Mo’s Month in Running – June ’23

It’s been a weird period of time post-marathon. It normally is for many runners. You find yourself a bit lost not knowing what to do with your days. Recovering from it was my number one goal but since then I have found myself kind of cruising through my runs, not really having any rhyme or reason. Soaking in the sun and keeping everything super chilled.

That’s not inherently a bad thing but mentally it can be tough to go from being on cloud nine feeling like you can conquer the world, to struggling to find the motivation to even lace up and step out. I think the main thing that got me out of the door for my runs were the communities I’m a part of, and this last month was all about giving back as much as I could. I spent a lot of it coaching other runners who had goals and seeing them cross the finish line with joy plastered across their faces made me remember what running is all about. Joy.

I have done my best to keep my fitness levels up, ensuring I am clearing 50km per week. The only reason being is I know I have another race coming up at the tail end of the year and I would rather not start from scratch. Going through the motions is how I would describe this most recent phase of my training. The greatest thing about it all is that despite how I felt mentally before stepping out for a run, I would always come home feeling much better. In fact, I would almost immediately feel better once I got the legs turning over, and that was a huge takeaway for me knowing that if I could just disregard the initial resistance then everything I was dreading about the run would come to pass.

My biggest learnings (hope these help you too):

• Run first, then see how you feel towards running
• Community is everything
• Post-marathon blues are real
• Your body and mind need time to recover after something as intense as race training

What’s next for me? Copenhagen half marathon on the 17th of September. I will be attempting a new PB across that distance, something I haven’t done since Hackney Half 2021.

Let’s see how it goes, the day-by-day training is documented on my Instagram should you wish to follow along!