Training During Lockdown

Team Campbell's conservatory has been repurposed as a home gym. Left to right : Nick, Tilly, Georgie and Ned. Oh dear. Looking at my diary I see I should have been competing in the Westminster Mile on 24/5, the County Champs last weekend, the British Masters 10,000m on Sunday, Vet's T&F next Wednesday and the Midland Masters T&F Championships on 14th. It should have been the Hilly 100 last Sunday, Midlands T&F next Sunday, Sphinx 5 on Wednesday and Two Castles on 14th. However, let's not dwell on what we can't do but on what we have been doing. This week we've got another great report from John Raby on the vWRRL race for May, where we had some truly great performances from 59 of our members out of a total of 405 competitors. There's also a chance for 6 of our vet's to relive their performances at the Inter Area Challenge in London at the beginning of March Apart from that it's going to be another one of those "aren't we a great club" editorials. Are you sitting comfortably ? Then I'll begin. I've got a sense that when this hiatus is over, we will emerge as an even stronger club than we were going in to it. My belief in this is strengthened when I see the extra mile some members have been prepared to go to help us all continue to enjoy our athletics. I'm always loathe to name names because I fear omitting some who are worthy of mention but when I look at the imagination shown and additional work put in by the likes of Sarah and Matt in organising the virtual Shakespeare races, aided and abetted by David Smythe this month, when I think of the effort put in by Rob with his Zoom sessions, the imagination shown by Sarah Boundy with her Alphabet Scavenger Hunt and Jon Mulkeen with his quiz, the generosity of Brian Weetman and his company www.riskhubgroup.co.uk in donating some £350 to Colonel Tom's Just Giving site in lieu of our efforts in last month's Shakespeare races, when I hear of the continuing one to one coaching support given by both Paul Hawkins and Paul Bearman and of 10 year old Joel Ledgard running a virtual marathon to raise funds for both the NHS and his school, I can't help but feel a warm glow of appreciation that I am a member of a club with such caring individuals. The Life During Lockdown feature is something that was triggered by the tremendous performances of many of our junior athletes when competing against the seniors in virtual races. I thought it would be interesting to hear how they have been coping and training . I'm sure many of the readers of the newsletter would love to hear what others of you are doing training wise during lockdown. Please, please please send me your comments plus photos if possible. In reading through the various submissions I have received I detect a definite…