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| Quite apt I feel, especially as I work in journalism |
One of the final statements in my previous blog was about being so excited about going back to Lanzarote for an epic 10 days of solo training. I think it is pretty obvious given worldwide developments this is now not happening. Lanzarote is currently in lockdown until 30th March; I was due to fly on the 27th. It goes without saying I am absolutely gutted, devastated in fact. I know it is just a holiday but this truly felt like so much more. A real treat to actually get away alone and really rack up a 20 hour + training week. I know moaning on here isn't going to solve the situation or make for enjoyable reading. I also know others are facing very similar situations and as I keep telling myself there are always people worse off than me. I am just very upset about it and at the moment not sure if there is a way to reschedule. I had been looking forward to if for months and months. But I know it is out of my control and as one of my favourite sayings goes; "control the controllable". I have had a cry about it, but despite being down I am not out.
Obviously the 20 hour + training week I had planned is not going to happen. This is not being negative, it is realistic way of thinking. Everything that could have gone wrong at this present time has. Sky has had a floor by floor isolation/lock down. As I mentioned in my previous blog I work in 5 different departments in Sky News & Sky Sports, with each department on a different floor. So now I am only able to work on one floor, and one department, thus affecting my shifts. I am only allowed one "home" floor. Throw into the mix that there isn't much, if any, sport to be covering in the coming weeks is another dimension to my potential lack of work. Being a freelancer and self employed I do not have the safety net of a contract like staff do. The Sky gym which I also love so much, most namely for its Peloton bikes, is also now closed. It's almost ironic as everything I wrote about how my work life works for me is being contradicted through recent events.
Then to top it all off my nursery has closed due to the owners husband having a cough. With Covid 19 not being a notifiable disease businesses are unable to claim on insurance meaning we have to continue paying full rate despite not having the service. Obviously this hugely affects me as not only do I now not have cover for work but given I may also have no work in April we also have to pay for full childcare and quite frankly without the work the funds don't add up. Talk about a catch 22. It is a really worrying time but we are all in this together.
Then there is the affect it has on my training. Obviously I have to plan even more around Nathan's shifts and do my training either with the boys (can do a buggy run if weather is OK) or early mornings and late evenings at home. Our local gym at present is also still open so if the opportunity arises I will go, especially to swim.
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| On a nice 8 mile walk with my sister in law this week who is training for a 26 mile walk for charity in July |
I am lucky to be enjoying virtual cycling on the platform Zwift with my turbo trainer at home at the moment and do have a good set up with a treadmill at home too. Currently they have some races and group rides on with the Watopia Tour 2020 (Watopia is the name of the virtual land and relates to wattage/Watt which is a unit of power to quantify energy). Here you can join in group rides or go all out in a race against hundreds across the world. I did the latter the other day and really did go all out - coming 12th out of 110 people, first female, and top 8% of my age group. It was a 14.3mile loop which I did in just over 32 minutes; an average pace of 26mph. It has to be said I nearly fell off the bike afterwards and when Nathan did it 2 days later I also beat his time by 41 seconds (not competitive at all and of course I was very humble by bragging “you got chicked by your wife!” Haha). I also did an 8 mile double buggy run the other day so I can get out and run. The only difficulty now is that the boys are considerably heavier now, weighing in around 6 stone together. Where I live is not flat either, but one positive it'll only make me stronger! As well as this, as they are bigger and much more active than last year (where I pushed them lots when training for the London Marathon). Thus meaning their attention span being sat in a buggy is a lot shorter. I spent a lot of the run talking to them, or singing Old McDonalds farm or pretending to run away from Dinosaurs in the woods!
All of this however, just proves that despite being in this testing situation I can still get enjoyment from my training and ensure I can continue to get the hours in. As my last blog aptly states, it is all about adaption and I now, more than ever, need to follow my own advice.
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| My boys making me smile |
With all these obstacles I am still aiming for another 11-12 hour training week (I hit 11h30 last week). I haven't had the boys for a solid week alone with no childcare since before they were 6 months old; give me strength! Haha. That said I am going to enjoy the time I do have with my lovely boys. They really are the best and they, more than anything, make my life worthwhile and smile throughout it all. Just today they got a banana and began a little surprise whilst I was looking away and put fake candles from their wooden birthday cake into the banana. Then holding it together they began walking towards me beaming and singing happy birthday to me. It is not my birthday, that has long gone, but it was just so beautiful. All of the current restrictions is to protect innocence such as this, so lets look after one another other and stay healthy.
My weigh in today also revealed I am 1 stone 11.5lbs down from 1st Jan which is over 10% of my body weight. I am still a way to go from my ideal race weight but I am getting there and every week I am feeling more confident in my own skin. With my fitness stats also going up I am also having more confidence in my ability too. In fact I also did a boditrax weighing the other day (which scans you to find a precise body composition) and it found I was 22/24 muscle; the average person's score is 12. So I am clearly solid and growing as the last time I did the scan a month ago I have gone up 3 points!
As I mentioned before, we are in testing times, but I am down not out!
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