that experience.
It's probably better to generalize to have some level of daily activity that works for you. But then it's kind of boring, and everyone already knows this.
Yes, run is boring to me and probably to a lot of people. That's why I do things that are less boring and varied, like crossfit or other HIIT. It works for me. And still demotivation and excuses keep poping up for me to don't do it.
That exactly the point of the article. Sports, even if it's just a mile run everyday, do probably more for you than just sitting around and finding excuses to do nothing. Because it's easier and people often tend to sit on their comfort zones.
Also, to me, that's what lifechanging about daily sporting activities. Is NOT only getting fitter, thiner, etc. It's the mental empowerement that it provides you.
Ok, lets reframe this just a touch, everyone who runs treats it as an important activity with powerful impacts on their lives, maybe its worth checking out?
Like seriously - try answering your own question. Why would people behave that way?
Indeed, there are folks who seem to seek out a problem in everything they read - usually to present themselves as smarter than the OP.
> Can you point out some of the flaws with your argument?
I think the only argument against what I said that is reasonable, but also applies to the person I responded to, would be that it is an over-generalization and not the case for the overwhelming majority of people who perform some activity.
His reasoning is fairly straightforward. From the article:
> I have found that running every day, consistently, vastly improves my mental and physical well-being.
> Every minute you run is your minute, and no one else's. And it feels good to allocate time to yourself every day.
I do not find this article's tone obnoxious, but I do know people like that who run. See also, powerlifters. See also, artists. I don't know any obnoxious itamae but I don't know any itamae. I know home cooks who look down on people who eat out a lot. Does that count?
I don't really walk or run. But I actually think that walking, through nature is generally the center of the mental universe. Or at least the thing that can create chemical homeostasis in the brain. Everything about humans from an evolutionary standpoint is improved towards walking through a forest type environment. There is some research that shows lateral movements in the periphery of the eye, such as what occurs at walking speed, reduces chemicals that cause stress/anxiety/depression.
It also only seems to work in a very natural environment, indoors, manicured walking tracks or city streets don't have the same impact, but it can be simulated with monitors / VR.
So perhaps VR nature walking on a treadmill would be a panacea for many mental issues brought on by modern stress.
I didn't pick up any 'obnoxiousness' from this article in particular.
Running just pops up like this because it is cheap, can be done anywhere, anytime, don't need a lot of skill training.
It's basically the common denominator.
Simple.
Just get up and do something sport.
My whole family runs (including sub 3h marathons) and not a single one of them writes online about running.
As far as I can tell they are not self-important, they just run. I also run, and compared to the rest of the family even more under the radar: I do no contests ever, I run alone, I run at night. If I ever speak to someone about it, it is because they asked or because it was the topic of the conversation before I entered it. Running is my thing that I do for myself, the rest doesn't give me anything. It is a good habit, a free time and helps me to release stress (which is mostly mental in my job).
So maybe your question could be rephrased: "Why are the posts I read from people who post online about running so obnoxiously self-important about it?"
As I don't believe runners are any more annoying than e.g. ice skaters I could think of one rhing. Like with noises the things we find annoying might also have to do with ourselves. A friend of mine is constantly complaining about how "obnoxiously self-important" vegans are. He loves meat, but as a somewhat rational person he knows he is wrong. When I ask him where those vegans are and what they do he can't point to any specific thing. You could sit a vegan on the same table as him and even if the vegan says nothing and minds their own business he would feel they are "self-important" — all while he would be the guy to start speaking about it.
I am not implying that a similar mechanism is at play in your case at all, I don't know you. But it is something to be aware of. If you e.g. are someone who feels they should run more, but never get around to it for one reason or another, that might color your perception of people who do write about it.
People seem to confuse passion for being obnoxiously self-important.
You get the same comment about vegans, cross-fitters, runners, skiers, sailors, sourdough bakers, etc etc etc. anytime someone has a hobby they are passionate about doesn’t mean they are obnoxiously self-important. They are happy and want others to find the same happiness!
Kind of a self important anecdote to make up in the first paragraph.
