I’ve “started running” a few times over the years. It never lasted more than a couple of weeks. What finally made it stick wasn’t a better training plan — it was lowering the bar until there was nothing left to talk myself out of.

The version that didn’t work

Buy new shoes, pick an ambitious plan (usually something that ends in “5k”), run three times a week no matter what, get sore or busy or rained on, miss a run, feel behind, quit. Repeat next spring.

The version that did

Run slower than feels right. The first few weeks, I ran at a pace where I could hold a conversation. It felt almost pointless. It wasn’t — going out too fast is the single biggest reason early runs feel miserable and get skipped.

Time on feet, not distance. Instead of “run 3km,” the goal was “move for 20 minutes,” walking whenever needed. Removing the pressure to finish a fixed distance made it much easier to actually go out the door.

Same time, same route, for the first month. Decision fatigue kills habits. Not having to decide when or where removed two of the three excuses before they could show up.

Missed runs don’t get “made up.” Early on I’d try to compensate for a skipped run by doing extra later, which made the whole thing feel like a debt instead of a habit. Now a missed run is just a missed run — the next scheduled one is the next one.

A year in, pace and distance took care of themselves once the habit was actually a habit. The plan mattered a lot less than I expected; showing up consistently, at an embarrassingly easy effort, is what did the work.