Day One of trying to get my running mojo back.
This is a very quick blog. Quick for me anyway. I’m writing it to make myself accountable to myself. It doesn’t always work that if I say I’m going to do something, I do it. But you have to try everything.
I haven’t fallen out of love for running. I’ve just had a holiday and then a bit of an injury and now found myself in ‘Homer’ mode. Doughnuts look decidedly more appealing than getting my trainers on. So, I need to coax myself back into some regularity of action that will get me back to my ‘Hoff’ status.
[NB: I didn’t have the personal ingenuity to make these terms up; I nabbed them from some back catalogue episodes of the Marathon Talk podcast. Some people are naturally like David Hasselhoff circa early Baywatch – needing no kick up the arse to just get out there and do stuff. And some are naturally sedentary Homer Simpson like creatures, who would grab the beer instead of the relay baton.]
I don’t think I’m in either camp naturally. When I’m running regularly, I love it and I want to do more of it. When I take an extended break, it requires some serious self-talking to, to get me motivated. That’s where I’m at, right now, so I have to try and trick myself to get going again.
Trick 1: First day of the month (double bonus: first day of new season) – feels like a fresh start
Trick 2: Zero goal other than to get out for a mile or so.
Trick 3: Don’t look at my watch until the end.
Trick 4: Don’t use my normal route.
It helped that it was such a crisp and sunny day. I decided to just take a quick tour around Port Sunlight, because it’s less hilly and I didn’t go into automatic pilot about my length of run. I managed about three odd miles which were nice, if a little difficult on the breathing side.
It worked – today. Tomorrow is Parkrun, so that helps. And Sunday is a club race. After that, will I be sling-shotted back to the Hoff? We’ll see, as this lounging is a hard habit to break, and the Christmas cocktails are calling. However. One step at a time.
theleadlesspencil 
Well done..getting out there is hard sometimes. It helps it is so beautiful out there today.
Good job. Great example of how some people transcend the thing that made them famous and slot into everyday consciousness – it’s still Hoff mode even though he’s over 70!
Baby steps and small, built-free rewards (e.g. a mince pie or a glass of sherry. Both if you exceed your daily running target). Good luck!
I’ve found an Advent challenge on-line…not running every day, most days, but some rest days, some yoga days…but 25 days….but also found one that is every day, and you need to log your runs, so there’s that commitment…I need to get that kick in the butt…January, a bunch of us try for 100 workouts of some sort for 100 days…..then it becomes a habit