Let it be known that I read too many books. A few years ago, I discovered how amazing audio books are, particularly through the free library app, Libby. [Quit paying for Audible when you can have ‘the-sky-is-the-limit’ free e-books and audio books through the library!] Big fan, right here.

I find myself listening to books while cooking, cleaning, folding laundry, mowing the lawn, weeding, driving home from work, showering, crocheting, removing wallpaper, you name it. Everything except running – because I’m headphone free. I read fiction, non-fiction, historical, people, business, faith, science, trending books… I’ll try it! Last week, I was listening to the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. Sometimes when you read these types of books the information presented sounds obvious and like, “I could have told you that.” This one was a little different from the norm, so I stuck with it.

As soon as Chapter 9 started, The Decline of Pleasure, I immediately thought of the relationship with running, before it was used as an example. This chapter’s focus was on how we feel we have to make our time always as productive as possible. The author used the example, “Your friend who is always training for a 10k, yet who is incapable of just, “going for a run.” She has convinced herself that running is a meaningful thing to do, only in so far as leading to a future accomplishment.” Later, “The regrettable consequence of using leisure to accomplish other things, is that it begins to feel like a chore. Like work.”

Wow.

That is spot on for many things in my life besides running. In grad school, I really put off running. Partly because my energy was depleted but going out for a run… seemed like more work. I somewhat trained for the June DXA2 half-marathon and even then, running felt hard. I needed to be lazy in my evenings and the idea of going for a run was not appealing, even though we all love the feeling post-run!

As the author said, we often feel like we are wasting our time off if we are not using the time well or focused on self-improvement. In August, my running consisted of short 1-3 mile runs, spontaneously choosing turns around a neighborhood, and turning back when I wanted to.

I know I’m not alone in this. When does running feel like a chore to you? How do you combat it?