A return to form.

Kids, your life moves in a series of peaks and troughs. 

The are times when you're inexplicably ahead and others when despite your best efforts you are behind. As I've said before, the trick is to maintain your efforts through these changes and seek to improve as an individual (if you learn how to do this please tell me).

Never be too proud of your achievements, as the tables can turn and you'll find yourself at the bottom of the pile. 

As you know kids, the purpose of this blog is to keep a journal of my discoveries through running and pass on the lessons learned to you, so here is what's been going on.

It's been a while since my last race, for no reason other than just how busy I have been. That sounds like a cop out but I've had no spare time after work, child care, study and training. But I've stuck to my long term goals and ultra marathon training continues( 6 weeks to go) accompanied with a nice gym regime to get me in better shape.

I've been busy at work preparing for a new role which will be so much better for me AND have no night shifts attached, so hats involved training and study. My personal training course is also going well, although a little slower than I'd hoped. I've had little or no time to blog and less time to stay in contact with people.

So the other day I figured I'd give myself a break. Take a few days off. Kick back, you know, like normal people. 

But here is the truth. Being normal sucks.

I don't want to be normal, in fact I hate normal! After a day I was bored!

So I asked myself some questions,

Why do you want to be normal?

Which "normal" people ever achieved anything great?

You may well be doing alright, but how much better would it feel to be doing great?

I realised I'd been coasting for a while, putting the hours in to some aspects of my life but not the effort. Claiming the rewards of someone giving 100% when you're only really giving 60.

Well it stopped there and then. 

In the last week I've made some big steps forward.

I studied my training plan and using my PT knowledge developed a kick arse one that leaves me feeling great and shattered all at once.

I applied some technical knowledge to my runs too, using Heart Rate Monitors to run in different training zones, preparing specifically for a 100k ultra.

I applied to be a mentor for an amazing organisation called Blurt http://blurtitout.org/ that supports people suffering with depression. I got accepted as an ambassador for a sports clothing  company too, called Ink'n'burn http://www.inknburn.com/ . I get to promote their stuff and offer discount to friends and family (let me know if you're interested). 

Looking back at this week, I'm proud of what I have done. I've made positive steps toward long term goals and stayed positive and motivated when I could have coasted.

I'm not sure if I'm ahead at the moment or behind, if I'm on a peak or in a trough, but I work hard at what I'm doing and I love what I do, so as far as I'm concerned I'm winning.