I used to be the person who said 'I hate running.' Now I get up at 6am to do it. Here's what actually changed.
Growing up playing soccer, I ran a lot — but it was always in service of something else. Chasing a ball, closing down a defender, tracking a run. Running for its own sake felt pointless to me. Why would you just run in a straight line with nothing to show for it?
I picked it up seriously a few months ago, mostly out of curiosity. I wanted to know if I could build the habit. The first few weeks were rough. My lungs weren't the problem — it was the boredom. I'd check my watch after what felt like twenty minutes and it'd been four.
What changed it for me was treating it like a practice instead of a workout. I started using it as time to think — no podcast, no music, just me and whatever problem I was turning over in my head. Some of my best ideas for projects have come on runs. There's something about the rhythm of it that loosens things up.
I'm not fast. I don't care about splits or PRs right now. I just like that it's mine — one hour in the morning where nothing else is competing for my attention. That's harder to find than you'd think.