“Unusual Times”, “Unprecedented Times” etc. on the news every time we watch it at the moment. Things have definitely changed since my last blog, 6 weeks ago we were all receiving reports of a virus in central China. The country on “lockdown” but plenty of planes in the sky still connecting the world to this affected place.
Here & now the borders weren’t shut down quick enough, governments not acting enough, general public not adhering to the rules. Years of not listening to the governments as “they’re only in it for themselves” has backfired and now they’re crying wolf the world didn’t listen….in time. This isn’t a political statement – it’s just the world as I see it from my eyes. I’m always the “people-watcher” and reserve judgement until their actions prove their personalities. Sometimes I’m surprised, sometimes (mostly) not. It’s clear in times of hardship how peoples true colours come to the surface – I’m just people watching at present…
Back to the present before I wander off ranting about how people have become so judgemental and selfish blah blah blah….!
The cancellation of any sporting events for the foreseeable future (June 30th review date currently) has made many give up their training regime and look to having a more sedate way of life. It’s made me realise how important exercise is to my daily regime – both physically and mentally. Yes, at some point during the year you need rest and recovery firmly in your schedule but I need to continue as things are going ahead just to keep sane and at an “ok” weight as I like to eat….a lot!
Before al this I did manage to fit in a 10-mile running event – The Tarporley 10, an annual event that I’d not really heard of before. A very well organised event, despite the high winds on exposed country lanes it was quite fun to go to an event after being stuck indoors all winter. The “steady” 90 minute training session soon turned into a “threshold” session and just under 80 minutes later I crossed the line feeling pretty chuffed for completing the event!
My first competitive (bike) outing, a local 10 mile time trial was one of the first to cancel. A couple of days later I was due to officiate a local criterium race, (part of my yearly official duties as a British Cycling Commissaire) that was next, so I find myself having the Easter Weekend doing pretty much nothing except (probably) going out and eating up some miles on my own. Suzy starts her new job on the Tuesday after Easter so I’ll try not to be out too long as that’s precious time we can spend together as Newlyweds.
Oh yes, better mention the fact Suzy and I got married! In Las Vegas of all places, and by Elvis of all people. The holiday from start to finish was amazing. Suzy had been to Vegas several times before and had a strict schedule to show me as many sights as we could fit in the 6 days we were there. The casinos, the shows, the Grand Canyon, the Strip itself, self-drive in a Mustang, the food is definitely a bucket list thing and I strongly recommend going if you haven’t before…..when this is all over of course.
The wedding day was fantastic from start to finish, going to a shooting range in the morning (I’ve never used a firearm before), managed to do a 60-minute run whilst Suzy had her hair & make-up done before the wedding itself.
The wedding, Elvis was everything you imagined he was – an awesome personality, the photographer made our day really – he took us around the strip taking pictures at the key points, he was supposed to spend 2:30hrs with us and ended up spending 4hrs with us – thank you Paul 🙂 The end of the day was topped with a helicopter ride over the strip, my fear of heights wasn’t tested that much to be fair (surprisingly) and after a quick gamble where we won $200 we called it a day and came back to our hotel exhausted.
Upon return from this amazing week it was business as usual regarding training, I know you’re not supposed to but I managed to play “catch-up” on a few swim and bike sessions. The idea was to overload on training before we headed off to St Lucia a fortnight later for our honeymoon – alas this didn’t happen due to this lockdown.
Although not officially cancelled my Half-Iron Distance event in May has got to be on the rocks, my cynicism would suggest they will not cancel it due to the money they already have from entry fees. They keep the money and defer to later in the year or over to 2021.
Our Beccles Triathlon, which I’m a committee member and lead on the day has been postponed. A week before that the Challenge Championships in Samorin has yet to have an announcement but I’ll foresee that being deferred to 2021 too.
My “A-Race” is Roth, in Germany on July 7th so we’ll see where we are with that in the coming weeks. Things may have lifted by then and travel relaxed, another reason why I am carrying on with the training schedule.
September & October are a lifetime away so my Aquabike application for Great Britain and Challenge Majorca 70.3 are distant “B-Races” which may turn out to be the only races I get to do this year.
A good friend and Professional Triathlete Joe Skipper posted a few days ago about swimming when the health clubs and swimming pools shut down – he said that swimming is the smallest part of a triathlon and we should be overly worried about this part of the event. He said to concentrate on the other two disciplines and we’ll all be better at the end of this. I agree – although I’m already looking at the possibility of river swimming but the 8 degrees temperature is putting me off right now! I guess in may I’ll have to bite the bullet and go for it leaving me 8 weeks of intensive swimming to be ready – if it happens at all.
My cycling has been limited to doing some Under/Over and V02 development sessions and solo long ride at the weekends. Of course my speed is lower than as it would be with a group but my event is a solo event so I better get used to it. I still miss being pushed a bit harder when I’m in a group but currently that’s a big no-no so I’ll just keep plodding on.
Running is my outdoor exercise, government says only once a day so it’s definitely a turbo session if both bike & run fall on the same day. I anticipated that we were going to be on a full lockdown and not allowed out of the house at all so was looking into buying a treadmill to put in the 2nd bedroom. But that hasn’t happened….yet. It’s a must if I’m (we) are to carry on training if it all gets locked down. If it does that my commute may have to be running and cycling to & from work to form part of the training schedule.
Moving this back to the current situation and the effect on the general public, it’s an awful situation for anybody to be in, there’s an invisible killer out there and we’re all isolating to keep ourselves away from it.
Our lives (well mine really) hasn’t changed much – I still work Monday to Friday being part of the supply chain whilst most of my work colleagues are working from home. I exercise in the evening and put the big runs/rides in at the weekend. No I don’t swim but I mentioned that earlier. Ok – the gym isn’t open but I have a range of Kettlebells to there’s options there. The only thing (and it is fairly large) is that this lockdown means I don’t get to see my son for a few weeks. It’s temporary I know but it’s still a piece of my life that I can’t carry on for a while. It does really highlight what an isolated life I lead. At least I have an excuse now as opposed to be called an unsociable bugger!
Suzy has always been the social butterfly at the weekends and this lockdown has affected her more than me. She’s also working from home and with the TV on the news channel constantly I can’t but help this isn’t going to help her. More box sets required!!!
All in all, it’s all about positivity and although there’s a abundance of people choosing to write “doom & gloom” all over their social media pages I’m quite the opposite. Yeah – I can’t race, yeah I can’t go out whenever I feel like it, yeah I can’t socialise but do you know what – IT’S TEMPORARY! It makes you realise who’s (and what’s) important and who values you at moments like these 🙂