Covid Part 2
Ok, COVID is well and truly easing off now :) Not before I had my 3rd bout….. And I have finally got back to the blog after a winter hiatus. Lots of triathlon club stuff to organise, work as a board member for the Oxygen Works ( thank you for your kind donations last year), an Up Helly Aa in Shetland to take part in (more details will likely come in a future blog on that and back to work, work in the last month. Oh and of course the obligatory training for someone that spends their life loving the world of triathlons. But for this blog I I going to take you back to 2020 as I continued my recovery now embedded in a world of COVID. Still lots of lessons getting learnt on the way…..well does it ever end in life….I don’t think so. And hopefully you will find something useful in my musings.
COVID Part 2 – April 2020 – October 2020
It would be fair to say that COVID-19 in 2020 had an impact on individuals, families, relationships, communities, countries and pretty much the whole planet.
From a personal perspective, my journey remained largely unchanged. I was still very much “trying” to have patience to let myself recover and learning to focus on the things that I could control. And importantly not worrying too much about what the rest of the world was doing or thinking. This was leading me not to be too concerned with what I might do in the future, despite being completely conditioned by culture and society to think that is what I should be focused on. I was able to control my mind (most of the time) what I was eating and my physical fitness. So, building a routine around movement, meditation, journaling, learning the guitar, eating healthily, and writing this blog were all helping me, and my brain recover.
I was also listening to a lot of podcasts to improve my outlook and understanding on life. My 2 favourites were and still are Feel Better Live More by Dr Rangan Chatterjee https://drchatterjee.com and Rich Roll https://www.richroll.com. Dr Chatterjee is a GP in the UK who has a refreshing outlook on medicine. To use his own words
“Progressive medicine takes a full 360-degree approach to health and how the body’s systems can better work together to reduce the risk of chronic disease while improving vitality. With progressive medicine, I focus on finding the root cause of diseases and help my patients make their illnesses disappear. This means that as a doctor that I focus on all of you, not just the symptoms. I don’t treat the disease; I treat the person. The majority of my patients don’t need a pill, they need a lifestyle prescription.”
I love this and so agree with it. He is also totally of the opinion that no one size fits all and that due to DNA and culture etc solutions for diet and living a good life will be varied. Rich Roll is a vegan ultra-endurance athlete that is a wellness & plant-based nutrition advocate with an amazing back story that I will let you investigate! Both gentlemen spend their time interviewing a wide range of people that have different perspectives on the key aspects of life that need to be in place for us to be content and happy. And it ain’t lots of money! Although clearly there is a minimum amount needed to provide shelter and food etc. Truly inspiring and fascinating. I tended to listen to the podcasts when I was doing my latest session on my turbo trainer (and still do) so the intensity of the session determines how much I am taking in ;)
So how was I getting through lockdown? Well as I have already mentioned, I was ironically in training for lockdown as I battled with my own recovery from my brain injury at this point. I’ve broken it down into 6 areas.
1. Having a routine was/is critical.
Having a plan for your day and your week is even more important when you don’t have a job to define your days. And what forms part of that routine is crucial for your mental health. I had started sitting down for perhaps an hour on a Sunday evening to plan the week ahead. It’s amazing how quickly a week fills up when you are consciously thinking about the things you want to accomplish and what will make you happy in a week. To simplify my routine I would include meditation, movement, journaling, quality sleep, eating healthily and projects.
