Ep #301: What to Do When You Suck at Running

Welcome to The Not Your Average Runner Podcast. If you’ve never felt athletic but you still dream about becoming a runner, you are in the right place. I’m Jill Angie, your fat running coach. I help fat women over 40 to start running, feel confident, and change their lives. I have worked with thousands of women to help them achieve their running goals and now I want to help you.

Hey, hey, runners. If you are listening to this show because you want to start running or you want to get back into it after some time off, I have amazing news for you. So, next week on Wednesday, May 24th at 7pm Eastern I am teaching a free class on how to start running when you’re fat. Whether you have never been a runner or maybe you tried it a few times and it didn’t go so well, maybe you’re a couch to 5k drop out, or you used to run and you loved it and then you stopped and you want to get back into it.

Whether any of those things are true for you, this class will teach you how to start safely, how to feel confident, and address the concerns that you may have about running in a fat body. So all you need to do to register is go to notyouraveragerunner.com/runningfat. That’s notyouraveragerunner.com/runningfat. We will also have a link in the show notes, but if you want to pause this show right now and go over to notyouraveragerunner.com/runningfat I will wait.

Okay, once again, the class is going to be on May 24th at 7pm Eastern. It is absolutely free and it’s going to be recorded. So if you absolutely can’t make it live, no worries, I will be sending out the recording later that evening.

All right, so let’s talk about what to do if you just suck at running because I hear this all the time, right? Somebody is a runner and they’re like, “Well, I sort of run, but I’m slow or I run/walk, I don’t really run.” Or “I’m not a real runner because I’m not very good at it. I only do 5ks. I try hard, but I’m just not that good at it.” And it’s basically negging yourself all over the place.

And I know you have probably said some of these things yourself. And I ask myself a lot like, why the fuck do we do this to ourselves? And I think it’s partly because especially as women, if you’re socialized as a woman you’ve been taught from a young age not to brag, right? And I know you can hear me rolling my eyes about this. But also you’ve probably been taught that the whole point of running is to win the race or at least be as fast as possible.

And you’ve probably also been taught that in everything you do, whether it’s running or otherwise, you should always strive to be the best that you can be. You should always be looking to improve, to get better, to do your very, very best, right? Of course, we are all taught this. Every single human is taught this paradigm.

And there’s a few fitness quotes that really just yank my chain that kind of have this flavor. One of them is like, “I’m not competing with everyone else, I’m only competing with myself.” And it sounds really nice. It’s like, hey, I’m not competitive. I want everybody else to be successful, but also if I don’t keep getting better I’m worthless. Right, that’s what is really being said there.

And another one that drives me crazy is if somebody talks about how they came in last in a race or they’re running slow and they’re not feeling good about it there’s always somebody that’s like, “Yeah, but you’re still faster than everyone on the couch.” And ugh, that one even makes me madder than I’m only competing with myself because it implies that there’s sort of a hierarchy in health and fitness where you can only feel good about yourself if you’re better than someone else, right?

It’s like, well, at least I’m not that guy sitting on the couch. And then that implies the person who is on the proverbial couch is lazy and unmotivated and not trying to improve, right? Which is bullshit because there are a million reasons why someone wouldn’t be running, right.

Maybe they’re injured. Maybe they are depressed. Maybe they are having something going on with their mental health. Maybe they just don’t fucking want to. And honestly, none of those reasons are your business nor do they make the person on the couch less worthy than you or anyone else.

So this whole business of we should always be trying to improve and get better and do better and I mean, yeah, it’s awesome to work towards something, and I am all for picking goals and chasing them down, but also this belief system implies that we aren’t good enough as we are and that we should never settle for where we are. That we should always try to be moving forward, right?

And I want you to know that where you are right now is always okay, always. And you might want more, you might want different for yourself in the future, and that’s fine, okay? But also know that it’s optional. You are not morally obligated to be constantly trying to improve yourself, okay? Because you are just fine, you are good enough, you are worthy enough right now. I sound like Stewart Smalley, “I’m smart enough, and I’m good enough, and doggone it, people like me.”

But seriously, you are just fine. You are good enough, you are worthy enough right now. And improving yourself won’t make you feel more worthy if you believe you have to improve to be more worthy, right? If your belief system is like, I’m more worthy the better I get, then you’re just constantly going to be chasing that. It’s like an endless cycle.

