The Runna Paradox and Social Comfort

It’s ironic that since I started a Runna fitness plan my “fitness” has been going down rather than up. The simple reason is that although the workouts are challenging, they’re challenging for a short time.

Take this morning’s bike ride for example. It was short in distance and time, but high in effort and strain. I had to keep up with specialists. By specialists I mean “people who cycle without touching other sports as often”. I walk, hike, run and cycle every day so I’m excellent at walking, and mediocre at everything else. This is written with humour.

I recently started group running. When we were three I had to ask for the group to slow down to keep up. I pushed hard enough to have a coughing fit, luckily without more than that, before continuing the run, feeling like I couldn’t handle if every run was like that.

This Monday the run was much easier. Same course, but a more comfortable pace. It was comfortable enough for me to take pictures during the run, and for Runna to tell me off for going to slowly.

If I follow a Runna course, it’s not to be faster for Runna, it’s to be comfortable within a group run environment. I want to be able to walk with groups, hike with groups, cycle with groups and run with groups, without being knackered at the end. I want to participate in group activities without feeling overwhelmed.

And Finally

With Strava, Garmin, Suunto and Apple it is easy to want to see fitness, speed and everything improve, but what we really need is to be comfortable when we’re doing something with a group. If we’re comfortable, then we’ve achieved our goal.