Keep on Running

I have to say that I do enjoy running. I've been running since I was a kid. I went to athletics club five times a week, trained hard & actually competed in indoor championships, 60m & 100m distances. I absolutely loved it! As I grew older & moved countries, the training stopped. I didn't do sprints anymore, just an occasional slow 2/3kms. In my mid twenties, I accidentally found ParkRun, which is a free event that is held in the parks all over the UK, Australia, the US & other countries. Every Saturday morning, the community of runners join together for a fun or a competitive 5K run. I used to do it religiously every Saturday, & it was amazing to be part of a fantastic likeminded group of people of all ages. I actually got out of bed, no matter what the weather, at 8.30am every Saturday to go & do the run, sometimes even through the mud & freezing cold puddles. It was all worth it, especially when you improve your time from the week before. 

Training super early in super hot temperatures, meandering between the elderly. 

& then I moved countries again. Let me rephrase that, I moved continents. I moved to Shanghai, & once again the running has stopped. The seasons & pollution here are really extreme, & it was kind of difficult to find the routine with the running. Sometimes I'll be lucky if I went out once a month. 

About a year ago, I knew I had to splurge out a little & actually join the gym. If I can't work out outside, I have to do it inside. No excuses! Something inside of me clicked & treated this as an investment in myself. I tried & joined many different classes & stuck with the ones I liked the most. & then I found boxing. I look at the sport totally differently now. There's a lot of respect, hard work & dedication that goes into training, whether being it for leisure or professionally. I fell in love with boxing so much that I even signed up to do a Knock Out program at Aboro Academy (run by 7 times World Champion Michele Aboro). I will cover my experience in more detail in another post. However, continuing with the topic of running, the program helped me to enjoy running again. I trained 10/11 times a week including conditioning & technique sessions. You thought waking up at 8.30am on a Saturday morning was bad enough, well for this program I was waking up at 5.30am at the latest, 3 to 4 times a week, to be at the track by 6am, to do sprints & longer distances to become stronger & faster on my feet. I don't know where or how I found the motivation, but I did. I was really focused & disciplined & loved every minute of it, because I saw amazing changes within me, mentally & physically.

Shanghai, is slowly coming out of winter months & the weather is warming up, I can't wait to up those distances in 2018. Keep on running!!!

I run for fitness, to clear my head & I just love the way I feel afterwards. The hardest part is actually putting your shoes on. Once they're on, you're half way there! If you run, what are your reasons for running? Share . . .