We all probably have had a fair share of our friends rolling their eyes at us and giving us the “why do you even do that?” look. Definitely, there are differences between runners and non-runners. And some of them can be pretty ridiculous.
Shopping for new running gear
Raise your hands if you already have more than 2 pairs of running shoes but still find the need for more. The cushion on my shoes are flattening; its affecting my foot strike; it smells bad… We’ve a million and one reasons, and you can even borrow some of ours. What’s more? New technology for running attire is always coming out – moisture wicking, lightweight, aids muscle recovery and such. Seriously, shopping for more running gear is just a matter of improving our run performance.
Googling “Compression Tights review”
The trending thing now would probably be compression tights. The seams on them are often designed to follow the lines of your muscles, providing support to the major muscles like your hamstrings. They also increase blood circulation to the legs. All these are amazing features but the problem is, there are so many variations of them out there. And we can get pretty obsessed with finding the one that would help us go the distance. (If you happen to be researching for one right now, remember to ask yourself if you should get those running tights?)
Having a tasting ceremony with energy gels
Admit it – runners in the 21st century have a whole feast of sports supplements to choose from for those long, hard runs. Since all runners are different, some of these supplements are going to sit well in our stomachs, some become favorite snacks and others are just gross. We don’t want to surprise ourselves with the taste and stomach distress on race day itself. So it is perfectly legitimate to be trying them whenever we can. We mostly do that during training runs but probably when we do other workouts as well.
Tell ourselves it’s raining
Runners can be clocking their miles at any time of the day. There are those enthusiastic mid-day runners who cannot care less about UV radiation and those determined rainy day runners who are convinced that the flu is never going to catch up with them. But we do get down days, when we feel sluggish and lazy. Those are the days when we gaze at the sky every 2 seconds and convince ourselves that the clouds have just gotten darker and it’s probably not safe to go out there for a run.
Justify a spaghetti treat as necessary carbo-loading
Before any runners reading this shake your head and go “no way, that is legitimate,” it is not. Throwing in a heavy carb diet just before race day might seriously confuse your body AND the sudden glucose spike might even leave you more lethargic. Still, having spaghetti the night before is a popular cheat we runners indulge in because 1) face it, it tastes heavenly and 2) it’s almost a tradition.
Bet there are more sneaky things we do when we think no one is watching. Share us what you secretly indulge in as a runner if they aren’t on this list!
