Having fun, getting fit

As fitness rises, so does your enjoyment.

During a conversation about running with a friend several few months ago, he said something that resonated deeply with my experience. Running, he said, didn't become fun until he got fit. As my own running journey has evolved from someone who was not fit, to kind of fit, to fittish, to actually fit, there’s a lot of truth in that statement. 

When you are fit, running doesn’t seem daunting or like a chore. Instead it feels alive with possibility and opportunity. Fitness is like a passport that transports you  into situations you never dreamed possible.

As my fitness improved last summer in preparation for my first 50-mile race, I was shocked to discover that punishing workouts and epic long runs became incredibly fun. It sounds twisted, but it’s true.  

If fit running is fun running, then it raises an obvious question: How do you know when you’re fit? Therein lies the mystery because fitness is an elusive quality that ebbs and flows over time. It’s difficult to attain and easy to lose. Such is the metaphorical circle of a runner's life. 

While fitness reveals itself in all the data collected by our GPS devices, it’s more of a feeling than a quantifiable algorithm. When you know, you know, and if you have to ask, you’re probably not fit yet. We should probably start by understanding what we mean by fitness.