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Cycles.
Everything moves in cycles and that includes our motivation. Sometimes the speed of the cycles is steady, sometimes it varies.
As some of you know, my mojo has been at a nadir for some time now. I have been unable to get myself going – there’s always a half-decent excuse, which is great if you believe in half-decent excuses…unfortunately, I do not.
But this week I do feel it coming back. It’s a trickle, but I can feel it, building slowly.
Two things have helped move me along.
- On Sunday I was fortunate enough to receive a Garmin Forerunner 610 as a Fathers’ Day gift. (inevitable review to follow).
- Yesterday, a free pair of Brooks’ Green Silence – I won them by winning my buddy Doug’s —>36K for Miracles virtual race <— – arrived in the mail (another inevitable review to follow).
On Monday, though normally a rest day, I had to take the watch out for a test run. Tonight or tomorrow (whenever I can squeeze in the time – school letting out has thrown the schedule out of whack) I will be taking the Green Silence for a test run as well.
I am working my way back to my marathon training (I had better! there are just over 5 weeks to go) after 10+ days off. The Mojo ain’t flowing freely just quite yet, but these two items have provided an external spark that I think are just the trick for getting me back on track. My mind is taken off of the fact that my self-motivation is low and focused squarely on my two new toys.
Which brings me to what I have been preaching since the inception of the blog (if not longer) – by whatever means possible get yourself moving one way or another and then let momentum/inertia take over. If it takes an external push to get going, fine! Use it until the internal engine kicks in. It’s like a stick-shift car with a dead battery – get some friends to push the car, pop the clutch, finally get the engine started and then you’re off.
I’ve got the car in gear, clutch engaged, and am slowly rolling down the hill.
Will my Mojo in a Box work? If I pop the clutch, will the engine start?
Check back next week.
Run Luau Run 
That’s so exciting!! I think those items will definitely help with your mojo-thing!! And those of us out here in bloggy-may-never-meet-you-in-person-but-feel-like-we-know-you-land appreciate the shove you give us motivationally. I have been running my “own” intervals on Wednesdays here b/c I can’t make the “organized” ones. With nothing to chase (at organized intervals EVERYONE is faster than me!), I think, how am I going to motivate myself to go faster than last week? Why try? Well, because every step forward is a step toward faster. Maybe it won’t show results that day, but it will eventually. And you are one of the first people I think of when I think of runners who motivate me to keep at it. Cue Rocky theme now. 🙂
Mojo in a box is is a good thing! It’s like Christmas morning syndrome, but hopefully since it’s getting you back in to something you love, you won’t abandon it in seven days! (With four weeks to go…) Shiny new box syndrome is bad – that’s when whatever you just got is awesome because it’s new and will be used whether it’s good or not – but Mojo in a box is rebooting what is already awesome, so that’s just motivation, which is a positive thing. Motivation doesn’t always have to be internal. Good luck with your training.
It comes back. It’s like an old friend. 🙂
hey Luau, I just finished up what hopes to be my very last Higdon plan. Not that I don’t really appreciate the things that he’s done but I’m ready to move past the 18 week monotonous low weekly long weekend runs. Therefore I’ve taken your blog to heart and am going to try the 18 week pete pfitzinger plan. I am gonna do the 70 mile plan… which I know you are doing… so my reason for writing is because i’m wondering if you’ve hit those miles before and if not if you think that this large number of miles is a factor in the burn out? If so should I just set it back and keep it at 55/60 per week? I’ve gotta lower my time by 5 minutes come end of september…… so I gotta figure out how?
Hey Brenna,
So, I do think that jumping to the 12/70 plan may have been a factor in my burnout. This training cycle has pretty much been a bust frankly. I haven’t hit the weekly mileage goals in the last few weeks (in fact, last week was supposed to be my first 70 mile week…I ran 7.5). That being said, I also thing a couple other things came into play for me. I have been “in-training” for almost a year now with very little breaks. After training for Smuttynose all summer last year, I ran NYCM 5 weeks later and just a few weeks after that began training for Boston. At that point, despite my eagerness to make up for my performance at Boston, I should have probably taken an extended training break and just enjoyed running regularly. Deciding to jump up to 70 I think was a psychological trip-wire that pushed me over the burnout threshold.
Now with all of that in mind, you are much younger than I am so your body will rebound much faster. I would say take a good hard look at the number of miles you have been running up to this point and whether they have been hard or easy miles. If you are already in the 50/week range and it feels easy, I say go for it, but pay attention to what your body tells you over the following weeks. You training should be hard and sweaty, but it shouldn’t leave you completely exhausted all of the time. I am thinking that based on my last few weeks, I will probably downgrade to the last 5 weeks of the 12/55 plan, in part because I just haven’t been putting in the proper miles the last few weeks.
Let me know what you end up doing and HOW you do.
-Luau
I’m so glad that I could play a small part in bringing your mojo back! As for me, I’ve found a new love… Mountain/Trail running! I needed a change of scenery and new sense of purpose in running to get my moo back and I’m loving it. Most of my training runs have still been relegated to the treadmill, but it’s the thoughts of bombing down a mountain on technical trails and dancing over rocks and roots through mud and over trees that keeps me going! Whatever it takes, right? Mojo in a box sounds great to me!