My local Yoga studio started doing an early morning mediation in lockdown at 0730hrs. So, when I wasn’t away Open Water swimming at some ungodly hour as we were allowed to do later in lockdown, I started the day with the morning mediation. It was only for 15 mins but got me up and awake and my mind in a good place to start the day. This has been maintained to this day using the calm app now. This was followed by a 10/15-minute kettle bell, dumbbell, push up and pull up workout which I sourced from another fitness guy that I follow called Ben Greenfield. https://bengreenfieldfitness.com. If I didnt’t have a scheduled yoga class that day, I would often do a 20minute yoga session at this point too. Still a maintained habit. Then journaling and breakfast which was focused on oats, coconut milk, frozen berries and a banana. Depending on what I had planned for the day I may have had a bagel with almond butter for more energy. The journaling includes gratitude and planning for the day. The rest of the day is broken into sections that are filled by other parts of the plan including my projects that I am working on. Which I will come onto in a bit. And of course, I endeavour to get to bed early (with varying success) to get as close to 8 hours a night as I can. In all honesty without a routine and plans (as I discovered before I started to do it) you can find yourself just staring at a TV screen or playing endless games on your phone. Not very fulfilling or productive. The mindless stuff does still happen from time to time (who’s perfect!) but much less than before.
2. Training and training goals
I have been in some kind of training for sports events since I started my journey to losing weight in 2001. The activity from the training energises me, gets me out in nature, keeps me fit and healthy, gives me goals, I fundamentally enjoy training and importantly being active allows me to eat the odd bit of cake or have a beer guilt free ;) As discussed, I trained for the half marathon in the early part of 2020. Since lockdown began, I switched my focus to working on my swim stroke and regaining swim fitness and fell back in love with my bike. Virtually turboing loads on Zwift (I’ll leave that one for you to investigate) and riding with Andrew out on the road and the Mtb (damn the boy is fit and fast!) I kept on the running too after training for the half marathon, well I am allegedly a triathlete, but importantly the emphasis is now squarely on fun. There is effort involved too clearly (you can’t knock the competitiveness out of me that easily, mostly on improving myself) but enjoyment has taken on a new level of importance since the accident. Ask the people that I passed on the recent Etape Loch Ness in minging conditions with a stupid smile on my face ;) I also started doing Munro’s in 2019 as part of my rehab. So, as lockdown was easing and the weather improved, I got myself completely addicted to getting up big hills. 42 Munros (70now) and counting at that point as lockdown was easiung.
Being fit was a critical part of me surviving the accident and indeed recovering from it. I find the training and fitness gives me a great focus for my recovering body and brain. As Cameron McNeish say’s “There’s always the hills”. It’s a great de-stressor and puts the world and the shenanigans going on in it into some kind of perspective. It’s a really good way for the brain and body to recover as it takes on the challenge of planning and executing a big day out.
3. Projects
I’ve mentioned having a routine above and part of that process for me has been building in projects that are appropriate to my rehab. They have to interest me and align with my values. I was exploring a variety of projects as part of my brain recovery anyway, but it has really served me in lockdown. I’ll briefly touch on 4 here but it’s a flexible and fluid process that I review on a weekly basis when I’m planning my week. And of course, writing this blog is one of my projects :)
· Supporting Andrew with his training to be a top DH Mountain biker
The context is Andrew loves his MTB and is dam good on it. And as mentioned previously he had secured a team for the 2020 season after winning the Scottish championship for his age group in 2019. Due to COVID this became the 2021 season! The team were awesomely supportive throughout the lockdown and Andrew was totally committed to becoming the best rider he could be. I love coaching and through the Triathlon Club had secured my level 2 coaching qualification. Due to my circumstances, I have the time and some knowledge to focus on supporting Andrew. And what Dad wouldn’t want the opportunity to spend time with his son :) And I do a wee bit of MTBing myself. Not quite at Andrew’s level as he’ll tell you himself ;)
Anyway, Andrew needed to focus on some strength training to enable him to become a better rider ( you should see the size of him now!) and we had some plans in place for this to be done pre COVID. With the uncertainty around gyms etc I decided to set up a proper gym in my flat at the time for Andrew. With the support of a specific MTB strength coach to develop programs, Andrew could come to the flat twice a week and I could supervise his training. Andrew could also use my Turbo (there’s that word again! You’ll have to look it up now;) when he was there. So in short summary, I spent my time organising all of this and swotting up on all things MTB training.
