It's ok to feel how you feel.

During this unique and crazy time, we will all be feeling different. Some of us may be extremely motivated to grab the situation by the hands and use it to our advantage. You may feel more motivated than ever to get out for a run everyday, be it an easy run or a session, and you may be working on all those 1%’s as and when you can. However, others may not feel like this. You may be struggling to find the motivation you need to get out and hit the rep times your coach has set. You may find the prospect of training alone and not knowing when the next race is, difficult to come to terms with. This is ok. We don't have to feel motivated and driven all of the time. It is only natural to feel like this. We are in such a unique time and we will all respond to this differently. 

For me, I am used to feeling motivated all the time and I know my motivation has taken a hit. Yes, I am enjoying being able to give time to the things I wouldn’t usually, but without any date of a race ahead, it is difficult at times to push myself to the limit in sessions. I am used to training on my own as it is something I have done for a while, but that doesn’t mean this time hasn't come with its own challenges. There are different things I am having to work with, but here are a few tips I know have helped begin to build that motivation back up. 

Enjoying a new form of exercise whilst reading my book.

My hair reflects how this situation makes me feel.

1. Listen to yourself. I was finding my motivation decreasing considerably as well as my enjoyment, and this is very unlike me. So I did something I am very proud of, and made the decision to have an easier week. It wasn’t just my body that thanked me for this but also my mind. Running is hard, and sometimes you need to take your foot of the pedal for a short while. A week was just enough to refresh my mind to go again. If you are feeling demotivated and you don’t usually, your mind is probably telling you something. Listen to it and you may thank yourself a week or so down the line. 
2. Talk to others. I know when I was struggling to keep my drive and hunger alive, I felt as though I was the only one who felt like that. Social media can be a huge deception and it was. I saw lots of other people posting running pictures, talking about how motivated they were feeling and how they were enjoying every second of each run at the moment and I felt as though I was the only one struggling to keep going. However, after speaking to some of my running friends, I found out this was far from the truth. They were all feeling the same. I had convinced myself that I was wrong to feel the way I was feeling, but there is no incorrect emotion. It was my mind just telling me to give it a break so the motivation to run could rebuild. 
3. Do what you want. During this period of unknown length, I feel it is beneficial to try different things and do what you truly want to do. If you wake up on a Wednesday motivated to do a session and feeling fresh, but you would usually session on a Thursday, embrace it and go with how you feel. There are no race timelines to meet, so if you want to change up your usually training week, don't be afraid to do it. Now is the time to try something new and add new things into your training. If you have always wondered about doing yoga, or switching some of your runs for cycling, try it now. There is no harm in giving it a go because if it doesn’t work for you after a few weeks, you won’t have wasted your time, but you may find that it is something you want to employ into the future. 

​The most important thing to try and remember during this time is that it is ok to feel whatever way you are feeling. We all respond differently to uncertainty, so however you naturally deal with it, that’s ok. Just don’t be hard on yourself for feeling such a way. You feel how you feel for a reason, please don’t beat yourself up.