going around saying that we’ll be “better people” if we do what you do is not very friendly.
nm
Thing is, most people who like running talk about the adrenaline rush you get, the way it makes you feel good afterwards. And I do know what that feels like, because I get it from other exercise, like cycling, or dancing. The feeling of having exercised is great. But I just don’t get that feeling very strongly from running itself. Not nearly strongly enough to make it worthwhile, anyway. If I’m out for a walk, or on my bike, the movement is a very natural one for me, and after about a minute or so I’m no longer really thinking about the walking or the pedalling, but letting my mind just drift off to wherever it wants to be. And I can get some very effective thinking done at that point, which is also a plus.
With running, that doesn’t happen. I don’t have brilliant balance, so a much higher proportion of my mental resources have to go to not falling over or tripping up - a higher proportion than is really compatible with doing any serious thinking. I really do have to think about every step, and that’s tedious. I’m sure if I had to actually think about where I was putting my feet when walking I’d probably hate that too - part of the joy of walking is that it’s so easy and automatic that I just don’t have to think about it.
You should also take a capitalization pill.
It’s only been a little over sixty years that it hasn’t gotten better. I will give it another sixty and see if it does. 
I was a Tribologist in RL and met with many people involved in the joint replacement community. Each and every one said that running was the worst possible thing you could do if you wanted to avoid a future joint replacement. I quit running, YMMV.
Running is useful when being chased by dangerous animals but that’s about it. I guess if one needs to get somewhere fast. Otherwise there is no point for someone who hates running to run.
Tried running. Couldn’t do it for long at all. Did what I could in short bursts. Ended up with calcification in both heels before long. Then came the steroid injections, and months later I still can’t even walk for 15 minutes without having sore heels the next day.
I did not find pleasure in this activity nor its consequences.
Indeed. You snatch a purse. You run fast enough to keep from being captured. You’re criminal record stays clean. Society can think kindly of you.
Alas! I am not a purse snatcher and so feel no desire to take up running again.
Sorry, your excuse doesn’t work all that well. (Not that you now have to start running.) Most Japanese have longer torsos than Westerners, so much so that they measure standing and seated height in physical exams. I know a bunch of guys shorter than me standing who are significantly taller than me than me seated.
Interest in running is so high that long distance races like half and full marathons and ekiden are regularly televised. Of course, they do get their asses handed to them by any East African runners who participate. But then again, so does everyone else.
FWIW, I don’t particularly like running. I do some amount of it for health and performance reasons, but I’d much rather lift heavy things or do gymnastics or other skill-based power exercise. I typically do shorter-distance repeats mixed with other activities. That gets me fit enough to run 5 k or 10 k without much of a problem, though it’s not sport-specific enough to have a very competitive time with dedicated runners.
Typical application of the 80-20 principle: if I wanted to get my 5 k time down, I’d probably have to double my running training. I’d rather spend that time doing the kind of exercise I like more. I’m satisfied being really fast over short distances, and getting outpaced over longer distances by people who can’t even pick up the weights I warm up with.
Oh, and for the people (without pre-existing injuries) who say that the pounding fucks 'em up, UR DOIN IT RONG.
Running without injury requires decent form. Sometimes that happens naturally from putting in time doing it. If we weren’t all horribly inactive compared to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we’d probably have figured that out when we were kids, before our full adult (plus-sized industrial-fed) weight came to bear on our joints.
Now, there are a bunch of physically inept overweight adults who suddenly take up running and injure themselves because: 1) They can’t run properly. 2) They’re frail from a lack of physical activity, sometimes from childhood on. And 3) Put in too much time and distance way too soon. What this means is that you need to put in some prep work, and you need skill training. Yes, running well is a skill, it can be learned.
As for the too-much-too-soon problem, one reason the Couch to 5 k program has gotten the traction that it has is because it ramps up slowly. You start walking, add in running sections, and increase gradually. You don’t need to start running a mile, or 20 miles, or 50. Leave that to the people who really love the shit out of running.
Running is an intermediate-level physical activity in my book. If I were training a previously sedentary person, I’d have them doing calisthenics and other kinds of strength exercises for weeks or even months before making them run. We’d do form drills, pacing, mobility, and connective tissue preparation work before doing anything more ambitious than short-distance easy repeats.
Also, training bang-for-your-buck is in sprinting, rather than long slow distance work. You have greater increases in performance and capacity with a minimal input in time by doing short intense sessions. If you want to run longer, and longer faster, then you eventually have to start adding miles. But for most people, they’ll get better results with far less training time by doing short sprints; 200, 400, or 800 m repeats; with only occasional “longer” non-stop runs.