· Studying Nutrition
Along with the physical training, nutrition is important for anyone involved in sport to ensure they have the right energy on board and for recovery. This is a subject I have always personally been interested in for my own health and training and it was useful knowledge as I supported Andrew in his training. I had decided as part of my rehab to undertake an online nutrition course https://www.precisionnutrition.com. It was a great format where I studied modules before taking open book online tests. Managing my recovering brain is important and I found that format worked well. I could schedule 2 or 3 - 2-hour slots in a week. It’s a learning process on 2 fronts. I’m understanding nutrition much better and working out the capacity of my recovering brain to study and how best to manage it.
· Learning the guitar
I have always been interested in music. As my Mum would tell you given the racket that was permanently coming from the stereo in my room growing up. Growing up I learnt to play a few instruments too. The piano, recorder (well who doesn’t), the trumpet, the French horn and drums to an ok level. As is always the way with me, I didn’t stick at them but have always had a good ear for music. I had sort of played around with the guitar before my accident but again had never been consistent with the practice bit. I suddenly found myself with some time on my hands. In that year I started getting lessons from a local guy called Nicky Murray that I found advertised on the notice board at a local café called Velocity. He is a superb musician that plays at MacGregors from time to time. The lessons started face to face and then moved to Zoom during COVID. I really enjoyed putting in more consistent practice and defo started to see the benefits. The journey continues. And still continues ;)
· Voluntary roles and part time work
I love to be able to give back to the community that I live in and hopefully make a positive difference to people I meet and interact with. I have a lot of experience from before the accident and certainly since the accident, and if I can use that to help in areas that line up with my values then I am always keen to explore how. As I have mentioned I was a coach with the Tri Club and loved helping and supporting others to get involved in sport and hopefully getting the benefits that I have. I began volunteering with the charity spokes for folks before lockdown. This is on hold for now but again is a great service to help people predominantly from care homes get outside and enjoy the outdoors for a few hours at a time. I am on the board of The Oxygen Works and love the wonderful service they offer to help people with MS and other conditions. I was a user of the service to help my recovery from my brain injury and cannot recommend it highly enough. I was also lucky enough to do some part time work for the Bike Hire business Ticket to Ride in autumn 2020. A great wee company offering people access to hire bikes in the Highlands. A very seasonal business as you would expect, and quite significantly impacted by COVID but superb none the less. And I now work there over the summer for 3 days a week as my brain has continued to recover. I love it and the variety is brilliant. All the above opportunities are very in line with my values of being active and healthy and I will continue to explore opportunities where I have the capacity to get involved and make a difference. I need to watch not to overcook things as my brain recovers, but it’s great to be busy.
4. Eating Healthily
Eating healthily has something that I have been interested in ever since I started losing weight in 2001. And then as I got more and more into training and triathlon over the years, fuelling myself and recovery from training and races became important. This I suppose was the start. And then as it became apparent from what I was reading and researching that what I eat would help my brain recover from the accident my curiosity deepened. Another very bizarre outcome from the accident was that I lost my sense of taste and smell. And as my Mum will tell you I have always liked my food, so this was a bit of a blow!! Anyway, no matter. My focus was now on training and recovery, so food became more of a fuel rather than enjoyment. And as Hannah has got bored of hearing…. if the food has a nice texture that is a bonus;)! My interest in healthy food has taken on 2 focuses. What I eat and I have taken up studying an online course in nutrition. It’s great because the knowledge I gain influences my behaviour. This led to me using the “My Fitness Pal” app at the time to track how many calories, how much protein, how much healthy fat, how much fibre and how many carbs I was eating. I eat as little processed food as possible, source my food as locally as possible, cook from scratch as much as possible, batch cook and freeze that food and take supplements in any areas that I don’t get all the nutrients I need. Vitamin D would be the obvious one, given we don’t get as much sunlight in the North as would be ideal. And My Fitness Pal helps me track the nutrients too. I suppose the food is such a crucial part of my rehab and training and supports good sleep, concentration, mood and wellbeing etc too. The more you look into it, the impact on your health and wellbeing from what you eat is huge. You essentially have to turn off the advertising and marketing and do your own research. And in these hard times we are going through due to the pandemic, it has never been more crucial (in my humble opinion) to try and eat as well as we can to support our mental health too.
