I apologize for how negative that sounds! It’s been 3 months. I unfortunately can’t be as consistent as I’d like because of chronic utis. I currently go about 8-10 km/h for 20 mins at a time, 2-3 times a week when I’m healthy. I keep at it because I’ve noticed a boost in my general energy and mood, but I hate pretty much every second of actually running. I read that that’s normal as you start out, especially if you start from zero like I did. But I’ve also read you eventually start to tolerate and then later enjoy it. How long did it take for you to get to that point?
Edit: 5 month update on case someone stumbles across this. My progress is slow, due to frequent breaks due to my frequent colds and UTIs. I’m at 30min 5k. Running still sucks, in part, but it also feels…powerful? I’ve learned to pace myself and run slower, so I’m not all spent after 10 mins. It’s difficult, but I think running too fast really was the biggest problem. Now what I feel during a run is a mix of ‘ughgh I hate cardio’ and ‘this is amazing, I’m powerful, I can do anything I want’. That’s enough to keep motivated. The reason I keep it up is that the former feeling ends soon after the end of the run, but the latter one persists. I try to run twice a week. If I have the time, I go on a hike instead (I live in the mountains). I enjoy those a lot more, but they take up several hours as opposed to 30mins for a run. It’s helped me tremendously with my depression, so it’s so worth it.
Tldr: I still don’t enjoy every second of running, but pacing myself made it more enjoyable than before. And it’s SO worth the mood boost and extra energy (even on rest days). I have depression and I’ve never felt this good in my entire 10 years of being an adult.
Running never stops sucking. If you train at it, you can go faster, but the actual running pretty much always feels the same.
What does happen is that is that you may find your aerobic base pace some time after starting. Many novice runners have trouble hitting a maintainable aerobic pace because for them it falls into a mechanical dead zone between running and walking. So they end up making every run into a tempo run
So if you want to feel better while running, slow down. Make it a contest to see how slow you can run. Don’t be afraid to run-walk if you have to.
I’ve heard that the best thing to do is increase your aerobic capacity before you start running, so that you’re able to run in an aerobic zone, rather than an anaerobic zone.
I’m still working on it. I had been doing intervals, and was up to about 45 minutes of actual running a day, in five minute intervals, with about 1 minute between, but fuck me, my heart rate would go up to 160, and that’s waaaaaaay outside of my aerobic zone. So I’ve backed off to try and build aerobic capacity first.