It has taken a while but I believe I am beginning to feel like my old self again.

I got a little nervous the other week when all attempts to get out for a run were sabotaged by a severe lack of motivation that I just could not put my finger on. There was no reason for it, they weather here is. Well. Weather! It is cold, it is warm, it is wet, it is dry. It does everything and for the first time in a year, my June is going to be a chilly one and I do not have to worry about Ramadan. So yeses all round you would think. But no, apparently. Although, I’m back now!!

A Bit Of A Plug

My motivation has been restored, you will be glad to hear, the usual cure for this I will go into at the moment but you can probably guess how I did it. In the mean time though, after a year with running  with the Doha Bay Running Club (DBRC), I had gotten into the habit of running with people and, now, the thought of running on my own sort of fills me with a little bit of dread. So I found a group of local runners, the Warrandyte River Runners.

The River Runners

They are not really a running club, more a group of local runners that meet up at least once a week for a bit of motivation and some friendly competition in the form of a handicapped 30 minute run at 3,4 or 5K – basically, you pick your distance and you are given a handicap (time delay) based on the difference between the 30 min time frame and your PB for that distance. The idea is to not break 30 mins. so the handicaps are tweaked so that you can run fast enough to match or beat your PB but still come in around the 30 min mark.

It is a little complicated on paper, but the system actually works really well and we see 3K runners racing 5K runners and it coming in really close due to the handicap system.

The point of this is they are a really good bunch of people and I a enjoying running with them, so I decided to write a story about them for our local paper (which also gets printed) and they published it, hooray!!. So here is the link:

Warrandyte Diary

Keep Calm And Enter Races

Nothing quite motivates like a deadline and nothing quite christens a bank account like an expensive race purchase. So to celebrate the opening of my Australian bank account and to kick start my running mojo I have entered races:

July 10th: Hoka One One Trail Running Series: 16K at Plenty Gorge

I actually did this one a couple of years ago and it took me a little over 2 hours – partly because it was hilly as hell but also because of some on-course traffic jams. 2 years down the line I am feeling much faster so I will blitz the first 5K this time to stay ahead of the blockages. I am using the speed and endurance I have developed over the last year and am going to hit the hills hard for the next 4 weeks so I can really nail this course. I will aim to get around in about 90 mins.

October 16th: Melbourne Marathon (full)

Why? Because it’s there, The route is amazing, taking in Albert Park, St. Kilda amongst other places and finishing in the G. What’s not to like – looking to finally break the 4 hour mark too.

Finding My Mojo Again

I actually had to go out for a run to find my inner runner, turns out he was waiting for me at the top of a hill, amongst the kangaroos. Feels good to be back. Tomorrow I am planning to do a killer hill repeats session on a local fire track, so that I can get my hill legs back.