Stay Active, Stay Positive

Lockdown, and the ongoing covid situation has affected how we live our lives in many ways. Coronavirus has had a devastating impact on some, either directly or indirectly, and those of us lucky enough not to have been seriously affected by the disease itself have still of course found many of our day to day routines altered. Changed for who knows how long.

Keeping your running and fitness going during this time may be important for many reasons. You want to make sure your training doesn't suffer so you can come back fit and strong as races start up again. Or perhaps you just love running for the sake of running, for health reasons, whatever it may be. Some people have found the last few months to be a fantastic opportunity to train, with more time than usual on their hands.

But I'm thinking today of others who may have really struggled from the change in circumstances. Perhaps feeling isolated, and missing the regular camaraderie of training with friends, parkrun and racing.

Luckily we can now run together in some form, but we're still far from the pre-covid situation. It's clearly important both for our physical and mental health that we do keep doing something. If you're struggling to run, and lacking motivation, find something else active to do until the running bug comes back. Go cycling. Go walking. Go swimming. Just keep moving and stay positive. Things will improve. Don't punish yourself or feel guilty. If your run times are way off what they used to be, so what? You've been there and you'll get there again.

I'm preaching to myself too here by the way, but I know others have felt the same. And in the end, you'll come back to form. I'm glad Fly 5k has been a motivator for a lot of people, and that we can share our good, and not so good runs here. Just remember that we've all been affected this year in some way, and we're all stronger with everything positive that we do.