This thought, “I need to be better” never actually results in you feeling better about yourself. In the long run it just becomes an ongoing chase and you’re never, ever satisfied. So you are absolutely a worthy human as you are right now. Please, please, please never ever forget that.

Okay, I got a little ranty there sort of unexpectedly, sorry about that. But it is part of today’s topic, which is that it’s okay to suck at running. It’s totally okay. You do not have to constantly be trying to improve. You don’t have to be trying to make your running form better or trying to get faster or go farther. You don’t have to do any of that stuff. You can if you want to, but you don’t have to. You’re not obligated.

And I kind of hesitate to actually even say that anyone sucks at running because honestly, if you can put one foot in front of the other over and over again and not fall down a lot, you’re good at running, you’ve mastered it. Running is literally hopping forward from one foot to another, you know, alternating your feet over and over and over again.

So if you can do that without tipping over, you’re good at running. You’ve done it, good job. In fact, you’ve been good at running since you were probably two or whatever age kids are when they figure out how to run and their parents’ lives change forever.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, right? To be good at running you don’t have to just run. You have to be fast. You have to look graceful. You have to have the right running form. You have to be able to do it for a long time and all these other things. What you’re really describing is a professional Olympic runner.

But the truth is, to be good at running none of that is true. Okay? Now, if you want to be a runner, who wins races, goes professional, competes in the Olympics, you do need all those things that I just said. But that doesn’t make you “good” at running. It just means that your body has certain advantages that, along with lots of time and money and training and hard work, allow you to go faster or farther or look more graceful, right?

You might have longer legs. You might have been born with more fast twitch muscle fibers than the average person, right? And that gives you a biological advantage. And then if you put time, money and training into that, you can become one of these amazing runners.

And there is a reason that Olympic runners all have a similar body type, especially all the Olympic endurance runners have a very similar body type. And then all of the sprinters, the ones that do shorter distances also have a similar body type to each other. Because a lot of it is genetics.

And so yeah, you might be “good” at running by society’s definition, but a lot of it is due to the circumstances of your birth, whether that is – A lot of it is your physical genetics, but then also the circumstances of your life and what kind of family you were born into. Were you born into a family that had the money to hire fancy trainers for you or that at least could afford to send you to all of the track practices and put all the money into that, right?

A lot of it is the circumstances. And a runner that develops the skills we typically think of as a really good runner will have those advantages, okay? They may have lived someplace where it was safe for them to run outdoors by themselves, right? So they could practice and get stronger, versus a person who didn’t have that luxury and didn’t get to run a lot when they were younger.

They might have been in a school system that had a really good track program, versus a school system that gave them the bare minimum, right? They might have had parents with the money to invest in elite training programs, versus they might have not had the luxury to do that. They might have had to quit school to get a job or spend all their off high school hours working a job to help support the family, right?

And so, without all of those advantages, all of the genetics in the world won’t even make a difference, right? And yes, hard work goes a long way, but genetics and fortunate circumstances are necessary too, okay? So I want to make that clear to anybody who thinks that, first of all, you were born a runner. Yes, there are some people who have bodies that are maybe a little more suited towards long distance running.

But without all the other advantages, right, they’re never going to be that super awesome competitive runner. So there’s a lot that goes into it. So if you’re sitting there thinking like, “Oh, what’s wrong with me?” Well, hey, a lot of it is luck of the draw, okay? But again, I’m ranting again. I’m feeling very ranty this week.

I want to get back to sucking at running, okay? So we talked about all the ways that you can be amazing at running. I often say that I suck at running. I say I suck at running or I’m a mediocre runner at best, right? And I don’t know why I say that because, again, I can run. And by the definition that I just gave you to be good at running, which is you can put one foot in front of the other over and over again and not fall down too often, I qualify as a good runner.

And I do believe that, right? And my form isn’t picture perfect. I’m not fast. I don’t really love running long distances, to be honest. I mean, I’ve done it many, many times. Sometimes it’s fun. Most of the time I’d rather just keep it to three miles or so. And most days, I don’t feel like running and I complain in my head about it for at least the first 10 minutes.

I mean, I love running. I really, really do. But a lot of times I don’t like it, okay? I’m sure you can relate. And so some people might say that means I’m not a very good runner because when we think of somebody who’s good at running, we already talked about the genetics and the circumstances. But when we imagine that person that we think, “Oh, yeah, she’s a really good runner,” it’s literally the opposite of how I would describe myself as a runner, right?

