Ask any runner; they will tell you that running is a rollercoaster of emotions. Sometimes, you are excited to go for a run. Other times, you are super unmotivated and force yourself to run. Sometimes, you run 3km without much pain and tiredness. Other times, you’re struggling like crazy to complete 3km. 

From experience, running gets easier when you push yourself past your comfort zone. Run even if you’re unmotivated. Finish that run even if you’re tired. The pride you feel after finishing a run you want to skip or stop keeps you in the sport. 

In addition, you require mental strength, cardiovascular fitness, and robust knees to run frequently and enjoy it.

Therefore, let’s find out how to make running easier on your mind, lungs/heart, and knees/legs.

Tips to Make Running Easier on Your Mind

It’s not the run we conquer but ourselves. Our minds.

1. Self-Positive Talk

Be gentle and encourage yourself during each run, like you would your friend or your child.

Positive self-talk reduces anxiety and promotes self-belief and confidence. Therefore, having a few mantras at your fingertips is smart before each run.

2. Divide the Run into Smaller Distances

To make the distance manageable and achievable, break up the run. If you’re running 2km, first focus on running one. When you reach the second kilometre, tap yourself on the back and keep going. 

These Mental tricks will help, too.

3. Be Grateful

Instead of seeing pain and fatigue as negative effects, see them as positive effects of running. Train your mind to appreciate those feelings; experiencing them means your senses work properly. 

Positivity, friend, positivity. 

And something else, that running discomfort is temporary. You will finish the run and feel like running again.

Crazy, I know, but that’s running.

4. Picture Yourself Achieving Your Running Goal

There must be a reason you’re running. Whether it’s to feel good, relieve stress, manage anxiety, run a marathon, or get in shape, imagine yourself achieving that goal and how it will feel.

Imagination brings hope for reality, which encourages you to keep running.

5. Accept the Challenge and Embrace it

Every run is a workout, and it’s not easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it.

And why does it have to be easy? Love the discomfort, the suffering, and the difficulty.

All the progress and growth happen during that struggle.

How to Make Running Easier on Your Heart and Lungs

1. Start the Run Slowly

Do you often struggle with breathing at the beginning of a run? Guess what?

That’s a sign that you’re starting too fast. Give your body a few minutes to increase blood circulation and oxygen to your organs for more relaxed breathing.

Related: Slow Jogging and Why It’s The Best Warmup For Running

2. Breathe in and out

Taking deep breaths is another good way to help you run with less effort. When you breathe in, you take in oxygen, which fuels your heart, lungs, and muscles. When you breathe out, you take out carbon dioxide, which is unwanted in the body because it causes dizziness, tiredness, and breathlessness. 

To get more air in your lungs and sustain your breathing, practice belly breathing even when you’re not running so it becomes more manageable during a run.

Or you could take breath walks during a run. Breathe deeply through your nose and exhale through the mouth.

3. Pace Yourself

To pace yourself, you run with a consistent speed from start to finish. Pacing yourself protects your lungs from breathlessness (especially if you’re new to running) and builds cardiovascular fitness.

4. Run Every Day

Running is an aerobic exercise. Therefore, running daily for 10 to 30 minutes improves oxygen intake and blood circulation, which helps your lungs and heart function efficiently.

So, the next time you wake up late and think you can’t fix a 10-minute run, you can, and you should because it is better than no run. 

Related Post: How I Run 2 Kilometers Every Day

5. Do Endurance Exercises

Endurance exercises strengthen your cardiovascular system. They are workouts that require lots of jumping to improve breathing. Examples are jumping jacks, ten knee taps, butt kicks, .

 Follow my social media, thequietrunnerwoman, as I post a lot of exercises for runners to build endurance, strength, and flexibility.

How to Make Running Easier on Your Knees and Legs

1. Mix Your Running Terrains

A flat road builds good stamina, but a hilly road builds robust knees. And robust knees mean more effortless and more powerful runs. Add trail running to your running routine, and your legs will thank you.

Related: A Trail Running Guide for Beginners: What to Know Before You Start

2. Include Lower Body Exercises

Lower body workouts target the leg muscles from the glutes, hips, hamstrings, quads, knees, calves, and ankles, which are the muscles mostly used when running. A fit lower body will make running less painful.

Therefore, do squats and walking lunges after a run or on days you’re not running.

3. Stretch After a Running Workout

Stretching increases flexibility.

Flexibility is the ability of your joints and muscles to move in a full range of motion, enabling you to walk, run, or perform physical activities efficiently. 

4. Start Slow

At the beginning of a run, warm up your body by running slowly.

After a few minutes, you will notice your legs becoming lighter and the run easier; then, you can increase the pace. Warming up before a run helps prevent possible muscle,  knee, and ankle injuries.

5. Have Rest Days

Even professional runners have rest days. Resting is time for your leg muscles to recover and grow.

Getting enough sleep is another firm form of rest, which also helps your body form new and stronger muscles.

7. Run More

Running regularly is the best way to make running easier on your knees.

When you run more, your lower body muscles get used to the exercise because they get stronger with each run.

Read more about the benefits of running regularly here.

Conclusion

A run might not be easy every time you run, but you know what? It will always be worth it. 

Read This Next

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Dangerous Self-Sabotaging Habits of Beginner Runners and How to Overcome Them