pickupthepacepaul

What have you learnt about yourself during lockdown?

I’ve learnt about what’s truly important in life and how we don’t need as much stuff as we thought we did to live our lives and be okay. I have also realised that bar a few meet-ups with friends throughout the week and trips out for the kids every now and then, that life in lockdown isn’t actually too dissimilar to life out of lockdown.

I had started a new job as a personal trainer in a gym just one week before lockdown begun so I didn’t really get into the routine of working again before it ended quickly. My kids are 4 and 2 so they’re not in school yet which means I’m lucky enough not to have to do any homeschooling and we live within 2k to the Regional park so that is still accessible for us. We don’t live near family either so FaceTime is the norm for us, we’re still talking just as much as we were before.

What are you doing to stay motivated?

I’m fitting in at least one session a day for me, whether it’s a strength training session, yoga or getting on the Wattbike on Zwift. I have had a niggling pain while running for quite a long while so I have decided to take this opportunity to rest my injury and work on recovering as soon as possible.

What are you most looking forward to when we are out of lockdown?

Planning a trip to see my family. Seeing my friends again, taking the kids to see theirs and restarting our parkrun tourism journey.

My son was also due to get his parkrun wristband for completing 11 junior pakruns so he’s looking forward to that too. I’m also really looking forward to doing all the things that we had the freedom to do before yet we rarely did like going out for dinner etc

What rearranged event are you looking forward to and why?

I was supposed to be running a 25k race with the kids in the double buggy in April. I got a new buggy for my birthday in March and it’s only been used a handful of times so I really, really, really cannot wait to get out running and racing again with the kiddos. The race has been moved to November so hopefully it’ll all go ahead then, the only downside is that the kids will be heavier to push.

What challenges have you set yourself in lockdown, or for when you get out?

We’ve planned, as a family, to run the Waterford Greenway (46k) in late summer, hopefully! We’ll spend the day running one way with the kiddos, stay overnight and then hire bikes to cycle back the next day. Our new buggy is a running buggy & a bike trailer so it’ll work out great. It’ll be a nice adventure for us and something for us to work towards and look forward to.

What makes you #runhappy?

Running with my family and friends. Doing more parkrun tourism which enables us to explore more of Ireland and getting to chat to the locals.

Running also gives me time to switch off and is my ‘me’ time – there is always something at home that needs to be done so it takes me away from that and allows me to just be.