So the last few months have being many things: unprecedented, testing, worrying and frustrating to name just a few. I’ll spare you the rant about adapting to a new normal and changing ways of doing things - as those are now pretty cliche.
What I want to talk about is the effect it has had on us as athletes. As both an athlete and a coach I have experienced this from both sides of the coin. I don’t think there is an athlete out there who hasn’t felt a bit de-motivated or lost at some point these last few months.
At first it was ok with a few races cancelled and events rescheduled. The Spirit of the Blitz came through and we accepted what we were being asked to do and made the most of it. But now as time has gone on, many of us have been left with a year which for a great many of us will not see us compete.
Athletes in general are competitive people - either with themselves or with others. It’s what drives us to better, makes us push ourselves hard and generally what gets us out of bed in the morning. To have this taken away not by injury or inaction has had a massive impact upon us all.
Now I’m not for one second suggesting that lockdown and cancelling races was the wrong decision or unfair in some way - this blog is not a political one.
However, on reflection I can compare the events of the last few months to having a part of your identity stolen away from you without warning and you having to come to terms with it.
I’m a big believer in control the controllable and I’ve had that message drilled into me by various sources over the years. We can’t control Covid -19 or any of it’s associated effects so I decided to seek out opportunity where I was at first seeing adversity. Getting out there and affirming that identity and focusing on enjoying what you want to do and when you want to do it.
We all have an opportunity here to not be burdened by pressure to perform or to get better or to get sessions done. We could see the fact we are allowed to exercise still and be out in the open as a privilege not to be wasted.
So if you want to run for hours over the hills - do it.
If you want to become a well centred yogi - do it.
If you wanna ride your bike with no real end point - do it.
If you wanna take a step back and relax - do it.
The world will get back to normal - enjoy it while it lasts.