Morning Runs and Motivation

These days I usually go jogging in the morning. My work starts in the afternoon, and I find that jogging in the morning allows me to be more productive, as otherwise I often just stay in bed or do nothing constructive in front of the computer.

It was pretty hard to get motivated to go running this morning. Actually, it's the case on many mornings. And it's like that for most people, including olympians. We are not the only ones who would rather stay in bed some days. But successful people dig within themselves and motivate themselves to a goal, and there is no reason why anyone can't do it.

What got me motivated this morning, actually, was this blog. Here I am, pretentious and all, writing about something I don't even excel at, telling people to do something that is challenging. If I can't get my oversized rear end out of bed for a run, I'd be the biggest hypocrite out there.

And as is usually the case, once outside my earlier resistance quickly vanished, and I felt good jogging. The switch happened rather quickly this morning, just as the second song on my music player was finishing, and the first song is very short, just an intro really (DJ Champion's Resistance if you care to know). Before the run, I had decided not to go very long today, just a warm up for a possibly longer outing tomorrow or Thursday. And because I could find my rhythm so quickly, I decided to up the tempo and go for a speed run (well, fast for me).

I took a different course from usual. I have several routes I often take, sometimes with little variations, and this morning I followed the general direction of a regular 6 or 10k course, but took different streets and ran along a bicycle path I never use. In the beginning, there was quite a bit of traffic next to it, so the air wasn't that good, but as it is long, straight and flat, it worked out good for my intense training objective. I then prolonged the course wanting a chance to maybe meet my wife on her way to work (her office is very near our place). In then end, according to mapmyrun.com, I ran just over 7k.

I sweated profusely because of my harder-than-usual efforts, but also because I was wearing a fleece, which proved perhaps too warm in these spring temperatures. I thought it might be too much before the run, but for some reason I didn't feel like wearing a light jacket. This had the positive outcome that like a boxer in training, it helped me burn some fat.

All in all, the run felt great, even if before I hard a time getting out there. And honestly speaking, it's almost like that, for me at least. It's hard to get going, but once I'm on trail, I usually enjoy it. And this is as true when I go jogging in the morning like today, or when I bring my running gear to work and run back home.