You can’t get through life without a little pain, and we humans attempt to avoid as much pain as possible. But there is a huge difference between real pain and simple discomfort. In our “advanced” civilization, we have become soft to the point that we often confuse discomfort for pain. Pain is a real sign that something is very wrong. Pain is a bad thing. Pain should be avoided!

Discomfort, on the other hand, normally accompanies any stressful exercise. The trick is learning the difference between the two. There is no doubt that discomfort has both a physical component, as well as a mental one. When you stress your legs with a long run, the muscles get fatigued, and that causes discomfort. But your brain doesn’t like discomfort, so if it senses that you are going to try that long run again, it will make you think that the discomfort is worse than it really is. It isn’t that your brain wants you to be lazy, it’s just trying to reduce your stress level.

Learning when you are really hurt, when you are feeling the normal discomforts of physical exertion, when your mind is playing tricks on you, and when you should be playing tricks on your mind are all a part of the learning process called training. While I can’t promise you that proper training will keep you from all discomfort, I can assure you that proper training will steer you away from injury causing behaviors, and allow you to progress at a rate that will minimize a lot of the discomfort that many runners feel when they begin training.

Yes, there will be some discomfort, but take heart in knowing that having a little ache in your legs from running feels a lot better than legs that are sore from hauling around extra weight caused by being a sedentary creature!

Next time: I feel like I’m running in circles!