Winning combination!

[Meanmommab]

Today was my first run since the middle of November when I was so pleased to run 10k again after about a year from the first time I ever did it. Covid, Christmas and bad weather all conspired to stop me running since then, although a lack of motivation played a major role as well. Reading the posts on this forum made me realise what I was missing so today, with no illness, a new year and the best weather for a while, I had no more excuses. But what would I listen to on this first run? I had been doing the Nike Running Club 1/2 marathon guided runs but realised carrying on from where I left off after such a break would be a mistake but what else to do? The first thing I saw as I opened the app was 'Start the year here' so I did! A 20 min run later and I feel as if I am back. Here's to earning an exclusive NRC badge (love a free badge/award), getting back on course for completing the 1/2 marathon training programme and enjoying running again!

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10]

This is just brilliant-that comeback run is so sweet to complete. Build up slowly and before you know it you’ll be where you want to be. I’m totally with you on getting an unexpected badge. Love it when that happens!

I’ve had similar frustrations, in that I fell before Christmas so no running at all, then just short runs and finally I’m back on the NRC HM plan. Are you training for a specific event? Wishing you lots of luck with your return to running. ❤️

[Meanmommab Graduate10 in reply to MissUnderstanding]

No event just a personal challenge!🤦‍♀️

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to Meanmommab]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all! It’s a great plan. I did it last year for a hm in October and I much preferred it early weeks when there wasn’t the pressure of the event coming up and I could extend the weeks to fit better with life! Doing it for the challenge without an end date is a really good idea.

[Chinkoflight]

Motivation is a funny thing to grasp especially when the rewards are a bit intangible. Running for health I guess has to be a routine which is acquired with practice, it's a bit more than the sum of its parts. But COVID and a fall, doesn't so much as conspire but actively robs you of the routine, and with it that intangible gestalt feeling. So getting going again is not only a recovery of the fitness, more practice, but a resetting of the routine. I'm still new to this so I'm acutely aware that I might still be in the novelty phase of running. I've had an op to recover from in November and a couple of falls a week ago. The reset button was shorter runs but trying to up the intensity. This has certainly worked especially this second time, where a week on, the routine is back.

But the act of running is so much more than what I guess might be a treadmill experience. It's all the sensory experiences that go with it that makes the sum of the parts so much more.

Today I had somewhat belatedly in the winter season a small flock of fieldfares and redwings fly over me (less than 50 birds). I've seen many solitary redwings up to now. Previous years there might be hundreds of birds and I've yet to see any in the garden.

These birds are winter migrants coming I believe from as far away as Siberia. I wondered what their route was here and what challenges they had experienced. Whether they had overcome Avian Flu to get here or having arrived the flock has been decimated by their pandemic. Or maybe I just haven't been looking in the way I would have before I started this running routine. Who knows, another intangible.

Today was a good run. And as I said to the guy on Saturday who said "rubbish" as I gave him his token for his second place parkrun finish, a run is a run!

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate]

Good to see you well and back running

[Meanmommab Graduate10 in reply to SueAppleRun]

Thank you.

[OldManRunning Graduate10]

Well returned Meanmommab 👌👍 The wind and the rain have certainly slowed me down, that wind always seems worse on the coast with nowhere to hide.