I'd run before, I went to an athletics club when I was about 14 for a few years. I loved it, cross country was my favourite event. The fact I could run for around an hour non-stop without ever training was great, my speed was always good. I was naturally good at endurance running. Then I hit 16, got a part-time job and started college, I gave up the club (can't remember what it was called, it's behind Dartford Park) because I was too busy either working or going out with my mates. Still to this day I wish I would of carried on, it's something I could of kept improving at.
Back to 2012, I started running again! Short treadmill runs and even shorter road runs got me into a good place. After a year of on and off training, I started to achieve some really consistent times and distances. 5K in under 25 minutes and 10k in just over 52 minutes... Then BOOM. I stopped. Why? I have no idea. I really lack motivation and drive sometimes, which lets me down. If I break a routine then I find it very hard to get back into it.
One thing I've realised over the past few months is that, I put way too much pressure on myself to do a certain distance, or beat a certain time. I used to enjoy running when I was a kid because there was no pressure. The last 2 years, I de-motivated myself because I couldn't run 5K in 23 minutes. This is why I kept stopping. So over the last few weeks, I've put my trainers on again and ran...because I wanted to.
I made a choice not to care if I ran 1/2/3/4K in an hour. It was just good to be out on the road again. I've been running for about 3 weeks now, my fitness is improving and times are better (I still have a sneaky look). But it gives me so much pleasure to run around Danson Park with good music and feeling like I've achieved something.
If you run... how do you keep yourself motivated? Do you do it for fitness or pleasure?
Also, here's my running playlist. What do you listen to? Let me know!
Mac
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