Today was a good day. It was the day I decided enough of the excuses; I thought to myself “I am going to get out for a long run.” Through the fall and the winter months, I have struggled with being motivated to run. I continued to battle the desire to get back into the regular five to six days running routine. This lead to weeks where I ran five times a week to weeks where I did not run at all. The lack of inconsistency some days has been more frustrating than the lack of running itself. I found the long run during the week was the run holding the rest of the weeks together and it was the one run I was not doing at all. There were a couple of 16km days scattered over the winter but truly not manly days over 10km.
I wanted to keep my long run days between 18-22km as a baseline distance in the off-season. This distance does not take up my whole day allowing me to do other things on the weekend additionally it is relatively easy to recover from, not putting too much strain on the body. During the week I planned to do my long run, slowly increase my mileage, yet once the weekend came I found a reason not to do it. In the past, I have been to acknowledge those excuses are present and they will always be present so it is not a good enough reason. Previously I would walk out the door regardless of all the reasons not to. I knew that going far out weight not going both emotionally and physically. I started giving excuses when the pandemic caused all the races to be cancelled. The pressure, the consequences were gone if I did not go for that run. I love running regardless of races however I also love pushing myself in races. It is a mental and physical achievement, it is part of why I love it so much because it is just you and the pavement. Your performance will be a direct result of how much effort you put in, it is in your control. Without the end goal, it did take away a portion of running that I loved and that was a portion that made it easier to give in not going on the days I did not feel like going. As the year progressed the choices of not always going began to turn into habits, it became easier and easier to say no I don’t feel like it today. After a few months of casually running, it was the holiday season, the perfect time for a run streak. The 30 days run streak in December was motivating to get back into it. I always found the time to get out for a few miles. It was a good reminder that there is always time to run. At the end of the month I had some unexpected health issues (fully recovered from now) however, this lead me to take the whole month of January off. This felt like it was a huge step back in the progress of regaining my love and motivation for running.
Friday was the day I ran my 18km and it was wonderful. I was slightly worried about doubling my distance in one day instead of doing a 12 or 16km ‘long run’ instead, as many training programs would recommend. My regular distances have been between 8 and 10km at a variety of paces purely based on how I feel that day. I usually run anywhere from 2 to 4 times a week depending on my work schedule mostly. I know that running 18km for me (with a marathon background) is not anywhere near crazy milage for me. I knew that my body could hand it; it is still strong. I decided that I would slow my pace down, run at was very easy and comfortable to start with and see what my body wanted to do, but it was at least doing 16km I had mentally set out that anything less would be a failure.
I got to Edworthy park this morning, and as soon as step out of the car and onto the path, it was a wave of calmness rushed over me. My body remembered everything, it told me hey we got this, this our regular long-run path and day stop fretting about jumping up the milage or not running. I just started running and it was great, it was one of the most relaxing experiences I have running in a long time. It was as if my body was saying yes finally you are doing it we have been waiting for you. My feet remembered the path it was running and my mind just turned off, blissful to say the least.
Yes I was tired by the time I finished, yet it was such a normal reassuring tired, I did not feel dead, that I could not carry on it was yah you completed a long run today. I found the last miles my legs were saying yes we are good, let’s finish fast and strong so that is what we did and it felt great. It is crazy to think that even after the time off and mental blocks you face your body still instinctively knows what to do. We only need to provide the environment for it to succeed in. Trust your body when you are running more than your mind, your mind lies to you about what the body can handle.
The other great bonus to having a good run it reinforces positive behaviours, the better the run more you want to run. April will be the month where we get back on track.
