Found my mojo!

Did you miss me?  I took a break from my blog while I rested and recovered from the Ultra Race Romania, and got back into the routine of work.  Fatigue is strange.  You might feel perfectly well and recovered and then all of a sudden it creeps up on you.  I've been taking plenty of "power naps", just 20 minutes makes a big difference to my energy.
My coach and I both agreed I needed another race as soon as possible as I have built up a level of fitness that would be lost unless I continued training for an event.  I also needed the motivation as the post race blues definitely kicked in as I kept analysing what happened to cause my DNF in Romania.  I am writing to my running colleagues in Romania to learn about what food they carried what they had in their rucksacks as if I revisit the race in 2022, I can't experience the same problems. I have also written to a professor of exercise and physiology,  whose students I have spoken to about my races, to access their expertise.  This is stage 5 in my 5 step process, the Review, and it's important I learn, develop and move forward.
Fortunately I found a race, the Salomon Ring of Steall Skyrace which is on 18 September.  A tough mountain race over 29km with 2,500m of ascent.  A very short training plan was designed to "restart" my system safely and for the first two weeks my heart rate hasn't been behaving which is partly due to the fatigue.  I feel fine but it's frustrating although I've been here before and know just to follow the plan.
Yesterday I was back in the mountains with my pal Stu.  We headed up The Cobbler followed by Ben Narnain the Ben Ime.  The conditions were ideal in that it wasn't too hot but there were no views.  All three summits were in cloud base.  When I left the last summit, the highest at 1,011m I ran all the way to the bottom as fast as was safe.  It was the highlight because I felt light (almost floating), confident and my footing all the way down was ideal with the exception of a couple of slips but that's where the poles help.  Most walkers heard me coming and gave me room but a few got a fright as they looked up at the last moment to see me flying towards them!  My hear rate was low for the whole session and when I finished I realised that this is what I love - being in the mountains, power walking up and running down.  You also meet some great people and everyone looks out for the people on the hill.  We covered the 18 km with 1,520m of ascent in 3hrs and 20 mins.  Not to shabby and I now have my mojo back.
The focus is back as the race is in 13 days time.  I'm looking forward to a challenging route and being with likeminded people who love running.  The weather could play a big part on the outcome of the day but whatever it throws at me, I'll be ready.  I'm doing a lot of gym work on top of my running to make sure my body can take the punishment.  The feeling I had running down the mountain only happens when you'd put in the hard word and the long miles.  That feeling is what makes me get up at "silly o'clock" to get out and training.  The season is changing, the days are getting shorter and cooler.  That may alter when I train and the type of training I do but it will all be focused on the remaining targets for this year and next season.  I'm back!