A local route can be all you need it to be and more. The Forth and Clyde Canal is very much my local route and what more inspiration and motivation do you need, than to know that if it’s good enough for European Champion Laura Muir then it’s good enough for me.

Motivation is a funny thing in sport. It can arrive unexpectedly and leave you when you least need it to. You may be driven by a desire to win and take the spoils at all costs. Being motivated in this way is often the elite or professional athlete’s realm and literally comes at a cost: sacrificing personal, social and family life and often sacrificing potential financial benefits (especially when you are at the beginning of your professional sports journey), your own health and wellbeing in pursuit of committing to winning what you consider as the ultimate prize. On the other hand you may be completely put off by competition and winning: instead being motivated by experiencing the outdoors or improving your health. Most of us sit somewhere between the extremities described here and adapt our motivations to suit our circumstances or make changes in our circumstances to satisfy our motivations. Think about how your motivation to be active changes if you go on holiday. Are you a sporty holiday seeker or a relaxing holiday seeker or can you be a bit of both?

Today I was struggling with the motivation to go for a run. How did I change my circumstances to improve this? By changing into my running gear. By deciding to use a podcast session I’d designed last year for Glasgow Triathlon Club members to give my run some structure. By acknowledging that if I didn’t run, I’d feel I’d missed out on the canal in autumn colours. Then by actually going running, I was suitably rewarded with the lovely canal surroundings and a reminder that our elite athletes like Laura Muir enjoy the same areas albeit that the scenery passes more quickly for her.