Motivation

Laurence and I had a very long discussion 2 nights ago as to what motivated us to go running. Why did we start running in the first place ? And now we've been running for a while, what pushes us to continue training several times a week and competing in races ?

This discussion was brought on by a blog I'd been reading in the web by Iron Matron, a triathlete in the US. She brought up the subject of her own motivation here and and I could easily identify with a lot of what she'd written. My own motivation initially began with a need to be happy with my own body. I felt overweight and flabby and as I began training I could see the weight falling off me, making me happy too. My other motivation was to be recognised by others. Since I've been part of a running family since my early childhood, I felt this need to exist as a runner too. My own Dad used to tell us that he felt that "real" runners were those that could achieve 6 minute miles over 10k. This has haunted me ever since - I remember training once in Hexham years ago, striving to achieve that objective, and being horrified to find that I'd only managed 10 minute miles over the course.

My other main motivation is my sheer competitive instinct: always trying to do better, beat others and improve my performances. This is the largest part of my drive when I train. I'm always thinking of the next race, my next performance, hence my fascination with the Garmin and the kilometre lap times.

Tonight I turned up at the club session with plenty of time to spare, wondering where Laurence had got to since she was cycling in to the clubhouse this evening. She arrived just in time, paniting from the evening heat, which was still at 30°C despite it being 6:45 pm. The turnout was reasonable, but most of the top runners weren't around. Michel was taking the session (please return soon Miguel !) and the plans weren't clear (what a surprise). Nico asked me if I was interested in following his 10k training plan for the evening consisting of 7x1 minute x 2 off 1 minute rest. I told him no, as it was too hot, and that I would follow the session as planned by the club.

We ran for a 25 minute warm-up before starting Michel's plan of 5 x 1 minute off 45 second rest. This was organised chaos as nobody knew which rout to follow in the woods, the paths were too narrow to pass, and nobody was timing with any real degree of precision. After the initial 5 intervals, he decided to add a couple more. We did those and then I decided I would carry on with Nico after all and leave the group to jog back slowly with Michel. We finished the second series of 8 and so we completed a total of 14 intervals overall. It was extremely hard going with the heat and the forest paths, so I was well pleased when I saw on the Garmin that we'd be running at about 17.5 km/h over the intervals. Nico was happy to have some company and said that he wouldn't have managed the last 3 without me. So satisfaction all around.

11.7 km all up in 1:10 or an average of 10 km/h. I jumped on the bike at the end and rode back through the forest, leaving Laurence to drive home. Nice workout and good training for the next race !! The motivation is back.