A table of people snickering at someone for saying they run a mile per day. And doing so because they all thought of OP’s super impressive half marathons.
Right. As if half marathons are supposed to be something in a wholly different universe than running a mile a day? It's great exercise, and I personally wouldn't want to do more than a half marathon, since the health benefits seem to be kind of limited and injury rates start creeping up. But someone who runs a mile a day is in reasonable shape, and the distance in fitness from a mile a day to running a half marathon isn't so great.
In contrast, I know people who do ultramarathons, running 50+ miles at a stretch, and I simply cannot imagine it. I'm impressed with people who do: the training, the determination. You can't just wing that. You can't do it on a whim. A half marathon you can do a half-ass job preparing for, and it won't be fun, and you'll feel bad afterward, but it'll be doable. Different categories.
> the distance in fitness from a mile a day to running a half marathon isn't so great.
I think there is a vast amount of detail being glossed over here. The 90th percentile 1 mile runner and the 10th percentile 13.1 mile runner might not have a great difference in fitness, but the gal can grow quite a bit by changing those percentiles.
I disagree, there is nothing that quite gets my heartrate up as much as running. I had been doing very low intensity cycling and walking for two years and decided it was about time to get back to being able to run 5k without stopping. Adding the running in had a very quick effect on my day to day experience. I think the people that advocate for 80-20 low intensity / high intensity have it right.
It's the same for me, I'm definitely not in the run everyday camp like the blog author :). But I am in the exercise everyday camp and in the get your heartrate really high for a small portion of that exercise a week.
I don't like running, but I do like walking. I walk for about an hour an a half every day. I get in about 9,000 steps on my walks and half the walk is steeply uphill (according to my fitness app, it is the equivalent of walking to the top of a 50 story building). I listen to audiobooks and just enjoy myself. Today I ate a bunch of blackberries by the sides of the path while walking. It is probably my favorite part of my day.
I used to walk a lot, but it’s just so damn oppressively hot outside where I am now, either that or it’s raining too hard. Parts of the sidewalk outside of my place have a whole ecosystem living in the puddle that’s been sitting for a week.
I thought you were supposed to take a day off between any exercise so your body had a chance to finish fixing your muscles? Or is it just that a single mile is below the threshold of impact that's covered by a regular night's sleep?
I ran almost every day for years. I am working on rebuilding my running habit now. I would say that for people with a lot of running experience who are in good shape, one mile every day is going to do no harm at all.
edit to add: I feel I need to put a disclaimer here. People new to running, especially overweight people, should not run every day. Knee and ankle injuries are very common.
The amount of rest people need is going to vary dramatically based on fitness, genetics, amount of exercise, etc.
I try to run 5 days a week (6 miles per day) and then have an active weekend (usually hiking/backpacking.) I find that is a sustainable amount of exercise for my body. I'll occasionally do longer runs or bigger backpacking trips and take a day or two off here and there when I feel I need it.
It’s good to have rest days, but you don’t need a rest day after every single run, especially if it’s only a mile. A moderately healthy person should be able to run a mile every day without any problems. And if you do it every day then your body will get used to it very quickly.
> Everyone is busy. “I don’t have time”, “It’s impossible”, I’ve heard it all - I don’t buy it. If this was the case, you wouldn’t have time to do your laundry, watch that TV show, or even read this rant.
Most of those 'other' things are asynchronous or can be 'multitasked'. I can 'watch' a TV show while checking some emails, or eating a snack, or while folding laundry.
Running is a full-body one-thing-at-a-time-only endeavor. I run 1-2 miles several times per week. I run at a gym on a treadmill, or I run in streets around my office. I can't talk on the phone. I can't fold laundry. I can't eat. I can't read blogs. I can listen to podcasts and music; that's about it. I get extremely bored most of the time running beyond 2 miles. (well, really after about half a mile).
I hit my apple watch 'rings' - 730 cals, 30 min exercise - 400 days in a row. It was time consuming, and often boring, but I did it. Then stopped. It didn't bring me any great satisfaction or insight or whatnot.
You can certainly watch a tv show/youtube while running on a treadmill or an listening to an audiobook while running outside. I listen to a book a week running about 40ish miles per week.
