Ha, yeah… I’ve had my share of winters like that. I had a big string of them.
Winter seems to be mostly a mental battle of getting past lethargy. Once you break through, the exercise is so easy. It’s like any other time. Your body switches on, your brain accepts what’s going on, you stop wanting to take it easy. Cold rain and air stops feeling so awful. Your body warms up, movement becomes less difficult. And you can really build momentum with that energy too.
I think the key is taking small steps. When I finally succeeded in breaking the cycle it was because I finally set aside my ego and ran a 2km run and left it at that. Then a 3km run. And so on. It was so manageable, wore me down so little that I could run a couple day later, and as I broke the rust off and got myself into the habit I could actually handle it.
This was after years and years of regularly running 10-30km effortlessly all year round. I guess I got pneumonia one summer and it threw me off terribly, I got lethargic, then inactive, then gained about 50lb over several years. Getting back to it was physically and mentally so hard. But yeah, letting myself take baby steps and not being ashamed of my loss of fitness seems like it was key. For anyone I imagine the mindset of “I’ll go run around the block and see how I feel” would probably yield a lot more runs than the mindset I had that I felt bad about not running, losing my fitness, didn’t want to subject myself to an hour of cold and suffering, didn’t have enough time, etc. None of that mattered.
I suppose even getting up and going for a walk beats the hell out of sitting inside barely moving. Even if it isn’t way better, any amount is worth it.
Winter seems to be mostly a mental battle of getting past lethargy. Once you break through, the exercise is so easy. It’s like any other time. Your body switches on, your brain accepts what’s going on, you stop wanting to take it easy. Cold rain and air stops feeling so awful. Your body warms up, movement becomes less difficult. And you can really build momentum with that energy too.
I think the key is taking small steps. When I finally succeeded in breaking the cycle it was because I finally set aside my ego and ran a 2km run and left it at that. Then a 3km run. And so on. It was so manageable, wore me down so little that I could run a couple day later, and as I broke the rust off and got myself into the habit I could actually handle it.
This was after years and years of regularly running 10-30km effortlessly all year round. I guess I got pneumonia one summer and it threw me off terribly, I got lethargic, then inactive, then gained about 50lb over several years. Getting back to it was physically and mentally so hard. But yeah, letting myself take baby steps and not being ashamed of my loss of fitness seems like it was key. For anyone I imagine the mindset of “I’ll go run around the block and see how I feel” would probably yield a lot more runs than the mindset I had that I felt bad about not running, losing my fitness, didn’t want to subject myself to an hour of cold and suffering, didn’t have enough time, etc. None of that mattered.
I suppose even getting up and going for a walk beats the hell out of sitting inside barely moving. Even if it isn’t way better, any amount is worth it.
Good luck next year!