Today is the one year anniversary of UKRunChat and the first ‘Fastest Hour’ two ‘ time slots’ a week in which members of the running community up and down the UK synch logging on to discuss a variety of issues, some serious and some fun, which are important, useful or just a bit of a giggle. This prompted me to recall a Tweet I’d seen earlier in the week in which a member urged runners (and to be fair this is equally applicable to everyone else too) to stop for a moment and consider not how far they were going but how far they had come. This genuinely made me stop and think. We have a massive bias towards focusing on the still to come, be that racing for the finish line or the end of an individual training run, hankering after our goals or beating ourselves up for not trying hard enough to do what we know we must. When did you last stop and review your progress, not for the intention of working out what you did wrong or could still do better but just to enjoy the achievement?
I seem to have seen many posts recently asking for or offering advice on ‘losing mojo’ as well as several articles about enjoying the run. In December’s issue of Runner’s World, two of the regular columnists reflect on enjoyment and one runner I follow recently posted a link to this rather wonderful article on play. For me, enjoyment is exactly the key to unlock the lost mojo, to rediscover the little kick that makes you want to lace up and get out there. If a training plan becomes too much about working harder all the time, the goal begins to feel impossible, or the routine gets too ‘stale’ that buzz of enjoyment, the fun, the element of play, dries up quicker than a technical Tshirt on a Club La Santa balcony.
I posted last week about my achievements in hacking 4 minutes and 55 seconds off my half marathon PB and in the difference between enjoying a run and setting out to race. I identified that had I set out to enjoy the run I never would have achieved this and that to really win (against ourselves or others) we need to push harder than that and go beyond the enjoyment stage. Whilst I still maintain this is fact, I shouldn’t like that to be at the cost of enjoyment; apologies if I’ve worded this in a way that this seems contradictory but actually it’s just two sides of the same coin. You need both. A balance must be struck and you need the enjoyment to fuel and motivate the hard work.
Maybe it’s something in the ‘collective consciousness’ at the moment, or something in the changing seasons that causes us to review our motivation but a couple of running ‘colleagues’ in Salford Harriers also specifically advised me to ‘keep enjoying it’ after the second Manchester League Cross Country race this weekend. I hope that’s just because they know how important it is and not because they thought I was a grumpy guts!
I have responded to this advice and reflection in the new training plan I have constructed for myself this weekend to get me to London in April and have factored in, along with the speed work, tempo runs, hill sessions and cross training, a few ‘fun runs’.
I seem to have seen many posts recently asking for or offering advice on ‘losing mojo’ as well as several articles about enjoying the run. In December’s issue of Runner’s World, two of the regular columnists reflect on enjoyment and one runner I follow recently posted a link to this rather wonderful article on play. For me, enjoyment is exactly the key to unlock the lost mojo, to rediscover the little kick that makes you want to lace up and get out there. If a training plan becomes too much about working harder all the time, the goal begins to feel impossible, or the routine gets too ‘stale’ that buzz of enjoyment, the fun, the element of play, dries up quicker than a technical Tshirt on a Club La Santa balcony.
I posted last week about my achievements in hacking 4 minutes and 55 seconds off my half marathon PB and in the difference between enjoying a run and setting out to race. I identified that had I set out to enjoy the run I never would have achieved this and that to really win (against ourselves or others) we need to push harder than that and go beyond the enjoyment stage. Whilst I still maintain this is fact, I shouldn’t like that to be at the cost of enjoyment; apologies if I’ve worded this in a way that this seems contradictory but actually it’s just two sides of the same coin. You need both. A balance must be struck and you need the enjoyment to fuel and motivate the hard work.
Maybe it’s something in the ‘collective consciousness’ at the moment, or something in the changing seasons that causes us to review our motivation but a couple of running ‘colleagues’ in Salford Harriers also specifically advised me to ‘keep enjoying it’ after the second Manchester League Cross Country race this weekend. I hope that’s just because they know how important it is and not because they thought I was a grumpy guts!
I have responded to this advice and reflection in the new training plan I have constructed for myself this weekend to get me to London in April and have factored in, along with the speed work, tempo runs, hill sessions and cross training, a few ‘fun runs’.
Now, I’m not exactly sure you can timetable fun and I don’t yet know what form these will take but at the very least I anticipate they will remind me of the importance of maintaining the light hearted from time to time. I am not, after all, an elite athlete competing for prize money to keep a roof over my head. This is a hobby, I do it for fun and if it stops being fun then it would become pretty pointless really. And that would be a pity. |
And yes, I really did stop and look back at what I had achieved this year. My first full marathon, qualifying for London 2015 with a Good for Age time, PBs at 5k, 10k and ½ marathon, races won, or finished in the top 3, coming first in a whole race series. While I didn’t quite manage the sub 40 10k I was hoping for, I’ve already run nine times as many races in 2014 as I did in 2013 and I reckon, if I want it enough, I can do it in 2015. So how far have I come? Well I just checked. 1537 miles since January 1st and you know what? I can only recall one ‘horrible’ run when I got indigestion so I can say I have enjoyed at least 1530 of them!