> Most of those 'other' things are asynchronous or can be 'multitasked'. I can 'watch' a TV show while checking some emails, or eating a snack, or while folding laundry.
I can also do these things at night when it's not very safe to run.
Reflective clothing and vests with flashing lights can help. Not sure where you live but if I don’t run in the morning (sometimes I fail to wake up early enough), I have to run in the dark at night otherwise it is just too hot!
> I hit my apple watch 'rings' - 730 cals, 30 min exercise - 400 days in a row. It was time consuming, and often boring, but I did it. Then stopped. It didn't bring me any great satisfaction or insight or whatnot.
You dont mention your diet, which could explain why you stopped.
But... I just stopped because trying to hit that every... single... day - rain/shine/snow, while traveling on the road, etc... it just became ... boring. Well... some days "inconvenient" was a better term.
I've found iron to be quite stimulating, it can make any couch potato get up and do some exercise, but the risk of tearing muscles becomes very real its scary.
I've found that my routines are like seasons: the time and place for a routine just passes eventually.
This used to frustrated me. It's hard to build routines, and the initiation energy to resume the activity—and the effort to sustain the same routine—was higher than before.
Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that while past routines were hard to resume … others that were previously hard to start had become more natural … so I began paying more attention to where the "current was flowing," so to speak, and would use that to my advantage.
This has been my experience. I'm going to the gym more, but not necessarily pushing myself to exhaustion every visit. Used to swim more, then switched to running, may shift back to swimming, or more outdoor walking.
But my work schedule is variable enough that focusing on "X @ 7am every day" is not realistic. Yes, I should reorient work around my life, instead of my life around work. Easier said than done, and... even when I've gone through periods of that philosophy (have done it), it didn't have any noticeable impact on my health (mental or physical).
> Then stopped. It didn't bring me any great satisfaction or insight or whatnot.
I fixed a few health problems running, and stave off others. Every mile I add is another health problem I can kick down the road. I only run 30 minutes or so 5 times a week. Around 3-3.5 miles per run depending on how motivated I am. 30 minutes is such a small amount of time but it may as well be an eternity when you consider how obnoxious internet connected life is. I feel better and care a lot less about the small shit in life. I'm sorry you didn't see the same benefit. Maybe another modality is your cup of tea.
I can't talk on the phone. I can't fold laundry. I can't eat. I can't read blogs. I can listen to podcasts and music; that's about it.
You can talk to whoever you're running with...
Middle-age friends lifehack: Join your local running group. Spending an hour a week jogging with people, where there's nothing else to do other than talk about running. Except talking about running means you talk about the places you've been, or why you can't be there next week, or you ask a question about where they live (because they're local like you). Small talk becomes easy because there's 0 distractions and you can always just talk about running.
The math on how you determine if someone is a friend is something like 100 hours spent together or 1,000 to be a best friend. Running together weekly is a life-hack to accumulate hours with new people.
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Look for your local Facebook or meetup.com group that meets 'at 6:30 on Tuesday at the Starbucks parking lot'. If you don't think there's one in your area, drop the area below this comment and someone will know of one.
I'm in a local run group. I can't really run and keep up with folks. Occasionally I do a slower run/walk with folks, but people don't always want to be that slow (for me).
It's also something that is only convenient once a week or so - doesn't answer the issue around the rest of the time.
Most groups are an out and back type thing. Maybe keep showing up at the start and be back for chatting afterwards?
The bold thing to do is to start your own run/walk group. My local one started with someone who lived outside the city and wanted people to run with in town.
The whole "then stopped"... I didn't mean I stopped running altogether. I stopped aiming to 'close the rings' every single day. A 400 day streak was too much effort to keep going.
Yeah, no thanks, bad advice. That doesn't give the body enough time to heal, and small impact injuries just compound into big injuries that sideline you for days, weeks, or months. Run every other day instead, and give your body enough time to heal itself. It's just as good for you, and gives you time to keep your upper body fit as well.
