The First 5 Minutes are Always the Hardest

I was reading an interesting tip the other day. I believe it was from Bart Yasso, Chief Running Officer of Runners World magazine.

He said that if you can make it through the first five minutes of a run, chances are you can make it through the duration of your run – whether it’s one mile, or ten.

The reason? The first five minutes of running produce a shock to your body. The human body goes from being sedentary, to full-throttle, in the span of just a few seconds. But after the initial shock, your system settles into a rhythm.

This makes sense in the running world. And to me, it makes even more sense in other areas of life.

In life, I'd like to suggest that the first five minutes are always the hardest. Whether it’s starting that project you’ve been procrastinating, doing your homework, writing a presentation, getting over the initial shock of a breakup, sitting down to pen a blog post, or simply getting out of bed at some ungodly hour in the morning – I firmly believe the first five minutes are the hardest. But now we know: If you do it, for just five minutes, you just might get through it.

Maybe that’s why Nike said, “Just Do It.” Perhaps they’ve known all along that the first five minutes are the hardest, but that those five minutes are also the secret to success. Darn those people at Nike, they're so smart. Whatever the case, this revelation has changed my view on training and has encouraged me to take a more positive view of the first five minutes of my runs.

In running, and in life, I now know that if I can make it through the first 300 seconds, I can make it through anything.