When I was making plans for 2020 at the end of last year, I planned for a year in which I’d complete my first Ultra, get more experience at running marathons, have a first go at a triathlon and take part in the Castles and Islands race – a combination of running and sailing along the Northumberland Coast.
Little did I know back then that those plans would be disrupted, not by injury or lack of training, but by a virus that goes by the name of a Mexican beer. Corona aka Covid-19 is taking over the world, forcing countries to go on lock-down by closing shops, restaurants, gyms and sports clubs. Races and other big events are being cancelled and people have to stay at home as much as possible.
I took part in the Endurancelife Northumberland Ultra (which I will be posting another blog about) at the end of February and right now it looks like that’s the last race I will have taken part in for the foreseeable future. With all these races getting cancelled or postponed I’ll have to re-think my plans for this spring and summer, also taking into account that a full lock-down is also possible in the UK.
For now, we’re still allowed to go outside and thankfully, sports & exercise are even being promoted so I’ll keep running and cycling either by myself or with my usual training buddy in order to keep from going insane and to stay fit.
Especially now that I’m working from home until further notice, I find it important to keep up a daily routine because it is not a holiday after all and it’s important to try and continue to live with at least a hint of normality in these strange times. For me, my daily routine looks like this at the moment:
6AM: get up, get dressed, dog walk
Check in with work and respond to mails while having breakfast
30mins strength training exercises at home (yes, those exercises that I should have been doing more often anyway but always kept putting off)
Work until lunchtime
Lunchtime run sometime around midday
afternoon work
Late pm: housework + afternoon activity (walk, tennis, housework, cycling)
dinner, sofa, TV/Netflix, jigsaw puzzles, reading
The weekend activities might get a mixed up a little bit too but I’ll still be going out walking, running and cycling. In fact, in a sense it’s even nicer to go out now because there’s so little traffic at the moment. I’ll do my best to keep updating Instagram and Facebook and now that there is some extra time to work with every day, I’m sure I’ll finally get round to posting those other blog posts that I’ve been working on. Watch this space.
This is a scary and unsettling time for all of us, we’re all in it together and we can only hope it will all be over soon. Until then, be safe, stay healthy and don’t stop being active.
Confessions of a Running Freak 