Love:
1. the way running clears my mind.
2. shared sense of sacrifice amongst teammates.
3. tabulating my mileage at the end of the week in my training log/reading through past seasons' workouts, reliving them.
Hate:
1. running on days when I just don't feel like it.
2. disappointing races.
3. strong winds.
Love-
When the stride is long and the lungs are huge.
Running faster than I thought I would for longer than I thought I could.
Races where the competition brings every last ounce of fight out and then some and I finish totally cool with the idea of dying right there, because for that last few seconds, it all made sense.
Hate-
Assholes who act like some idiotic sacred aspect running they hold high is the law of the land and they're some self-appointed sheriff.
The jerkoffs who think those assholes are right.
Early-morning race starts.
I hate:
1. I hate how runners can lose their fitness so easily
2. I hate waking up for early morning practices when its something harder than a tempo (especially in the winter/cold weather). People in SoCal... no wonder they have it so easy it would be nice for me too to not have to run half my long run on the snow.
3. I hate how some people (just because they have ran a couple of 5k's or a marathon, but hardly train for them but buy all running stuff and make themselves look like runners) call themselves runners because there not. "RUNNING IS AN ENTIRE LIFESTYLE" ask those people how their 10 mile run went that morning, (if they say, "it was nice was feeling good so I decided to go twelve," or was "I hurting from the workout I did the other day, but it was good because it was supposed to be a recovery run anyways," or just "was feeling good so i decided to drop down the pace a little bit towards the end.") then you can call yourself a runner.
(also I hate that just because you are a runner and happen to be somewhat good at running people seem to think that that is all you want to talk about) save the convo for when I am actually at a track meet or when I have a runners world right in front of me
I Love:
1. A nice long run (preferable when you are in great distance shape towards the end of the summer and look forward to a nice 2 hour run with your teammates).
2. Trail running when it is somewhat warm and there is no snow on the ground. For those people who say "I don't know why, but I just prefer running on the roads." You are CRAZY or you have just never ran on a nice trail where at some points you can without even noticing drop the pace and still feel relaxed. Don't get me wrong I can run on the roads but why put all that stress on my legs. Ill tell you any real runner knows just about every trail or trail loop longer than 3 miles within a 15 to 20 mile radius of where they live. If they don't and you do make sure they thank you when you let them know.
3. Running with a team: to me this is the greatest part of running because this is how you will EASILY become a better runner. It just makes running more fun and more natural because on the days you don't feel like running, going that extra mile, or not successfully completing a workout your teammates will be there to get you through it.
I hate:
-Weird random hunger pangs for the 24 hrs after a race
-Blisters, chafing, sweat, being soaked in rain so it's hard to see, swallowing bugs
-the fact that I'm not injury prone, but the rest of my team is , so we spend a ton of practice time doing dumb pre-hab PT exercises
-Get ting back in shape after any amount of time off
I love:
-Giving your all in a race while you are at peak fitness and setting a PR or winning
-The feeling of being in awesome shape
-The awesome positivity and mutual respect seen at races