Life Behind Bars
DAY ONE:
Scrolling aimlessly through a news feed not doing it for you anymore? With a more time on our hands given most the world are more or less prisoners in our own homes, I thought why not start something that may take up a little more of your now less valuable time. Start Blog 2.0. This linked with my instagram news feed will, I hope, give you an insight in how I am surviving the imminent threat of being shanked by Covid-19.
My coach, Will O'Connor @performanceadvantage, and I long discussed what better time than during the lead in days to New Zealand shutting down, to have my midseason break. Energy was better spent waiting in lines for my last McFlurry for the next four week, fighting shopping goers for toilet paper, fulfilling the second amendment and sneezing people out of the coffee shops. It is a small moment amid the chaos to reflect on my current offseason progress and hatch an achievable non disease spreading plan of attack over the month long lockdown and beyond.
For the foreseeable future my season has been put on hold, but this is no excuse to put life on hold. Take it as an opportunity to learn something new, strengthen your weaknesses, focus on the 1%ers and think about the things that really matter in your life.
DAY TWO: Lockdown Goals Personal
I pride myself in being a somewhat respectable member of my community so while travelling under the alias of elite sportsperson I try to take this with me abroad. Ignorance is bliss however when my international vocabulary is limited to two languages (chinese and spanish) and of those two languages two words in each. Thank you and Hello. So......
Goal one: start to learn the basics of a new language (Spanish) 100 words minimum
On recent get together with my close friends, we reminisced about what memories it was that defined our friendship. On a personal reflection I am a good time when accompanied by too many pints. For general health and as an athlete hydration is key to recovery and overall well being. Albiet with water rather than beer. So......
Goal two: crush water like you were taking the boys for one last trip to the pub (4L daily minimum)
A lot of athletes could be defined as "broken arse" or "without much money" and for this reason we often rely heavily on the generosity of others. In my short career alone I have begged borrowed or stolen food, beds, rides as well as countless other things. So......
Goal three: Give back, create or help a charity, donate, use my sporting ability to help someone in need ($5000 minimum by the end of 2020)
DAY THREE: Lockdown Sporting Goals
Squad goals no longer. For many of us a squad environment is our core training, a way for to push pain threshold, motivation on a low day or even the reason we participate in sports. Social distancing eliminated this. What about virtual training? I never really got into video games as a kid and don't intend to spend even more of my lockdown time indoors. So how do we keep the above incheck while maximising our limited yard time.
Goal one: Consistency. This is pretty simple I will try and maintain and or improve fitness across my swim bike and run disciplines. Biking and Running will be easy with general fitness to be consumed outdoors (solo) and key sessions indoors or on measured farm tracks. Swimming however will be a little more challenging wit strength maintain with dryland workouts but overall fitness may become challenging.
Goal two: Recovery. With more time on our hands around why not put my RAD Roller tools and their new app to work.
Goal three: Keep motivated with new routines and routes. Self Explanatory.
DAY FOUR: Mondays Are A New Day (day late)
Well I'm surprised my rural internet lasted this long. Day four was spent with intermittent wifi, meaning we were forced outdoor where Covid was slowly taking over my small community of Matamata, now with 13 cases. However this diary entry has bigger fish to fry and we shall leave scaremongering for another day. Mondayitis is not something I feel I have experienced as an athlete, in fact quite the opposite. You start a new week with more energy, greater motivation and hopefully coach has put in an easy day after another monster aerobic weekend. So what better day to get started with my new isolation workout regime. See you in the morning...
DAY FOUR: Monday Is Here
And it is fucking raining. Gosh darn it. As I am technologically inept this clearly rules out riding indoors, running could still be on the cards although I haven't broke the 20min barrier in 10 weeks and swimming is a no go until I summon the courage to break into my local aquatic facilities. Rain jacket it is. Let the training begin
DAY FIVE: Back Running... Just
I have run for a total of 1 hour 15min since January 25th. A lot of athletes, including myself remain hush hush on all things injury related. On the above date at my brothers wedding I stood on some glass barefoot and severed a tendon to my fourth distal on my right foot. this injury along with nerve damage has not allowed me to run to this date. Today I managed 45 minutes on the road. Maybe Covid 19 could be seen as a blessing to allow me to bring back some running form.
DAY SIX: Are You Allowed Outside
This lockdown can be interpreted several ways. Today I was pulled over by a police officer for being outside riding my bike. I understand the point of view of putting others at risk by having to come rescue me, as this was the main reason for stopping all back country activity and swimming etc. But where is the line drawn. I was within 15 minutes of my house by myself and this was the first and only interaction I had had for the past 4 hours on my bike. Maybe I just stick to back roads from now on...
DAY SEVEN: On The Tools
Living on the farm you feel relatively essential right now. Who knew pulling tits would've paid off. Although some people are against how intensive farming has got and the environmental impacts, it'll pay a huge part in the rebuild of the economy when we finally come back out of quarantine. I am fortunate enough to be currently living on my family farm. We may not be dairy but the current dairy grazers we run make it an essential service. This has been great to keep an income rolling in with the uncertainty surrounding when my season will start again. So back to the tools I go...
DAY EIGHT: I Built A Pool
Keeping with my above goals to keep everything either improving or maintain, I found some spare ground on the property, an unused silage cover and a shovel big enough to dig me a hole. I thought going into quarantine this would be a possibility and I would have access to the necessary equipment but to see it come to fruition was another story. One full day of work later and I had the foundations in place for my pool. Now all I needed was some water
DAY NINE:
It has been nine days and I haven't even mentioned cleaning. How clean is everyone's house looking at the moment. I am now somewhat grateful for being in lockdown with a two year old. Meaning I am partaking in worthwhile cleaning on a daily basis rather than vacuuming for the 9th time out for no other reason than to maintain my sanity. Taking the long way home has been my approach though to fill in just a little more time. Ie. I cleaned out out two bay garage (american accent intended) using a hand brush and pan. It not only gave my back a good work out it also took 3 times longer than usual.
DAY TEN: My Pool Is Finally Full
Filling a 25m x 2m x 1.5m deep pool with a garden hose probably wasn't the best idea but I now have a pool.
DAY ELEVEN: Long Ride Sundays
With forestry gangs shut down and gun toting, roar lunatics at home what better time to make use of these fantastic gravel roads without putting myself at any risk. Being located in the central north island I have an abundance of forestry blocks surrounding my bubble area. What better time to go exploring...
DAY TWELVE: Monday
DAY THIRTEEN: FTP Testing
I am not a big fan of riding indoors but technology has once again got the better of me and I am 0/2 for working power meters now. This leaves only riding indoors on a kickr where I am able to accurately record power. I can now say that I have broken 5W/kg. This had been a bit of a barrier for awhile due to poor tests previously. I had regularly ridden well during 1, 2, 5, and 8min tests but the mental barrier of 20min always seem to get the better of me. Whether I went out to hard and blew up significantly or not ridden hard enough from the beginning. During this test my Watts were all with 10W for each 5min section of the 20min test. Now to beat it again...
DAY FOURTEEN: 8th April Wednesday
Stay tuned....
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