My running story

Listen, I'm no fitness guru, far from it. I'm also not athletic at all, and for a really long time I genuinely hated exercising. I still remember clearly, all the way back to secondary school, that PE (the subject) was an absolute disaster for me. Sports just didn't come easily to me. Dancing I could manage reasonably well, and I was decent at sprinting. That's pretty much where it stopped. And then there was that eternal running/jogging. With the beep test I was always one of the first to be eliminated, and on an outdoor running lap I'd always trail behind, frustrated as ever.
And now, now it's different.

Before running

It's not that I sat still my entire childhood. What mostly stuck was ballet, eventually expanding into jazz dance, and on top of that I cycled everywhere for a really long time. This combination was enough to stay in shape for a really long time. Except slowly a few factors in that combination started to change. I kept dancing, both disciplines, but traded in my bike for a car. After moving to the Egmond area, six years ago, I stopped dancing entirely. In short, I no longer cycled anywhere, and I stopped dancing too. Suddenly age also started to play a role, because around thirty I discovered my body no longer stayed, uh, in place on its own. At that point, I think, you as a person have two options. You let the change happen and embrace it, or you make sure everything gets back into place.

From CrossFit to running

For a fair while, I had a membership at a CrossFit gym. There I could take classes three times a week and, if I wanted, use the equipment without limits. Like with so many things, I went often for the first few weeks, and pretty soon that dropped off. The times didn't suit me well, I was tired, I didn't want to leave the house anymore, and more excuses of that kind.
Because of that I started thinking, what could I just do from home, or at home? Running.
Except I really wanted some help with that, and asked my fantastic sister-in-law. My sister-in-law has expertise in building personal training (PT) schedules, and it's genuinely fantastic. Thanks to her, whenever I ask, I get a new, custom-made PT schedule.
And that's how I started running, tailored to me.

From nothing to something

It took a bit of digging to figure out exactly when I started. My first PT schedule dates back to January 2023. I'd asked for a focus on my stomach, glutes and legs. On top of that I also really wanted to build up my fitness. That would mean I've now been running regularly for about a year and 10 months. Unfortunately that's not entirely true, since I know very well that 2023 was a challenging year, with periods where I barely ran, or didn't run at all. Starting November 2023, that changed (I can tell from the content of my schedule). From that point on I started running three times a week, alongside one strength session a week. Every beginning is hard, and for me it really came down to sticking with it. I started with 1 minute of jogging (8-9 min per km) and then 1 minute of running at a brisker pace, repeated ten times.
From the start I was also already doing strength exercises, for muscle building and stamina. Those exercises were mostly planks, bodyweight squats and lunges. The muscle soreness I had, and the frustration whenever something didn't quite work.

In that first stretch, my dad would sometimes ask; do you actually do all the exercises, do you ever cheat a bit? Then, and still now, I can say with complete honesty, yes, I do every exercise and I never cheat. I'm doing it for myself, right? So why would I think, I'll just do two rounds instead of three. No, my sister-in-law definitely designed this with a reason in mind, and I want this for myself! Only in the last few weeks have I sometimes had to stop a set early, because I genuinely can't manage that sixth push-up anymore.

How do you keep it up?

At a later age, in my late twenties, I even started skipping my dance classes more and more often. So it really doesn't matter to me whether it's a group setting or not. CrossFit helped for a while, but definitely not in the long run either. So what's different, that I've now been consistently running and strength training for almost a year?
I'm not dependent on other people, only on myself. Wonderful. I decide myself when I want to work out, so I have the flexibility to shift it to a different moment. If I only get home from work at 5:30 PM, I can easily decide, okay, tomorrow's better. What I have come to understand, though, is that it's fairly unique that I simply have the discipline to work out four-five times a week now, and just at home.
So what's my motivation? In July I started doing jumping lunges for the first time. Brutally tough. For me it was a real moment of realisation. Six months earlier, you really wouldn't have needed to ask me that... I could just do jumping lunges, without falling apart. Same with running, the difference compared to when I started is so huge! How motivating is that. But what helps me the most? Honestly? I'm now even happier looking in the mirror wearing swimwear. I feel so good! My back issues have also simply disappeared since I started strength training.
So as far as I'm concerned, the benefits far outweigh the downsides.