My story was exactly like yours. I have been running for many years, did a few half marathons, but it never got easier. I could never do the 'effortless' carefr

My story was exactly like yours. I have been running for many years, did a few half marathons, but it never got easier. I could never do the 'effortless' carefree running that I heard so many talking about. In 2021 I got COVID and couldn't run since. I'd be exhausted and out of breath after just a kilometer or so, it was frustrating to say the least. To overcome that I proposed a 100-day running challenge with a buddy. We live in different cities, so we just ran our own distance and speed we were comfortable with. No tracking app, no stats, no target time or distance, just go out every day and go for a run. First 50 days were frustrating, it took me weeks to just get up to just 2km and then immediately plateaued. The around day 50 I noticed I could slowly start to pick up distance. I intentionally capped the distance to 6km or so, knowing that a 100-day streak is not great for your body. The last 10 days I decided to run 10km every day, which to my surprise I could do effortlessly. And I noticed something else changed. I did the 10km and then I... just wanted to keep going. I didn't though, knowing that 10km a day was already a terrible idea for someone of my age. After the challenge I took 2 weeks to recover, and then I just went for a long run, see what would happen. I did 16km that day and other than noticing being low on energy at the end, I never felt out of breath. I didn't set that as a target, I just kept going until I no longer felt like going further. I now regularly do a 25km run, but there are also days where I do 10 and feel content. I don't bring my phone or smartwatch, I don't track my time or progress, I don't set targets, I don't care anymore. When it feels good I'll keep going, and if not I'll just do a shorter route, I'm no longer pushing myself. Running has now become my way of relaxing, gathering my thoughts, enjoying being outside. It has become effortless and carefree. Maybe for everyone it's different, but in my N=1 experience I just needed to stop chasing progress, don't set expectations, no targets. Just get out there and enjoy yourself. Sometimes I do still push myself just for fun to see what I'm now capable of, but other than that I deliberately stay below my limit. Not sure what the takeaway from this story is supposed to be, I just felt like sharing. Hopefully it helps someone finding more enjoyment in running :-)