5. Podcasts and Reading
This is an area that has helped me immensely in my recovery. One of the biggest impacts of the accident was a reduction in my short-term memory and my ability to concentrate. And as anyone that knows me will tell you, we weren’t starting from a high base!! Hahaha but in all seriousness, it has been a great way for me to keep testing the noggin and clearly learn lots of new and interesting things along the way. How much I’ll remember is another question! As I have been gradually able to concentrate longer and longer, my ability to tackle more and more complex books has improved. Given I have a tendency to read Non-Fiction all the time this has been a huge challenge. I’m getting better at picking a novel now first for relaxation purposes. I had Blinkist on my phone which is a great way of reading the type of books I like quickly and getting the big ideas.
I mentioned a couple of great podcasts I listen to earlier and I would include Mindvalley and Optimise Me as fantastic sources of great information relating to health, wellbeing and essentially optimizing your life. I have been listening to Brian Johnson for probably 10/11 years since he started Philosophers Notes, and he covers books relating to managing your emotions, developing your intellect, and improving your spirituality. I have always found his insight helpful. This was magnified first in my recovery following the accident and then again as we went into lockdown. It’s very easy to get sucked into a boxset (and that’s totally cool now and again) but consciously doing something for your self-improvement will serve you better in the long run. I strongly believe that you never stop learning in life. This approach has helped in rehab, pandemic and and life in general.
6. Spending quality time with the important people in your life
It’s no secret that these relationships with family and friends provide us with incredible peace and happiness. From a personal perspective being available to my kids to be the best Dad I can be had always been a high priority. When Emma and I separated this got a little more challenging but still at the top of my list. And being close to the kids is why I ended up moving from Shetland (Via Aberdeen) to Inverness. The relationships with Mum and Dad and the kids became even more important after the accident and into lockdown. What they all went through on the back of my accident I can’t even imagine. Their resilience in these circumstances has always been a huge source of pride and motivation to me in my recovery. It drives me on and has probably strengthened our relationships. I try to be as attentive as I can be to what they need and spend real quality time when we can. And ironically, I probably saw them even more in lockdown! They are now at the age where I don’t think there are 3 people, I would rather spend time with. Whether it’s going up a munro or any walk, MTBing, listening to music, playing music, listening to the kids playing music and singing, playing games, chilling, and watching a great movie, having great conversations or just hanging out it’s all great :) And it has helped in rehab and lockdown.
We had also started up a regular Zoom catch up with Mum, Dad, Paul and Fiona. These were sporadic at best before COVID but were now happening every 2/3 weeks. Another positive outcome from a global pandemic.
The same is true of close friends through Zoom, meeting up for coffee, meeting up for a beer in the heady days of pubs being open and getting out for cycles or my new favourite up a hill. We were heading into winter back in 2020, so the outside stuff was harder to manage, but there were always nice days when you just have to drop everything and get out and do something. And when all else is not possible a walk round the amazing green spaces in Inverness was great.
So that was my top 6 and as you can probably tell it’s a template I’ve tried to use in life in general. And these approaches have become even more important to me as I recovered from the accident or indeed deal with the global pandemic. One of my drivers in life as things moved forward was to maintain these behaviours and routines. (thankfully most are still in place :) ) I had completed a lot of self-reflection and evaluation over the 2 years following the accident and sharing even wee bits of what I had learned if it can help others in similar situations is a massive bonus.
So incredibly that is only me up to the end of 2020. Still 2 and a bit more years to go until we even get up to date. I can honestly say re- reading this stuff is cathartic all over again. I’m amazed how far I had come by then and how much the brain is still improving now.
