Jog on Journal by Bella Mackie

Author:Bella Mackie [Mackie, Bella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-10-31T17:00:00+00:00

I faced some of these when I began running and will attempt to offer some tips and some reassurance (even though reassurance is not helpful long term – it just makes you seek more reassurance …).

First there’s that capacity in all of us who struggle with our brains to catastrophise. So you plan a run and then worry about what might happen on it – will you get hit by a car, or have a panic attack, or faint in the middle of the road? What if you fall into the canal, or get mugged, or catcalled or … OMG I don’t want to go now. That’s how fast your mind can spiral into doom.

We can unpick some of these worries about physical sensations later on, but first let’s try and challenge the worry thoughts with some more rational ones. The likelihood is, the next run you take will be hard. You’ll sweat, and probably hate some of it, and maybe you’ll be slow but the worst thing that will happen is that your leggings will start sagging. At the end, you’ll feel proud of yourself and have a nice rewarding hot chocolate/ice cream/gluten-free muffin/glass of wine – delete as appropriate. That’s it. That’s all that will happen. And it’s important to challenge those big fears, because otherwise you’ll work yourself up and put it off and then feel scared when you should be concentrating on your new experience.

Firstly, you’re not going to faint. It’s SUCH a common anxiety worry, but we talked earlier about why it’s not going to happen. If you feel faint, you’ll remember that it’s because you’re pushing yourself and you’re out of breath from that exertion – it’s not fear, it’s fitness.

You are not going to have a terrible accident. The worst thing that’s happened to me while running is that I fall over a lot. I am very clumsy and stack it fairly often on runs. I get bruises and occasionally some scrapes, but I get up and carry on. Not once have I fallen into a canal, and you won’t either.

You will take care to listen for traffic – running in the direction of oncoming traffic if you’re on country roads and on pavements in urban areas. You’ll wear bright clothing (any excuse to be jazzy) and if you’re running at night in a place with bad lighting, you’ll wear a head torch or lights on your shoes.

You can stop at ANY TIME if you need to – that’s the joy of running. If it feels too fast, or you’re getting a bit anxious, stop and walk for a few minutes. Let your heart rate return to normal and drink some water. Then check yourself – all OK? Slowly start up again.

You can stay close to home – I ran the block around my house for so long before I ventured further. And even then, I only ran around my neighbourhood for a few weeks before I had the courage to go to new places.

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