Any excuse to shop

This week it is clear that the weather has definitely turned autumnal and someone is arsing around with thermostat; one minute it's hat, gloves and long tights weather and next it's shorts and t-shirt weather again.  

One thing is for certain the wind and rain is back! I heard the other day that one town in England had a right down pour and had as much rain in 12hrs than they would have expected in the whole month! From one extreme to the other; driest September since records began and now wettest so far.....

The best thing about the change in the weather is that we get to buy new running kit, which helps us both stay warm and stay safe. I never need

an excuse to buy running kit and the new seasons kit helps to fuel my addiction.

Social media was all a buzz the other week with the launch of the Aldi kit and I for one was waiting at the door at 8am the other Thursday. Armed with base layers, compression tops, black socks and flashing lights I made my way to the till.  My next biggest challenge was where on earth was I going to put it all, perhaps it is time to sort out my running draws, switch over my summer running kit to my autumn/ winter kit. Gone are the shorts and vest tops and in come the long sleeve tops, 3/4 tights and full length tights, gloves and buffs are the new standard.

As well as an opportunity to shop and buy new kit, here are my other reasons to like autumn/winter running:- 

• Running in the cold/wet and dark makes you feel hard core 

• How amazing you hot shower/ bath feels after your run 

• Cozying up on the sofa after your long run feels more justified 

• The natural rosy glow you get after your chilly run

• Running in the snow makes you feel especially hard core

My parting shot is that no matter what the weather; red hot or pouring with rain, it is definitely getting darker so make sure you can been seen. The best quote I heard the other day was "your never heard of a Christmas tree getting run over" well they do have a point. 

So remember be bright and be seen

Can you fool yourself in to being positive

So it has been a while since my last blog; NO I have not fallen off the face of the earth, NO to a life changing lottery win and NO I have not found my fame and fortune on Britain’s Got Voice Factor. The past couple of months have been a little be meh’ when it comes to running and finding things to blog about.  I normally come up with my blog titles and themes during my runs, but I have been drawing a blank recently. 

At last tonight’s running club post run 'chippy tea' a fellow runner asked me if I have been injured as they had not seen in a while, I thought about this for a minute; said no the physical injury but yes to a MOJO injury!  Can you injure your MOJO? I am not sure if it is burn out, fatigue or just simply a bit of a slump but when I’m not running I think about how great it would be running but then when I’m running I just want to stop and crawl under a rock. Strange but true, having said that I have just recently run the Great North Run and the Nottingham Half marathon, so although my MOJO is telling me to stop, my iron will is keeping me moving forward! 

Something positive

can you see us ?

I really enjoyed the Great North Run (GNR) this year; this wasn't a target run for me, that was Nottingham, so I had offered to pace Emily to a personal best, Sharon who was also running GNR had said that she would jump on the pace bus for fun.  Everything was going well and we were hitting the splits, but it was getting hotter and hotter, unfortunately this was not suiting Emily and she was struggling.  So we decided to change tack and we slowed down a little and made sure that we catered to her every need, raced off to water /refreshments stops and making sure she was hydrated, keeping up her spirits with lots of positive re-enforcement and generally enjoying our run with those around us! It was fab, we all crossed the finish line holding hands and with smiles on our faces. I have to say that I was one race I thoroughly enjoyed for the 1st time in a long time! 

Something else positive

Nottingham was going to be my target, but my training had not gone well with self-sabotaging thoughts. I reassessed my goals and went out for a  personal best this year, but the mojo deserted me 3 miles in and my mind started to go off on one about how crap I was and why didn't I give up!  Well I didn't I carried on a ticked off the miles, the splits were not what I was after but, hey I was moving forward which was good.  

It was a good job I carried on as I helped a distressed runner; between 9/10 miles, saw this chappy running and he was running very strangely, leaning back and looping very slowly, so I stopped and went back to have a chat with him.  He assured me he was fine and for me to carry on, so I asked him “if he always ran like this”, “no” came the reply, “well you are not fine then”, then two other runners came to my aid and we escorted him over to the side of the road.  I shouted for the runners going past to send back a marshal and a lady got him a chair to sit on.  Fortunately but the time we left him he was looking a bit brighter and I hope that he got the medical attention he needed. Then I carried on my run, my goal had gone out of the window but you know I didn't care, I helped someone out in need and that was more important!

Something productive

With all my negative thoughts I am trying to do something’s to put the spring back in my running step;

1. Tackling cross country never done it before, hated it at school but hoping the club and team environment will help me get my MOJO back
2. Reading (or listening to) Chimp Paradox by Prof Steven Peters, if it is good enjoy for the GB cycling team it is good enough for me
3. Scaling back the running during the last few months of the year
4. Contrary to point 3 looking to take part in Go-Vember again trying to run at least a mile every day during November 

Something to look forward to

• I have got my good for age place at London, this time I want to enjoy it a little more. My first London, I was so in awe and focused on getting a good time it took all the fun out of it.  So next year it is all about enjoying it and the time is irrelevant.

• I have booked my races for Feb, March and May and I am looking to do some different ones that in the past, so we are off to Blackpool half and a 20 miler, Milton Keynes half and I am hoping to do Ashby 20 as well.

• I am part of the Team behind bringing back the Potteries Marathon, which is fun, exciting and exhausting all the same times…not sure what the Potteries Marathon is all about click here.

• I;m doing the Thunder Run again next year with a large number of my club mates which is going to be awesome, fortunately not the 5 laps like this year (I don’t think that it helped at all).

Well that is my lot, again apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of months, fingers crossed normal service aka bad grammar, spelling and general confused posts will resume soon!