When you have spent months working towards a goal, making sacrifices and building fitness, focus and resilience, only to have it all taken away – well, it’s hard to deal with. What do you do with all this hard-earned fitness? Team Meraki athlete Owen Vulliamy charts his own lockdown journey from frustration to freedom, finding silver linings along the way…
At the start of lockdown I found I was really proactive, and excited about the positives of it all. I was running long distances every day, and I clocked up my biggest month distance-wise, ever. I felt really good with my training and felt I was ready for more PBs!
However as lockdown went on, I felt there was a lot of pressure to keep running, and to keep the distance up. But I realised that pressure was only coming from me. It made me realise it was ok to have a rest and be kind to yourself.
For me, one of the positives that have come out of training during lockdown is that I don’t need to put so much pressure on myself to run and cycle loads of miles all the time. I realised that it is ok to stop and take time for myself.
Having so much time on my hands (being on furlough), I used my running to get out and explore new parts of the area; to slow down, reset and see what’s important in my life.
“It’s really helped me clear my head and look at life in a very different way, all for the best. I feel like myself again.”
One thing I changed was, I stopped listening to music when running. This has helped me really understand my running and breathing, how I can control it all and make myself a better runner. Also it’s just nice to hear the birds early in the morning!
Running for me has always been my escape and my cure for happiness and having all this extra time to run has really made me myself again. I feel that even though it’s a horrible time for the world right now there has been a lot of positives from all this. People have come together more, not just with each other but with themselves as well.
Since being part of Meraki I have learnt so much not just in my training but a lot from the other guys about everything else. Everyone is so positive, motivational and supportive and I’m very proud to say I’m part of Team Meraki.
I always remember we used Go slow, to go fast for my running but now I use it everyday and it’s changed everything
