Our safe running path - should still be there when we can get out again
This post is a brief pause for breath in the very rapidly changing, unsettling times we’re all living through. It draws on clients’, other coaches’ and my own experiences and stories in readjusting our plans and resetting perspectives.
The Changing Landscape
How quickly everything has changed! And just when you think we’re adjusting to a new normal, there’s another rupture.
Just a few weeks ago, when other countries were already well into lock downs, alarming rates of infection and deaths rising, here at home there was a detached sense of it not being real - panic buyers emptied the supermarkets of toilet rolls, pasta and tins of tomato - but otherwise…? Those I coach privately, my local Tri Club and swim lessons all kept going, albeit uneasily waiting to see or be told what might happen.
Then we had one sporting event after another cancelled or postponed, some organisers ahead of others (and the Government lagging behind at the back). At least we could keep regular exercise and training, even if some of the events marked up in our calendars were looking uncertain or no longer going ahead. Eventually swimming pools and other sports centres were told to close and we entered the world of more limited exercising once a day. The internet quickly started buzzing with stay at home exercise classes, “beat the lock down” tips and tricks and funny posts of swimmers getting their cold water kicks without venturing out.
On a more personal note, the virus has now literally come home as my partner, Anne, has relatively mild symptoms. So we’re waiting a little anxiously to see how it develops, whether I will get it too and in the meantime adjusting to life in self-isolation for at least two weeks - no more getting out for that once a day early morning run, walk or swim in the sea.
Plans & Perspectives
And this is one of the interesting things I’ve been struck by in my own and others’ responses - how we uneasily falter and stumble to reset our perspectives when all around there is at best uncertainty and at worst very real struggles for life and death. It’s as if, without thinking about it, we cling on to certain routines and goals even when circumstances all around call for a more decisive shift of focus and behaviour.
Where to find that perspective, though, between the extremes of ploughing on regardless in dangerous denial and a heavy hearted abandoning of aims and ambitions given “the bigger scheme of themes”?
There’s a post I wrote on the Confidence Centred Coaching site for sports coaches about finding perspective that digs a little deeper into this question. Here, in this post written more for clients and others whose plans for big challenges and competitions are left hanging in the air, it may help to single out three shifts in mindset described in that post. We’ll then get to some more practical stuff before ending with a question for you.
Here are my three shifts in mindsets that are helping me and, I hope, those I coach to reset our perspectives:
reframing purpose: several of my ZigZag clients had been aiming for specific events, each of very special significance for them. Some have been cancelled, others that are scheduled for later in the year are hanging in an uneasy limbo. So I’ve encouraged a broader focus beyond the specific event and instead open up our perspectives to the whole world of being able, when conditions change, to any number of exciting adventures. For one intrepid client, learning to swim from scratch to do the Dart 10k in September (pending a decision in June), I’ve suggested amongst other things researching new and interesting outdoor swimming places in her area and, looking further afield, possible big swim adventures and trips. This way our aims are not solely tied to one event, which may or may not happen, but to exploring the whole new world of swimming that will be there waiting, when conditions allow.
connections: thinking this way also leads to another shift in perspective, this one a deepening focus: from being locked in to single events and performances to a richer, deeper sense of how our active lifestyles connect and ground us. I think of three such connections: to nature, to others and to ourselves. I know in myself, when I’ve been singularly focused on peaking for an event or going for some big challenge, how insular and self-absorbed I become. Perhaps it’s because I’ve got slower and less likely to be pushing for competitive places, but I’ve found a healthy, arguably more balanced perspective through seeking out and nurturing each of these connections. The last blog post on this site referred to the ZigZag Box of Runs I developed to help runners do just that, putting us in touch with the places we run in, connecting with others as we run and in tune and alert to our form, effort and movement - with a speed and energy that will surprise you.
