Mojo + Motivation = MoJoVation

So with one eye on the future, only one eye mind you, my mojo and motivation has flamed on to coin a phrase of the Human Torch!

It would seem strange that I was not motivated when running the best part of three marathons and a 5k in a little over 4 weeks, don’t get me wrong I was, I always aim to leave it all out there although with the races so close together there was a little conservatism employed. But while the motivation was high the mojo was low. I was lacking that float that I get from running trails, that sheer joy of chasing the horizon. I cheated Long Beach; I went in knowing I would finish if I ran smart, but I didn’t really race it. The Eco Marathon was a real ball buster made better with good company. Come PCTR the fun was coming back and by the time the Turkey Day Dash came around it was all about family shits and giggles.

The main driver of the loss of mojo was a niggling injury, I don’t know what caused and more frustrating I don’t know why it went away, it’s impact was to knock my training out by 2 nearly 3 months, needless to say it was insanely frustrating, I tried ice, heat, massage, electro-stim, yoga, crossing training and this thing that finally made it go away was good old fashioned rest. It’s not reared it’s head lately (hopefully not famous last words)! The lingering effect is a big hole in my base which only now I am able to start to shore up.

So enough of all that gloom and doom, I currently I have a real spring in my step and it’s only be added to due to these; Saucony Kinvaras, it’s early days they only have a week in them but so far so good and yes there is a review in the works.

So the one eye has me looking towards the 13.1 race in January, yeah it’s only 6 weeks away but the hopeful plan is to have transitioned through the Kinvara’s back into these, Newtons while adding miles to the bank. I got them back in February, ran in them a couple of times and then they lived in the closet ever since.

I am a lazy heel striker, that is when I am tired I resort to heel striking but when I am ‘fresh’ I am a pretty good mid foot striker. So it’s a double edged sword, one being a thin base and the other and the bigger challenge; never really a break in the racing schedule to fit the transition fully in, (at least one without injury), so hopefully this will give me the window to effect the change. One of the challenges has been the actual planning of the transition and beyond everyone saying to only run in them for a mile or so and ramp up from there there is nothing specific…until now. I picked up Danny Abshire’s, the founder of Newton’s, new book Natural Running which comes complete with an 8 week transition program, yeah the race is in 6 weeks so hopefully I can get up to speed pretty quickly…I’ll obviously be documenting the process as I go.

Let the fun begin!

New Shoes and Newtons!

So my Newtons arrived last week and boy I was itching to try them…so I did. After some faffing about with orthotics and socks I found a combination that work, typically I like a padded sock although that’s changing with my recent trial and subsequent order of Vital Sox (you can read the review here) Newtons website suggest a thinner sock and who am I to argue!

Once I figured out the right combination I found them to be lightweight and very comfortable. As suggested I only wore them initially for a mile or so and I spent most of the time running up and down in front on my camera hence the montage below!

Apparently the boys at Newton think I am doing it right as they posted this on Twitter;

A lot of folks have expressed an interest in following my progress and who am I to argue with good blog fodder! Once I get the race this weekend out of the way I’ll be wearing them more and more and hopefully transitioning into them full time over time and of course documenting that process. Until then I will wearing them in parallel with my new shoes a fresh out the box pair of Brooks Arenalines, after an hour in RRS last week after returning my Kayano 16s and having tried nearly the whole wall this is what I walked out with. So expect a review of them in about a hundred miles of so. I am mapping out my marathon training with the FIRST plan and I have the rest of the month to play before that starts proper…fun times!

Finally check in tomorrow for another round of Friday Freebies!