While I agree with getting out there and getting the heart rate up to provide both physical and mental health benefits I'm way too leery of repeated high impact activities on 'delicate' joints like my knees. I'd much rather hike, bike, row, etc.
I disagree with the idea. I run regularly, usually 40K per week, I tend to run 3 or 4 times per week. The body needs regeneration, muscle/tendons microdamages need time to heal, depleted reserve of glycogen needs time to restore. The risk of injuries will be higher. Without resting intervals stamina goes down, so consecutive runs will not be as strenuous as should be to build better endurance.
Disagree. I run around 110km per week (on the low end of long distance training) on 6-7 days per week.
You will not deplete glycogen unless you don’t eat or you do a hard workout every day. Recovery pace days are designed to help your body heal and recover while running. Running is not weightlifting. Running should not be strenuous to gain endurance (the best endurance pace and base building pace is far slower than strenuous - Jack Daniels and Pete Pfitzinger have great books explaining this in detail).
These are all misconceptions.
That said, people who are not actively fit shouldn’t run 7 days a week until they get comfortable with walking 7 days a week, because of some of the
misconception you mention, and it’s likelihood to cause injury.
This article doesn’t explain why running is so good for you. Running can be good and provides some benefits to your heart, lung and joint health. Good for your mind if you are doing it in moderation. My heart readings improved significantly year over year based on lab results. But if you do too much running it can affect your mental and physical health adversely too.
Physical health I get. Running is hard on the body and most of the people I know who have done it for a long time have developed some kind of chronic physical ailment.
But how does it adversely impact your mental health?
Honestly, running a mile a day, every day, would do more for most people's health than just about any other change they could make. And most people can run a single mile in less than 20 minutes. The benefits of short exercise are well documented. 20 minutes a day could add years to your lifespan. Do most people realize that?
Just for general fitness, it's oretty easy to do a mile a day (or more) on a treadmill. A fast walk is enough if running isn't your thing, two or three 10 minute sessions is all it takes. Not long enough to get coding before the next meeting? Hop on the treadmill and have a think.
As a bit of added fun, it's easy to hack a treadmill to measure speed, stride, distance etc. I've got an old 42" TV in front of mine, great for watching videos, youtube and (using a PC) walking through CGI of various forms.
I've recently started running every day to train for a marathon (previously 3 days a week). It feels great and I'm sleeping better than ever. Also, weirdly, I'm less stiff/sore now than when I ran less, likely because I've increased my stretching and bought some extra shoes to rotate between.
I'm not sure why running works so well for some people. The article says it's about "claiming time" but that would work equally for most things. My theory is that voluntarily and consistently choosing to do something painful is psychologically healthy. A manageable amount of suffering makes you happier the rest of the time.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 145 ms ] threadThis post makes no effort to explain why running is supposed to be the center of a human being’s mental universe. People who happen to love running seem unable to understand that it’s not the same for everyone. You don’t see this kind of oblivious nonsense from someone who likes powerlifting or pastel drawing or making sushi.
It's probably better to generalize to have some level of daily activity that works for you. But then it's kind of boring, and everyone already knows this.
That exactly the point of the article. Sports, even if it's just a mile run everyday, do probably more for you than just sitting around and finding excuses to do nothing. Because it's easier and people often tend to sit on their comfort zones.
Also, to me, that's what lifechanging about daily sporting activities. Is NOT only getting fitter, thiner, etc. It's the mental empowerement that it provides you.
Like seriously - try answering your own question. Why would people behave that way?
But you do. You see this with essentially every type of exercise modality.
* Powerlifters say cardio is of the devil and anybody who does it is actively losing all muscle in their body.
* CrossFitters will leap at every opportunity to tell you how amazing it is - or at least that was the case a decade ago.
* Brazilian Jiu Jitsu people are the new CrossFit.
* Calisthenics people regularly act as if you can't do 20 strict ring muscle ups you really don't belong in the gym.
* Bicyclists will say runners are shit because they are destroying their legs one step at a time.
* Rowers will scoff at bicyclists because they have chicken arms.
* Runners will laugh at everyone because they are the only discipline that you can truly do anywhere without equipment.
