Ingrid Kristiansen: ‘I want to be a counterweight to the fitness frenzy’

I have to admit, my heart warmed a little when I spotted her in the streets the other day. There's something about that calm gaze, that particular stillness that only someone who has won it all, yet lost a bit of themselves along the way, possesses. Ingrid Kristiansen. For many of us who grew up in the eighties, she's more than a former runner. She's the very embodiment of that Norwegian will to suffer, the one who would run from Moscow to London without batting an eyelid.

Now she's back in the public eye, and I have to say, the message she brings couldn't be more timely. Because this isn't about chasing new personal bests or analysing your resting heart rate down to the last decimal point. Instead, Ingrid Kristiansen is positioning herself as a clear counterweight to what she calls the "fitness frenzy". And let me tell you straight: it's about bloody time.

I've followed Norwegian sport for years, and I've never seen a sharper divide between those who train to live and those who live to train. Particularly in the Norwegian running community, a culture has grown over recent years that sometimes feels more like a career pursuit than a leisure activity. Heart rate monitors beeping, algorithms dictating your rest week, and that nagging performance anxiety lurking behind every single set of running gear.

Ingrid Kristiansen knows what she's talking about. When she set the world record for the marathon in 1985, it involved a pain threshold most of us can scarcely imagine. But she's also experienced the flip side of the coin. In a candid moment, she's previously spoken about the feeling of being misrepresented, of being reduced to nothing more than a machine that churned out races. Perhaps that's why she comes across as so authentic today. She's been there at the top and realised that it's not necessarily where most of us should be striving to go.

Let joy take the lead

It's easy to get swept away when the whole Instagram scene is screaming "just do it!" and showing off perfectly timed interval sessions at sunset. But what Ingrid Kristiansen reminds us of is something wonderfully simple: that exercise should be a source of energy, not a source of stress. She talks about listening to your body, not just your watch. About daring to take a day off without feeling guilty. About remembering that we started running because it gave us freedom, not because it was meant to be another line on our CV.

To be perfectly honest, I think this message hits even harder because it's coming from her. If it were just anyone, you could dismiss it as whinging from someone who can't keep up. But Ingrid Kristiansen has credibility. She holds the world record. She can afford to say "enough is enough" without anyone accusing her of being lazy.

• Listen to your body: Are you in pain anywhere? Are you tired? Perhaps the smartest thing you can do today is go for a gentle walk, not push yourself through a workout.
• Leave the heart rate monitor off sometimes: See how it feels to run without being measured. It can be an incredibly liberating experience.
• Remember why you started: For most of us, it's about health, wellbeing, and feeling the wind in your hair. Don't let it become another demanding job.

There's something refreshing about the way she conveys this. She doesn't come across as a moraliser pointing a finger, but like an older, wiser sister who's seen it all. She doesn't want us to stop running. She just wants us to stop ruining the joy of running.

A voice we need

In an age where young people struggle to find balance, and where more are dropping out of sport because it becomes too "serious", a voice like Ingrid Kristiansen's is worth its weight in gold. She represents what is genuine, what is grounded. She reminds us that behind all the records and all the titles, there is a human being who has also felt the pressure, who has known what it feels like to be on the outside when the trainers had to be hung up.

So next time you tie your laces and feel that anxiety about not performing well enough creep in, think about what the queen of the marathon herself says. It's okay to take it easy. It's okay to enjoy yourself. And it's okay to be a counterweight, even if the whole world around you seems to have forgotten that.