CORONA VIRUS, CORONA VIRUS *Cardi B voice*
Hey guys. It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted but I might as well start up again with all this time we have, right???
If I’m honest, it’s been hard for me to take a “break” in the midst of all of this going on. No, I haven’t been going to bars and eating out like everything is normal right now. I just mean in a sense of training. I’m not a professional athlete, in a sense, so I didn’t necessarily have the #Tokyo2020 that many professional track athletes had going into this year. My resources to train have decreased drastically due to everything closing (which I completely understand and in support of by all means to flatten the curve) but I still find myself trying to make a way. For the days I can’t go outside and run, I’m inside doing a power yoga workout or a jump rope circuit. I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate running on concrete but now that all the local tracks around me are locking up, running in my neighborhood is the only option.
The Olympics, nor my personal outdoor season, may not even happen this year. But what I can hold on to in this time, and forever, is this: Hope.
Hope that my God is sovereign and is bigger than anything I face. Hope that this quarantine will be shorter than what the “experts” are saying. Hope that this will get better soon and that it won’t have to get worse before it gets better. Hope that a miracle will happen and the CDC can update the public by lifting the recommendations and restrictions. Hope that everything is temporary. Hope that we will overcome anything that’s thrown our way.
As crazy as this sounds, I believe that we will be lifted above all of this soon. We may have a “new normal” when it comes to operating in this world but something is telling me to hold on. To do all that I can do but to rest during this time as well.
It’s crazy to see nearly the whole world being put on pause. Even though I physically can’t run on a track in my spikes and complete my sprint workouts, this time is helping me to be grateful for what I do have. I’m thankful I’m not injured like I was in the fall and that I can still be physically active in the comforts of my neighborhood. I’m thankful that I’m finally able to look at myself in the mirror and be in love with my body in spite of still working towards my goals.
I’ve come a long way. And you have too. This pandemic might slow us down for a bit, but that’s okay. We will soon be able to look back on this time and be thankful for the much needed rest and perspective it’s given us. May we never take for granted each face-to-face interaction and the ease of driving to the gym to train going forward. Everything is a gift.
Mental Health for Athletes 