I love this terminology that I have pinched from our good friends at Mindgift “Quarantine Routine”
This is the most important thing to Mark and I during our lockdown here is Spain. You see in Spain, we don’t get to exercise outside the grounds of the house and can only walk Archie, 500 meters from the house, so keeping motivated and upbeat has been a real focus for us. I am not too proud to say I have had moments of tears and frustration at the situation that is so quickly unfolding before us all. I have also felt uplifted by the amount of kindness people have shown to others and the term “paying it forward” has never been more relevant than now!
As we enter our second week of lockdown with 2 more weeks to go, we’ve realised that we really do need to get some routine into our days. Motivated by Mindgift, we have been reminded that routine is key and have started our day with a quick 10 mins to plan. Mark is a big one for visuals, so we have a white board to note down what we want to achieve in the day, and so here is an example of a daily “Quarantine Routine”:-
- Archie 3 x 30 mins dog walk up and down the road
- 30 mins news updates only morning
- 1.5 morning Cycle Retreats Focus
- 1.5 afternoon Cycle Retreats Focus
- 1-hour Spanish lesson
- Soup making for the doorstep drop offs
- Lunch with an episode of TV rubbish
- Training peaks sessions
- Zoom calls we have booked
- Any lives we want to watch today is Ribble and Mindgift
- 30 mins news updates only evening
Since setting our daily schedule, we have developed simple additions like trading our Cycle Retreats Focus time for morning juice whilst catching up with social stuff or blasting out some music – you know how Mark loves to dance to S-Club! Our Spanish lesson general follows our lunch whilst we sit and watch some TV rubbish.
The Facebook lives are important to us, so on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we do Yoga with Amanda from Moreira. We love doing her class, which is normally set on the beach. Some of you will have been to her class with us! Mark does Metafit every Wednesday with Mel his coach at Smiling Tri.
Check out the Facebook Lives or Zoom classes you could sign up to, they really put some routine into your day and has really kept us focused, plus it also helps us limit the news updates!
Last but certainly not least, we ensure that we go to bed about the same time every night and get up about the same time every morning, it helps keep the structure that is so important currently.
Until the lock-down is lifted, you can catch up with us on Facebook Live every Wednesday and Saturday at 10.00 am UK time and 11.00 am Spanish time. Please join us, we are happy to answer any questions you have on “Quarantine Routine” – cycling or not cycling related, it all helps keep the wheels turning!
