I’m pretty excited writing this because here in Ontario, our lockdown is finally starting to ease up, with patios for restaurants now open and gatherings of 10 now allowed. But that *just* happened. So, what have we been up to and what have we learned? We decided to do a lockdown update to really think through the last couple months.
Catch up: Healthy Living a Week Into Self-Quarantine
We both love to train for the sake of training
The big thing that we’ve realized in the last three months is that both of us really just love being active. There was never a question of continuing to train or stopping when races started coming off the calendar. Peter’s training schedule shifted slightly, but really, we’ve both basically stayed the course. I hadn’t planned on competing much this summer anyway, as I was mainly planning way ahead for 2021, but I still snuck out for a virtual marathon a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed adding some tangible ‘to-dos’ to my schedule with a goal like that.
Competing with Your Former Self – Strategy for Aging
We’re more homebodies than we realized
Now that we’re in a space that we’ve been able to really set up well for ourselves (and our puppy that we FINALLY got!), it’s become less and less urgent to add more travel to the schedule. (Also, I really enjoy being able to easily stick to my New Year’s Resolution of only eating baked goods that I actually bake myself.) This is actually an important one because it lets us think more about where we want to be in a few years, and being forced to stay in place and really see how that feels has been an interesting experiment.
Wanderlust Versus Homesteading: The Struggle is Real
We will always fill the time we have
I’ll be honest, I thought we’d be bored by now. Considering in February, we worked 10+ hour days coaching while keeping up with regular work, and worked 14 hour days in the first week of March while doing the same, I thought we’d have tons of time free. But it turned out that a) we both had a huge backlog of projects (like this website, for instance!) and other work that we wanted to keep pushing on. So we’ve actually been continuing to work full days–no room for boredom here.
Self-Isolation + Remote Work Healthy Living Suggestions and Reminders
…But there is a bit of ennui
We may not be bored, but we have had to ride quite a few waves of ennui during this lockdown. There have been weeks where getting through the usual daily grind just felt like an uphill battle we couldn’t win, and unfortunately, whenever one of us feels that way, it’s often contagious. So we’ve been working to balance our energy better, and to not rub off on each other!
What Do We Do When Quarantine Monotony Sets In?
Routines are easier and harder
Easier because we’re home and everything is in place (finally), harder because we have a new puppy who DOES NOT appreciate my morning yoga. Easier because it’s harder to go out and get whatever the heck I want to eat from a restaurant or a grocery store, harder because there is a temptation to just let things slide because the situation is still stressful in a lot of ways. I would say we’re actually doing better with routines now that restrictions are starting to lift: Peter is back to coaching smaller, local bike skills sessions, which means we’re not in the office all day, everyday together. D.W. is generally sleeping 6+ hours at night, so I’m not up twice to let him out. The food scarcity mindset has gone back to normal levels, so I have less stress over being able to get what I want at the grocery store. I miss my family in NJ, but we FaceTime regularly. Basically, we’ve started to shore up our old good routines and create new ones to fit the current climate. It’s definitely a balancing act!
How has the last three months changed your lifestyle and training? Let us know here in the comments or over on Instagram at @ConsummateAthlete
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