uncertainty and stillness: the third change of mindset requires a seeking out of calmness. This is about slowing down our pace and stilling the constant urge to pin everything down, as if softening the focus, to accept that there is much we cannot control. There’s no point in being hard on ourselves when things change. We are also so used to being driven to targets and deadlines that there’s a risk that all sense of time drifts away and we either become apathetic and lethargic, or fall into a cabin fever type rebellious “I’m going to keep doing my stuff regardless”. Earlier this week I talked with another client who has been working toward a solo Channel swim in June, now looking very uncertain, though still not definitely cancelled or postponed. His instincts were to press for a definite date later in the year, but as we talked it through he acknowledged that at this stage no one can offer any certainty about alternative dates - so better not to demand that. We’re now working to a radically altered, looser plan of keeping up some aerobic fitness and cold water acclimatisation, ready for a big final step up in training if and when conditions allow.
Priorities and Practicalities
So how does this translate into practice, then?
Priority number 1 hardly goes without saying: stay safe and act in a way that keeps others safe. For those I’m coaching this includes a big emphasis on:
maintaining a healthy diet and attention to sleep hygiene
ensuring any training doesn’t leave our immune system compromised, drained out in a puddle of sweat. That means lower intensity training and reining back on the longer distances or prolonged exposure to the elements
and of course rigorous adherence to the guidelines on social distancing and, if necessary, isolation.
Secondly, with so many of our daily routines disrupted it also seems to help greatly to create a structure to each day.
For some this might mean drawing up a detailed, daily schedule, with times set for each and every identified task. For me, a looser approach works, based on the kinds of activities I want to include each day: daily yoga and stretch routine to tick off, some form of exercise (made harder but not impossible now we have to stay indoors). I’m also trying to ensure that each day I make a connection with at least one person I wouldn’t otherwise see or hear from. Most days I also want to spend some time on being creative and dedicated to learning. Adding my own wellbeing and relaxation to the list helps take away some of the guilt and frustration about not being able to do more (or rather, to do all the things that kept me busy but not necessarily fulfilled, before).
Being open to novelty can help - identifying something not tried before and giving it a go. Some things may be forced on us by necessity. Yesterday from the confines of our small garden, I joined my friend and fellow coach, Kate Offord’s 3pm boot camp - around 40 minutes of great aerobic and Strength & Conditioning exercises. This will be a new addition to my routine from here on (so long as I’m not too stiff from the previous day’s).
In a similar spirit of opening up something new for others, I’ve just written a piece for the Outdoor Swimming Society called The Reluctant Runners’ Guide - aimed at those swimmers who would normally be storming up and down their local pools and waterways but now find themselves unable to maintain their endurance fitness.
If you know of others who might benefit from either, please spread the word. Give something new a try yourself. Make a space in your timetable.
Going Back or Forward
One final thought for those I coach and others as we readjust to these restrictive and uncertain times is about where we see ourselves going.
When I was in what would be thought of as regular, normal work before becoming a full-time coach, one of the most over-used phrases was “going forward.” “What’s our strategy… going forward?” It always struck me as a rather empty and pointless phrase, as if we would spend time considering strategies “going backwards.” Yet I’ve noticed how often we talk in terms of things going “back” to normal - as if we want to return to some point in the past.
It goes without saying I’m very much hoping the pandemic and all the desperate consequences it brings will pass. And I really hope some of the super events planned for later in the year will be able to go ahead and we can pick up the ambitions currently on hold. But what will we take with us “going forward”? How do we want things to be different as the future unfolds?
When I think ahead this way several things come to mind for me:
an even greater yearning for and excitement about supporting others so they surprise themselves with what they can do, whether in specific, targeted events or taking that broader perspective of the wider world of an active life full of adventures
the disciplines of making time each day for the things that really matter, such as connections to others, learning and being still, finding new depths in each
the kinder, generous, caring and looking out for each other spirit that seems to be in so much abundance now.
And you? As always please use the Comments box below to add your own thoughts and reflections.