Idk. The list goes on and on. Every athlete is like this. It's just a tribal mentality thing. We see it on HN with programming languages too.
> Can you point out some of the flaws with your argument?
I think the only argument against what I said that is reasonable, but also applies to the person I responded to, would be that it is an over-generalization and not the case for the overwhelming majority of people who perform some activity.
> I have found that running every day, consistently, vastly improves my mental and physical well-being.
> Every minute you run is your minute, and no one else's. And it feels good to allocate time to yourself every day.
I do not find this article's tone obnoxious, but I do know people like that who run. See also, powerlifters. See also, artists. I don't know any obnoxious itamae but I don't know any itamae. I know home cooks who look down on people who eat out a lot. Does that count?
It also only seems to work in a very natural environment, indoors, manicured walking tracks or city streets don't have the same impact, but it can be simulated with monitors / VR.
So perhaps VR nature walking on a treadmill would be a panacea for many mental issues brought on by modern stress.
Running just pops up like this because it is cheap, can be done anywhere, anytime, don't need a lot of skill training. It's basically the common denominator. Simple. Just get up and do something sport.
As far as I can tell they are not self-important, they just run. I also run, and compared to the rest of the family even more under the radar: I do no contests ever, I run alone, I run at night. If I ever speak to someone about it, it is because they asked or because it was the topic of the conversation before I entered it. Running is my thing that I do for myself, the rest doesn't give me anything. It is a good habit, a free time and helps me to release stress (which is mostly mental in my job).
So maybe your question could be rephrased: "Why are the posts I read from people who post online about running so obnoxiously self-important about it?"
As I don't believe runners are any more annoying than e.g. ice skaters I could think of one rhing. Like with noises the things we find annoying might also have to do with ourselves. A friend of mine is constantly complaining about how "obnoxiously self-important" vegans are. He loves meat, but as a somewhat rational person he knows he is wrong. When I ask him where those vegans are and what they do he can't point to any specific thing. You could sit a vegan on the same table as him and even if the vegan says nothing and minds their own business he would feel they are "self-important" — all while he would be the guy to start speaking about it.
I am not implying that a similar mechanism is at play in your case at all, I don't know you. But it is something to be aware of. If you e.g. are someone who feels they should run more, but never get around to it for one reason or another, that might color your perception of people who do write about it.
You get the same comment about vegans, cross-fitters, runners, skiers, sailors, sourdough bakers, etc etc etc. anytime someone has a hobby they are passionate about doesn’t mean they are obnoxiously self-important. They are happy and want others to find the same happiness!
A table of people snickering at someone for saying they run a mile per day. And doing so because they all thought of OP’s super impressive half marathons.
In contrast, I know people who do ultramarathons, running 50+ miles at a stretch, and I simply cannot imagine it. I'm impressed with people who do: the training, the determination. You can't just wing that. You can't do it on a whim. A half marathon you can do a half-ass job preparing for, and it won't be fun, and you'll feel bad afterward, but it'll be doable. Different categories.
I think there is a vast amount of detail being glossed over here. The 90th percentile 1 mile runner and the 10th percentile 13.1 mile runner might not have a great difference in fitness, but the gal can grow quite a bit by changing those percentiles.
I used to do this for a couple years, before I had an (unrelated) traumatic injury that kept me from running.
edit to add: I feel I need to put a disclaimer here. People new to running, especially overweight people, should not run every day. Knee and ankle injuries are very common.
I try to run 5 days a week (6 miles per day) and then have an active weekend (usually hiking/backpacking.) I find that is a sustainable amount of exercise for my body. I'll occasionally do longer runs or bigger backpacking trips and take a day or two off here and there when I feel I need it.
Most of those 'other' things are asynchronous or can be 'multitasked'. I can 'watch' a TV show while checking some emails, or eating a snack, or while folding laundry.
Running is a full-body one-thing-at-a-time-only endeavor. I run 1-2 miles several times per week. I run at a gym on a treadmill, or I run in streets around my office. I can't talk on the phone. I can't fold laundry. I can't eat. I can't read blogs. I can listen to podcasts and music; that's about it. I get extremely bored most of the time running beyond 2 miles. (well, really after about half a mile).
