Yesterday morning, I was thinking I'd like some exercise, but I wasn't sure I could run for long. I put aside a thought that if I couldn't run well, I shouldn't run at all and headed out. I thought that even walking a few miles was better than nothing.
Once I got moving, I decided to run a bit, trying to apply some advice and still more advice on how to run with good form. The promise of good form is fewer injuries, which I think is a worthy goal. After trying for a while, I found what felt like a good pace, foot strike, and posture.
Posture is one of the areas I struggle with. My posture mostly sucks while standing, sitting, and walking, so it doesn't surprise me that posture during running sucks. But, bad posture in running introduces injury and, for me, makes it harder to breathe. So on my return run I tried to focus on my posture. I had to keep on top of it, correcting myself every 10 steps or so, but the difference was notable.
All in all, it wasn't a fast run or a particularly long run (only about 2.3 miles), but I enjoyed it. I thought about how I had hesitated to go out because I couldn't do a "good" run. Then I thought that maybe some of the reading I've been doing is counter-productive. So much of what I see is "how to run faster!" or "your best race time!" or "training tips!".
I don't want to run faster, I just want to run. I don't want to train, I just want to run without injury.
That's when it dawned on me: running is something I want to do and if I happen to improve, so much the better. For me, it's like gardening and playing video games: I don't want to become better at it, I just enjoy doing it. Somehow, that takes a lot of the pressure off. Maybe it's okay to have things in life that don't need improvement.