7 Ways to Make Running Feel Less Awful

Puffing, wheezing, sweat dripping into your eyes, oh what a pain running can be. The feeling of dying is not so pleasant, if not for that dastardly ‘health’ cause we’d likely never do it. Right? Maybe not, maybe you enjoy it, either way, you’d probably still jump at the chance to make it better.

Plenty of people actually enjoy running, they do it with a smile on their face, they seem to remain composed and barely break out in red spots or start tripping over their own feet. Why such a divide? Why do some people seem to look like they were born running, while others look more like they’re about to burst into flames?

It could simply be that some people know how to respond to their bodies signals better, they know when to slow down, speed up, take a break, or get some refreshments. Good thing is you can learn how to help yourself, you don’t need to watch these people run by you as blurs of running perfection. Huffington Post has a few tips and tricks to make your running experience a little more joyful, and a little less death-like:

1. Take walk breaks.

Really. And yes, you can still call yourself a “runner”. In fact, a recent study found that regular walking intervals throughout a long run can actually help you maintain the same pace as if you ran the entire way, while being gentler to your body, The New York Times reported. Walk breaks can also be as much of a mental break as a physical one, helping you to think about a longer-distance run into smaller, more conquerable pieces. Which means more “finish lines” — and more victory dances.

That helps me, stopping to walk sounds much better than collapsing to sleep in the middle of the park. But wait, there’s more! Check out the other 6 tips.