Why did I restart running and how it started to change my life?
Looking at the subject, you might get into different expectations. The below article (and also the next ones) will only talk about my experience hoping this might also light some flares in others‘ minds. To give you the background, since we moved to Germany almost 6 years ago, I restarted my exercises and I would consider myself a leisure runner and cyclist.
However, 2022 didn‘t start that well for me. Painful days due to stones in my gallbladder were followed by Covid-19 which was unavoidable due to kids going to school.
Finally, I had the diagnosis and doctors decided to remove my gallbladder. Unfortunately, the operation was delayed due to my Covid-19.
Long story short, I was tested negative finally after 4 weeks and had a successful surgery. Doctors had already warned me that it could take around 4 to 6 weeks to start exercising due to stitches inside. 6 more weeks were gone. Still there was something strange. I was not able to walk even 2 kilometers. I was short of breath and felt extremely tired after this 2-kilometer walk/jog.
That was such an unforgettable day for me in my life because I don‘t remember myself feeling so weak and disappointed. It is not a coincidence that on this day I strongly felt the need to do something immediately in my life and I decided to include regular physical exercise into my daily life with the help of a professional sports coach.
I was not aware during those days but this was one of the best decisions I made at that time. First I started with extensive walking which later turned into slow jogs in parallel with strength and mobility exercises. During my first runs, someone watching me from outside might have the feeling that I was finishing a full marathon where my watch showed only 3 kilometers.
Looking back to the last 6 months, I am for sure better than where I started. Nowadays, for the first time in my life, I could finish 10 kilometers in less than an hour. Day by day my physical capacity started to improve (and still improving). But this is not the only way how running started to change my life.
I started to realize in parallel to the physical fight that I was having with my body, I was also having an emotional and mental fight with myself. It is now clear to me that it was never about “pure“ running.
I didn‘t start running with a clear goal like finishing a marathon in my mind (and still I don’t have one). Rather than training for a specific goal, I started to motivate myself with the challenges that proper exercising brings to my life: Finding time to do my running, cycling, or strength exercises, fighting with my mind to overcome my excuses, or convincing myself that I am actually not tired.
I am glad that I decided to start this journey to transform myself into a physically, emotionally, and mentally different version of me on that day.
And the journey still continues…
