Right now I have plenty of motivation to run.
I am running well, I'm injury-free, and I have no pressure of any races in my future. I realise that at some point I'll need a focus, but for now things are just fine and I'm keeping them that way the best I can.
A fellow vegetarian runner on twitter (@NoMeatAthlete) tweeted:
"Feeling unmotivated about fitness recently. I need an inspiring goal or something new."
and
"Maybe signing up for a 100-miler is the answer. But that's scary because I can't even get motivated to train for my next 50."
to which I replied
"@NoMeatAthlete Choose a sport that requires skill rather than pure fitness for six months. Climbing, sailing and so on or coach."
Which I think is actually fairly reasonable advice. I think that the key thing is that you're lacking motivation and you feel like you want it back rather than you want to give up altogether - if you find a sport that isn't going to place the same physical and mental demands on you but some different ones instead then you get your break without feeling that you're bunking off.
Last year I trained for the South Downs Marathon for the second year running. The first year I'd made it round in a shade under five hours which is not too bad considering how brutal the course is (nine hills in the last five miles). But looking at my pace chart for the race you can see that I ran well and consistently for the first 17 miles and then slowed and started to walk in places.
That in itself isn't a problem but I'd left the walking until I was pretty tired rather than walking the earlier (and biggest) hills. So the last nine miles of the race were really tough and the fact that I'd trained so well on the course and the race was so tough on the day gave me a bit of a knock.
Last year everyone who'd run the marathon the previous year in my running group trained for it again and most of the group were fitter and we trained harder but for some reason it just wasn't working for me and I struggled rather than thrived like I had the previous year.
I made it to the penultimate long run (a 20 miler on the hills) where I decided that although I was going to be able to get round, it had ceased to be fun. Battling with the foolish pride that said that dropping out of the marathon was a failure I spoke with several friends and the general conclusion I came to was that if it wasn't fun then why the hell was I doing it?
So I decided not to run the marathon and suddenly the pressure was off and my running stopped being something I dreaded and became just part of my life again. I still had regrets about dropping out of the marathon and so I went up to Derbyshire on the day of the marathon and stayed with a friend and ran a 16 mile fell race instead.
To be honest, there is an argument that the Kinder Trog is almost as hard as a marathon but the pressure was off and the distance wasn't as far even if the hills were more extreme and I had a good run.
A few months later I went traveling and barely ran more than once a month changing to walking everywhere to explore (probably averaging four or five miles a day). I also swam and sailed and hiked up mountains and went canyoning all the time these activities weren't dependent on fitness because my history of running meant it wasn't an issue.
And now I'm back and I've picked up the running again after a six month break and I'm running really well and loving it and can't wait to get out the door and onto the hills again.
I'm fully aware that it's unlikely to last forever - I traditionally get a lull in motivation in the middle of winter (running in a town at night in the wet is draining) and I know that I'm having to temper my enthusiasm so that I don't end up injured through over-training but I know how to get it back if the motivation goes which is probably the healthiest way to be.
I learnt a good lesson.
Another lesson on motivation from those people at Patagonia.
