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fter a glass of wine in the evening I can often be tempted into
the high-pitched universe of Twitter chat. It’s potentially
dangerous, as to drink and tweet is to skate on very thin ice.
My interventions are rare and I like to keep things upbeat –
the odd funny video shared, a quick football tease. I try to
avoid offering any serious thoughts because the world, I feel,
is best spared my hot take on the issues of the day. Amid the
noise, it’s a pleasure to follow runners, with their simple –
usually positive – posts; race pictures; celebrating a new
distance achieved; and the odd question. And it’s here that occasionally I’ll dive
in. One such post got my attention last night – a cry for help: ‘I need some urgent
motivation, I haven’t run since January. I’ve lost my mojo. I need to get back to
being my best. How do you get back on the wagon after you fell off for no reason?’
Now, 280 characters is not enough to answer this question, so here I go.
This is not an unusual situation. I’ve met runners recently who have fallen
away. Life gets busy, stuff happens. A few days off quickly becomes a week and
before you know it, a fortnight has passed. The trainers are somewhere in the
cupboard under the stairs, the shorts gather dust in some dark corner of the
drawers and the running socks have gone to the great sock heaven in the sky.
The first thing I would say is, don’t worry about it. In fact, enjoy the break.
There is a reason this happened. On some level, subconsciously or not, you
weren’t enjoying your running that much. So relax, take a breath. Running can
be hard on the body. Were you pushing it too hard, were you just overtired?
Maybe you don’t want to run anymore. You don’t have to (but, of course, deep
down you want to, because it’s brilliant and, more tellingly, you asked.)
Secondly, don’t worry about getting back to your best. When you’re coming
back from a layoff, your best can be a haunting, unforgiving mistress. She
can seem so far away as to be dispiriting. So don’t reach for that. Instead,
remind yourself how you feel after a decent run. Remember that clear-headedTonky Talk
BY PAUL TONKINSONsensation, the joy of working up an
honest sweat? The simple pleasure
in a gentle ache to the limbs that
you carry with you postrun? These
feelings exist whether or not you
give of your best. Try to see running
as a gift that you give yourself, as
opposed to something you have to
do. Take away any necessity about it.
Choose it.
Then dig up those trainers, open
the door and launch. No timing. Just
run at the pace you feel. Explore some
new routes, or run the routes you’re
used to, but in a different direction.
The truth is, in the gap between you
running before and running now,
you’ve changed. Honour it. You might
want something different this time.
You don’t know yet.
The great thing about running is,
although fitness is quickly lost, it is
also quickly rediscovered. No rush,
no strain. Just running.
I’ve reached the age where my best
looks different; it is not a time goal,
more of a feeling that possesses me,
usually when least expected. I’ll be
running fairly normally and then,
for a few moments and seemingly
without any effort on my part, my
speed increases, my stride lightens.
The breath I had been straining for
only a minute before now comes
lightly, unforced, pure.
Feel your body start to change, the
mind working at a more acute pitch.
In a couple of weeks, you’ll start to
find your rhythm again. You might
feel the pace just naturally quicken
towards the end of runs. A hill that
you struggled up a week ago now
represents less of a challenge. Feel
the improvement and, if you fancy it,
get the watch out again.
You never know, you just might spy
your mojo f lirting with you again on
the horizon. Just over there...DIG UP THOSE TRAINERS, OPEN
THE DOOR AND LAUNCH
YOU KNOW...
...it might be time
to give running a
break when you
see great humour
in the timeless
tomfoolery of
ITV2’s 118 118
characters....you have
misunderstood
‘run streak’ when
you are being
chased by the
police across a
football pitch....you have
misjudged
that downhill
when someone
abseils past you,
their mouth a
silent scream.Check out Paul and fellow comedian Rob
Deering's running podcast, Running
Commentary – available on iTunes and
Acast. @RunComPodMAY 2019 RUNNERSWORLD.COM/UK 033A