During the current isolation that we are all experiencing during this awful coronavirus pandemic, it has given us all some extra time to think whilst we are at home and I thought I would do a little bitesize blog about how I’m currently feeling about my sports and fitness.
Whilst I have been in isolation during the lockdown and obviously unable to play competitive sport, I’ve been keeping myself fit and ticking over with home workouts and some trail running. But I was thinking after my cardio and skipping workout this evening, when my legs were aching a bit, that I’m actually feeling very fit and strong right now having come through a transitional period with my competitive sport and my body in particular to now be on a good run of form and fitness for a couple of years now.
I feel that pretty quickly, my natural physical peak years ended after 31 years of age and I did have to go through a frustrating period where I had to adapt and transition to the physical changes to my body athletically and during this time, my performances did suffer, however, I certainly learned a lot about my body. This period was between the ages of 32 and 33. I had to mentally and physically combat a natural decline in athletic ability and fitness, which was happening due to a combination of several factors. Ageing, wear and tear to my body after years of sport and fitness and I also took a planned 2 year break from the marathon distance as well as cut back on the amount of competitive football that I played. However, from learning and adapting my training and style of play in certain sports during this period, I have now managed to maintain a good level of fitness despite the changes and able to perform to a good standard when competing in competitive sport.
I really do feel that having adapting my football style to be able to conserve my energy better and produce my special moments where I may beat a few players or dribble with the ball, I can still produce these moments in glimpses and I am consistently having impacts on most games that I play in. Over the last year and a half ages 34 to 35 now, after I have become a veteran, I feel like I am on a really good run in terms of performance and my fitness level.
Don’t get my wrong, I have the odd off games here and there but this is to be expected now I am in my mid 30s and I don’t have to be so hard on myself. After 27 years of competitive sport and fitness, my body does not feel fresh like it once was and due to this, sometimes training can feel draining or harder than I expect it to but on the plus side, after learning how to adapt my training and learning even more about my body, I know when to rest and how hard to push my body. The last thing I want to happen is to get injured having pushed my body too much and then be out of action and lose all of my momentum. For example, I had a re-occurring achilles problem recently so I rested from running for 3 to 4 weeks. Instead I kept cardio fit on my indoor bike and now I am back running again.
The annoying thing is for me, there was a time that training sessions felt so easy and frustratingly now, sometimes the sessions can be really tough on my legs, but hey, I’m a veteran now.
In regard to my competitive football, I’m only playing in a 6 a side league for my cousins team (my cousin Michael) but we are on a roll and have won promotion to the top tier division on Wednesday. The satisfying thing for me is I’m playing against mostly 20 something year olds who are coming into their physical prime years and I’m doing well most weeks and having big impacts on games, at 35 years old and I’m happy that I can run faster in explosive bursts and be as fit, if not fitter than most of them over the course of a 50 minute game.
I’m scoring goals and making assists almost every game, it’s very rare I don’t get on the scoresheet. I’ve scored a lot of braces and a good few hat-tricks too. My last game before the lockdown I scored 4 goals and the winning goal in the last minute against one of the top teams, it was a great feeling and I felt like I was rolling back the years.
As I said, yes, I do have the odd off game now and then but I guess being 5 years past my footballing prime, I am going to have games where I don’t feel myself.
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Checkout my current form below in competitive football, before the lockdown pandemic happened.
I do definitely feel like I’m now on a good run and a roll and I would go as far as to say that now I’m out of that initial frustrating two year period where I was struggling to adapt to my body and fitness changing, I am into my twilight Indian summer of my competitive sport and fitness and I do hope it continues for Atleast a few years before I hit 40 and really begin to naturally decline from a competitive stand point. The sports I play are generally young mans games, with maybe the exception of long distance running.
I want to play competitive football of some form for as long as I can but I do also have pride in myself and if I start to struggle to make an impact on games then I may call it a day and just play football recreationally.
I am going to enjoy this run of a physical Indian summer that I am going through and I do plan to keep myself fit and ticking over so that I don’t lose any momentum. I would have been due to run the Leeds Half Marathon race next month so before lockdown I was training for that and competed a running challenge but it has been postponed and I am not sure yet whether it will be re-organised for later this year or cancelled all together? It will be my 14th Leeds Half Marathon and 25th half marathon race once I finally run it.
Me and Katie also have some cool plans to build our own mini gym in our spare room when we finally move into our newly bought home so I can’t wait for that. I also have a trophy shelf and medal rack to be able to show all my silverware off, I cannot wait.
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Checkout my all-time senior football statistics for competitive football below:
Home Garden Workout for Isolation
I would also like to share with you a video that I released on my RJ Sports TV You Tube Channel last week showing one of my outdoor workouts that I have been doing during lockdown that does not require any equipment.
It keeps me fit and ticking over and this particular workout can be completed in 20 minutes and is great fun.
I am also especially proud of my fiancé Katie who is currently on a new health and fitness kick, which she started during lockdown. She has improved her diet but most of all she has been working hard on her cardio and learning some new core strength exercises. She is sticking to a routine and is looking so well and healthy. Her goal is to also lose weight and she has lost nearly a stone. I am very proud and we have plans to continue training together in our home gym when we finally move into our new home in Menston. We also plan to take up hiking as a healthy hobby together when we move to Menston as there are loads of amazing trails and walks around that area, not to mention the 200 acres of communal land we have where we are moving to.
See Katie using the abs roller below
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