Why am I so bad at running, but do well in other cardio related activities?

[waterscantquenchlove]

@kmar123 I had this problem for MANY years, and I'm so jealous that you're getting it figured out after two sessions! A nine minute mile is slow to a regular runner, but it's not actually slow running! Slow means SLOW, meaning no pressure whatsoever to go any speed other than the speed at which you're able to do the activity you're trying to do comfortably. If I'm on a treadmill, I put a towel over it to ignore the numbers. If I'm outside, I don't look at the clock or distance or any other measures. When I'm just starting out a new running program, I just make a practice of going as slowly as I can, really. It's meditative!

What I never realized (because I have the tendency to be hypercritical of myself) is that the point of a C25K is that it's designed so that almost anyone can do it. The fact that I couldn't do it didn't mean that there was something inherently wrong with me, or that I was more out of shape than I even know. It meant that I was trying to do it too fast.

 

[one1]

@kmar123 Different types of cardio work your body out
in different ways- with running in particular, your bones and tendons need the chance to adjust to the repeated impact and strain slowly. Keep up what you're doing, and make sure that most of your runs are at a pace where you could hold a conversation with someone while running. So if you're choking and panting heavily, you're running too fast.

Also form is super important to avoid injury (in particular knee injury). This is my favorite article about the topic: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-11/why-everything-you-thought-about-running-is-wrong/11775598

 

[kmar123]

@one1 Thanks!! I will keep it in mind as I do have a history of weak knees so I will be super careful.