I Used to Hate Running
Let me be clear: I absolutely hated running.
It wasn’t fun. It didn’t feel good. It wasn’t “freeing” or “euphoric.”
I wasn’t overweight, but I was bulky — about 100 kg with some gym muscle — and I couldn’t even run a single kilometer in my twenties.
Looking back, I’d call that… a form of advanced physical dysfunction.
And I had no childhood background in running. No “natural base.” I was just a gym guy who avoided cardio.
One Random Website Changed Everything
One day I found a Polish website that explained why running is worth trying — physically, mentally, emotionally. Something about it clicked.
There was a 10-week beginner training plan that looked very doable. Run-walk sessions, gradually increasing.
I gave it a try.
Week by week, I followed the schedule. It worked.
And 10 weeks later — for the first time in my life — I ran for 30 minutes straight.
I was shocked. It felt incredible. I couldn’t believe something this difficult had such a simple solution.
Then I Quit (And Had to Start Again)
After that, I kept running for a few more weeks… and then stopped. Life got busy.
Six months later I tried to run again and — surprise — I couldn’t even make it through 1 km.
So I started over. And again, it worked.
This time I discovered the book “Biegiem przez życie” by Jerzy Skarżyński — a legendary Polish marathoner.
In it, he wrote something that stayed with me:
“Running for 30 minutes is like climbing a small hill — you can easily fall back down.
But running for 1 hour is like reaching a mountaintop. It’s very hard to fall off.”
Eventually I reached that mountaintop. I could run for an hour — and even after another long break, I could still run without starting from scratch.
That’s when I knew: I’d truly learned how to run.
Then I Taught My 9-Year-Old Daughter
My daughter plays football (soccer), and in 2024 I encouraged her to try the same 10-week plan.
And guess what?
It worked exactly the same way.
She went from struggling to run a few minutes… to running 30 minutes straight at around 7:20/km pace.
And it had a huge impact on her performance:
- In her football team (where she was the only girl), she jumped from 6th to 2nd place in endurance runs — against boys.
- In school, where the runs were not separated by gender, she went from 3rd to 1st overall.
That progress? Purely from this plan.
The Beginner-Friendly 10-Week Run-Walk Plan
Here’s the exact plan we used:
| Week | Tue | Thu | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 × 2′ run / 4′ walk | same | same | same |
| 2 | 5 × 3′ run / 3′ walk | same | same | same |
| 3 | 4 × 5′ run / 2.5′ walk | same | same | same |
| 4 | 3 × 7′ run / 3′ walk | same | same | same |
| 5 | 3 × 8′ run / 2′ walk | same | same | same |
| 6 | 3 × 9′ run / 2′ walk | same | same | same |
| 7 | 3 × 9′ run / 1′ walk | same | same | same |
| 8 | 2 × 13′ run / 2′ walk | same | same | same |
| 9 | 2 × 14′ run / 1′ walk | same | same | same |
| 10 | 30′ continuous run | same | same | same |
That’s it. Simple. Free. Life-changing.
Final Thoughts
So yeah — I really believe anyone can learn to run.
If I did it, you can too. My daughter did it. Your kid can too.
And did I ever learn to love running?
Well… that’s a story for another post. 😅