For most people, 5 k is probably the longest distance they ever even need to consider running. And I say this as someone who thinks it’s frakking cool that people can run down an antelope in a persistence hunt.
I don’t understand this picture. That runner appears to have the diarrhea all over the front of his shorts and legs. How would that happen? Was he running behind someone else who booty-sprayed him with poo?
I’m guessing it IS diarrhea. Google “Uta Pippig”.
I’d suggest that your inability to not make any sense of it comes from your belief that running–and only running–is the only form of exercise worth doing.
You’ve discounted all the other forms of exercise that have been listed. So have some others: one seemed to think that riding a bike didn’t count unless “cardio” (whatever the hell that means; my heart pumps regardless of what I’m doing) was achieved; another discounted my claim that golf was exercise as dubious. But I would suggest that “exercise” means “moving your body”; and if that is the case, then all forms listed qualify. You and others may disagree, and I guess you’re allowed to; but I would hope that you would at least agree that those of us who do not run, but still move our bodies in some way, are nonetheless exercising.
Clearly, you do not have lung problems like asthma. If every time you ran you started choking and suffocating you probably wouldn’t like running much, either. Yes, there are drugs a person can take to avoid triggering an asthma attack with exercise but they have side effects. “More exercise” doesn’t cure this. Exercise-triggered asthma means just that: if you exercise you’ll bring on wheezing and shortness of breath.
Granted that’s an extreme end of the spectrum, but surely you can understand that if an action causes not just transient soreness but actual pain, immediate and acute, that someone will not be inclined to like that action?
Running is NOT going to make the scar tissue and damaged cartilage in my bad knee “better”. It’s going to make it worse. It’s not a matter of “it hurts so I’ll walk a bit and the pain goes away”, it’s “I run and it hurts like ground glass in my joint and the next day my knee is swollen and stiff and I’m hobbling around for three days”.
What about “damaged knees” do you fail to understand? Because I’ve avoided high-impact exercise I am still able to run should I need to do so. I pay for it later, but I can run if, say, I’m being chased by a tiger or whatever. Running on a regular basis isn’t going to make me run better it’s going to make me run worse because I have a bum knee and the impact of running is going to cause further damage and it’s all cumulative.
You need to work on both your empathy (you seem to be unable to relate to the viewpoint of others) and your understanding that people with physical problems sometimes really can’t do something, or can do it only with pain, or doing it will only make the situation worse. In other words, you have some medical ignorance.
Look, I’m happy you like to run. Good for you. Why do you feel a need to impose your likes and viewpoint on everyone else?
Diarrhea goes down your legs in a variety of ways when you’re running. It’s not pretty.
People apparently can get a buzz out of exercising. I don’t get enough of a buzz to make it not a boring painful drag. I used to be a good middle distance runner when I was young, doesn’t mean I enjoyed it.
I personally much prefer to get exercise by doing something constructive that I can see a benefit from and getting exercise is a side effect. I do exercise for the sake of doing it, but I really don’t enjoy it.
Want the contact info of my boss who had his third knee surgery last February, the programmer on his second, or the other boss who’s been told to switch to swimming if he wants to avoid his first?
Defining “normal” as “anybody who is like me” appears to be instinctive, you’re certainly not the first person I meet who does it. But you’re putting yourself in the same basket as those who refuse to allow others to not drink or to stop eating when they’re not hungry any more. And apparently you love it there…
It makes perfect sense. Running is stupid. It damages your joints and can get you killed running on city streets. Swimming is better exercise, without the knee and ankle injuries.
In high school I ran somewhat competitively. I was smug that I would always be able to run with ease and that all those people who never ran were lazy. In college it wasn’t unusual for me to go out for 5 or maybe even 10 miles with a friend. I was young and in shape so running was almost enjoyable and it helped me stay prepared for other sports, sports that were a lot more fun than running.
These days, in my 50’s, it just isn’t worth the bother and the strain on my knees. Injuries kept me from running for about a decade in my 30s/40s. Now that my knees are fixed it’s a daunting prospect to consider the kind of running I took as natural 30 years ago. Why would I want to? I get perfectly fine exercise from biking, swimming and lifting weights. It would be nice to be fleet of foot again but not worth the pain.
In the locker room of my gym I see all the middle aged distance runners taking off their shoes to inspect their bleeding feet. They seem to delight in horror stories of lost toenails, shin splint, bowel issues, dog attacks, miserable weather and dehydration. They can have it.
I don’t run because there’s no place I need to get fast.
For exercise I prefer swimming, but I accept that not everyone enjoys it like I do.