After Ciucas 2020, I had little to no motivation to run again.

Like… ever.

There’s a certain recommended period of recovery specific to anyone which can vary from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

Riding from Balea to Constanta left me damaged more mentally than physically. I felt good before Ciucas but the drive for pushing hard faded. I felt that during the second half of Ciucas too well. I felt as if I still had some blown gaskets to fix.

2020 finally went away and 2021 came. New year, new me.

Bullshit. After battling with excruciating tooth aches, my first week I was swinging between How many Nurofen Forte can I take per day? and If I have had my last one at 23:55, can I take the next one at 12:05 as it is the actual next day?

I thought I knew pain but seems life has a way of proving me wrong.

PSA: go get your teeth checked. Those motherfuckers don’t get fixed on their own, they only get worse.

Finally fixed this and decided it was time to get back at it.

I will run for 30 days, everyday.

Cristina laughed in my face and told me it’s impossible. I fully understand her reaction as she was thinking about herself at that time but later decided to try the same.

But why? It doesn’t even sound stupid, how hard could it be?

It wasn’t. This is what I learned from running 30 days, everyday.

1. It is doable once it becomes you make it a priority. Once you decide to do it and set the goal of running for 30 days, it is a little easier to get it going.
2. The streak becomes a goal itself. Once I started gaining a 4-5 days streak, I simply did not want to skip a day. On day 15, my tooth ache came back in full swing and I was unable to run. Even so, I went through the motions, got my gear and charged at it. Had to stop after just 1km but hey! Still better than nothing. Also, the next day I ran twice so pretty much made up for it.
3. It’s so easy to feel out of shape. I was not. Seems muscle memory is a real thing. On my first runs, I had issues in pushing under 5:15min/km. After a couple of runs, 5:00 became my new 5:15min/km in terms of please, make it stop! and so on. After one month, I can easily push for speed, if in need.
4. All comes down to consistency. It pays off. Running each day made it easier for the next one. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one. And the next one.
5. Nothing beats hard work

Motivation (almost) never works in the long run. You might hold on to it for a day, a week or even a month but in the end.

It will run like a little bitch as soon as your alarm clock goes off in the morning. It will fade away once you try and run after having that delicious pancake.

It will go away.

Goal targets on the other end, those are achieved through endless battles.

Battling the cold, nausea, food intake, stomach pain, tooth aches, all those in the end subside to achieving your goal, whatever it might be.

What is your goal?