Just got back from a run!<p>By far the most effective thing to motivate me to exercise, and run in particular, is the "VO2 Max" section of the Apple health app. It's a rough indication of your cardiovascular endurance, and the higher, the better. The real key is that, though, is that it basically works like an XP bar in a game: if you "grind" running, it goes up. If you don't, it doesn't. It's incredibly addicting to check the number every time you finish a run and see if it's ticked up slightly. It's also great because in some sense it is "real". If it goes up, I have an easier time on hikes, runs (obviously), playing sports, etc.<p>The second thing that really got me into running is that I found that the most effective way to get VO2 Max to go up is to run in heart rate zone 4, also tracked on the Apple watch. Zone 4 is 80 - 90% of your maximum heart rate. It's not an all out sprint, but you'll be moving pretty fast.<p>The reason it's so effective is best illustrated by contrast. In the past, I've tried tracking a number of metrics on my run: total miles, average speed, calories burned, whatever. But I found it psychologically draining to continuously try to top my fastest speed, and I inevitably had off days (or weeks or months) when the score I was measuring wouldn't go up. Obviously as you get faster, this happens more and more, and it gets easy to start wondering if you're even progressing. Heart rate is a much better measure, because in some sense this is compensated for. You don't have to continue to beat yourself every day (or fret that you're not) to get to 80% of your max heart rate, and on days when you're more exhausted, you'll hit a higher heart rate faster, so the effort is roughly the same.<p>Also, Zone 4 is a great place to be. You're pushing yourself, but it's a sustainable sort of push. I often found that when I ran sprints I wanted to die. They were so psychologically demotivating that I would do anything to avoid them. Zone 4 is not like this. It's very manageable, and I wake up excited to do it!<p>At this point, I want to run every day - I'm at the point where I have to force myself to stop sometimes because it's healthy to take rest days!<p>Usual disclaimers apply, BTW. Don't do all your running in Zone 4, don't immediately go from no running to an hour of zone 4 every day, do a reasonable ramp up over a long period of time, etc etc.