I hit my apple watch 'rings' - 730 cals, 30 min exercise - 400 days in a row. It was time consuming, and often boring, but I did it. Then stopped. It didn't bring me any great satisfaction or insight or whatnot.
I can also do these things at night when it's not very safe to run.
You dont mention your diet, which could explain why you stopped.
But... I just stopped because trying to hit that every... single... day - rain/shine/snow, while traveling on the road, etc... it just became ... boring. Well... some days "inconvenient" was a better term.
I've found that my routines are like seasons: the time and place for a routine just passes eventually.
This used to frustrated me. It's hard to build routines, and the initiation energy to resume the activity—and the effort to sustain the same routine—was higher than before.
Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that while past routines were hard to resume … others that were previously hard to start had become more natural … so I began paying more attention to where the "current was flowing," so to speak, and would use that to my advantage.
But my work schedule is variable enough that focusing on "X @ 7am every day" is not realistic. Yes, I should reorient work around my life, instead of my life around work. Easier said than done, and... even when I've gone through periods of that philosophy (have done it), it didn't have any noticeable impact on my health (mental or physical).
I fixed a few health problems running, and stave off others. Every mile I add is another health problem I can kick down the road. I only run 30 minutes or so 5 times a week. Around 3-3.5 miles per run depending on how motivated I am. 30 minutes is such a small amount of time but it may as well be an eternity when you consider how obnoxious internet connected life is. I feel better and care a lot less about the small shit in life. I'm sorry you didn't see the same benefit. Maybe another modality is your cup of tea.
You can talk to whoever you're running with...
Middle-age friends lifehack: Join your local running group. Spending an hour a week jogging with people, where there's nothing else to do other than talk about running. Except talking about running means you talk about the places you've been, or why you can't be there next week, or you ask a question about where they live (because they're local like you). Small talk becomes easy because there's 0 distractions and you can always just talk about running.
The math on how you determine if someone is a friend is something like 100 hours spent together or 1,000 to be a best friend. Running together weekly is a life-hack to accumulate hours with new people.
---
Look for your local Facebook or meetup.com group that meets 'at 6:30 on Tuesday at the Starbucks parking lot'. If you don't think there's one in your area, drop the area below this comment and someone will know of one.
It's also something that is only convenient once a week or so - doesn't answer the issue around the rest of the time.
The bold thing to do is to start your own run/walk group. My local one started with someone who lived outside the city and wanted people to run with in town.
The whole "then stopped"... I didn't mean I stopped running altogether. I stopped aiming to 'close the rings' every single day. A 400 day streak was too much effort to keep going.
I've been sitting at a desk hunched over for 30 years, grinding it out.
Wish I had run a mile a day, ate more vegetables, did more yoga, sleep (all night coding sessions are just a romantic ideal).
Everyone should:
Stand up, look around, get more fiber, more vegetables.
Do some workout everyday, just get up.
You will not deplete glycogen unless you don’t eat or you do a hard workout every day. Recovery pace days are designed to help your body heal and recover while running. Running is not weightlifting. Running should not be strenuous to gain endurance (the best endurance pace and base building pace is far slower than strenuous - Jack Daniels and Pete Pfitzinger have great books explaining this in detail).
These are all misconceptions.
That said, people who are not actively fit shouldn’t run 7 days a week until they get comfortable with walking 7 days a week, because of some of the misconception you mention, and it’s likelihood to cause injury.
But how does it adversely impact your mental health?
A mile in twenty minutes is the average walking speed, so anybody who can run at all should be able to do it in that time.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_I_Talk_About_When_I_Talk_...
As a bit of added fun, it's easy to hack a treadmill to measure speed, stride, distance etc. I've got an old 42" TV in front of mine, great for watching videos, youtube and (using a PC) walking through CGI of various forms.
I'm not sure why running works so well for some people. The article says it's about "claiming time" but that would work equally for most things. My theory is that voluntarily and consistently choosing to do something painful is psychologically healthy. A manageable amount of suffering makes you happier the rest of the time.