It’s that person who gracefully bounds forward like a gazelle and makes it look easy and effortless and never has to argue with themselves about going for a run. And they run fast. And maybe, who knows? Maybe they even win races, or at least their age group. You know, it’s definitely somebody who could do a 5k in under 30 minutes. And that is the picture in our mind that we get when we think or when we say, “They’re such a good runner.”

But what I’d like to do in this podcast is really – and I think we have been doing it – redefine what it means to be a good runner. Okay? And again, my earlier definition of doing it without landing on your face too often, it’s simple, but it’s true. If you can run, you’re good at running, okay? But also to say, hey, here’s what I really think means you are a good runner.

If you keep at it, even when or especially when the deck is stacked against you, you’re a good runner. And for whatever reason the deck is stacked, right? Maybe you’re fat. Maybe you have, you’re differently abled, right? Or maybe you have no fucking time and you’re lucky if you can scrape out 10 or 15 minutes a couple of times a week to go for a run. Whatever it is, if you keep at it even when or especially when the deck is stacked against you, I think you’re a pretty good runner.

If you have figured out a way to run that works for you, whether it’s doing run/walk or whether it’s like, hey, I don’t want to do the long distances, I just want to do the short distances. I prefer to run on the treadmill. I only like to run on trails, right? Whatever it is, if you can run in a way that works for you, that you enjoy, you create a way of doing it that honors your body and your life and your mind, bam, you’re a good runner. Okay?

If you run simply because you enjoy running and for no other reason, or maybe because of the way it makes you feel, you’re a good runner. Okay? So I want to take pace and distance and running form and all that other stuff out of the equation, all right? Yes, those are all factors that will impact your performance as a runner.

But I want to level the playing field to take out all the things that are influenced by genetics, and privilege and all of that and really look at what makes a runner a runner. In other words, do you run? Do you get something out of it? Do you do it semi-consistently? Boom, you’re good at running, okay?

So you don’t have to be good at running to be a runner. You can totally suck at it, whatever definition you want to use for whether you’re a good runner or not. You are also allowed to suck at it and continue to claim the identity of runner and continue to say like, I’m a real runner. All right? I’m not going to stop you.

And I will probably still refer to myself as a mediocre runner from time to time because, I don’t know, it makes me laugh, right? It’s rebellious. It’s just like, yeah, I suck at running and I still do it because I love it, right? Like people aren’t used to that. They’re kind of like, well, if you’re not good at something, you should either work really hard to get better, or you should quit. And I’m kind of like, actually, there’s a middle ground where you can just do it because it’s fun and not be great at it and be cool with that.

But if being good at something is important to you and you’re like, “I want to be able to say I’m good at running,” and right now you think I don’t qualify as being good at running, I’ve just given you a whole new way to look at it. That might be helpful. All right? Do you run? Do you get something out of it? Do you do it semi-consistently? Okay? Boom, you’re good at running.

Okay, so basically you’re good at running right now. Unless you do fall down a lot. Unless like every third step you’re falling down, in which case, maybe running is not your thing. I’m joking, of course. But I want you to know you’re actually good at running right now. If you want to believe you suck at it, if you’re getting something out of that to believe that, you’re still a real runner and you’re allowed to love it anyways. All right?

Okay, my friend. Don’t forget to sign up for the free class, How to Start Running When You’re Fat. It’s on May 24th, at 7pm Eastern and it will be recorded. Everybody asks me that question every single time. “Is it going to be recorded? Because I can’t be there live.” It is always recorded, always till the end of time. I record everything because I know that we’re all busy and I don’t ever want you to miss out just because you had to work or do something with your family or you fell asleep or whatever.

Okay, so May 24th, at 7pm Eastern is the live broadcast. I will be teaching, it’s going to be recorded. I’ll be sending out the recording later to anybody who registered. So you got to go to notyouraveragerunner.com/runningfat. Again, notyouraveragerunner.com/runningfat, go there, sign up, register and I’ll see you soon.

All right, that is it for this episode. I love you, stay safe, get your ass out there and run whether you suck at it or whether you’re great at it, I don’t care. And I will talk to you next week.

Real quick, before you go, if you enjoyed this episode, you have to check out Run Your Best Life. It’s my monthly coaching program where you will learn exactly how to start running, stick with it, and become the runner you have always wanted to be. Head on over to runyourbestlife.com to join. I would love to be a part of your journey.