Motivation and Reflection!

It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog entry and things have been ok-ish I guess.

A heavy cold a couple of weeks ago put paid to any ideas I had about training which was frustrating after 4 weeks of making really good progress.

The problem was the motivation to do anything else went out of the window as well and the focused routine I had got myself into went to pieces and I spent the best part of the week being really hard on myself, as I wasn’t really doing the things I should have been!

I have this habit of being hard on myself when I am not doing the things that I feel I should be doing.

I missed one week of training – now in reflection was this a bad thing? Probably not as had I forced myself out the door my performance would have been below-par and it would have lengthened my recovery. The frustration was not being able to train but I need to be well in order to train.

My routine went out of the window and I spent a few days playing catch up afterwards – was this such a bad thing? I did get things done – some decorating and I did some batch cooking as well and the freezer is full of stuff ready to go when time is a bit more limited.

I think the problem lies more with my motivation being good and then I am thrown a bit of a curve ball which is somewhat unexpected at the time and it can sometimes throw me off course and that is the point at which my routine goes out of the window a bit and the frustrations with myself creep in.

Am I sometimes being too hard on myself? Are my expectations outweighing my capacity at times?

I need to realise that sometimes I will not be able to follow the routine I expect – there are going to be challenges and issues – everyday life, work, feeling run down or tired (meaning that resting up will actually benefit me in the long run(!) rather than pushing myself to breaking point), having niggles or injuries, or the weather is such that it is just not practical to get out and train (though I am hoping we don’t get any snow!)

One of the things I need to start doing is not reflecting on what I haven’t done but rather than reflecting on what I have done – it may not have been what I planned but at least something is better than nothing at times.

Once I got back out running the one thing I noticed was I was absolutely chomping at the bit to get out there again – the motivation has not dropped which is fantastic.

My focus when I am training is really good – ear-phones in and listening to music, switched off from the rest of the world and just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. Not caring about time or distance – just being out there and enjoying what I am doing.

My run on Saturday wasn’t in the greatest of weather – running along a coastal path into a headwind with the rain in my face – and I actually enjoyed every second of it.

I know over the next couple of months the weather is going to change (at the moment it is unbelievably mild for the time of year) and the training sessions are going to get longer so I need to keep that focus high on every session.

As the sessions get longer I am finding newer parts of the route to run on and I find this really motivating – what is around the next corner? Where does this part of the path lead to?

Every step is part of this journey and quite a lot of that is unknown – this is something I should learn to embrace and adapt with and move forwards with – not just with my training but also other aspects of my life as well.

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