Week ending 20th March
So the blog has finally caught up with the rest of the world and we are just about to enter lockdown. As you are aware our Fire Angels are key workers as firefighters so their world doesn’t really change, if anything it gets more complicated, harder and busier. One big change will be how they train and when, we are allowed one form of exercise per day so in the coming weeks and months we will find out what changes they have made and any improvisation they have done to keep training in lockdown and all whilst social distancing. I have a feeling that the tyres will be involved somehow…
This does bring me on to another important factor; given that events are postponed including fundraising and big training events for the guys it will mean that there will not be as much for us to blog about for the foreseeable future. We have however decided to keep this going, keeping you up to date, giving hints and tips where we can on how to deal with lockdown, what exercise you can do and what routines they are getting in to in order to keep them mentally fit too.
Team LAFA
For Nikki as the week developed she started to feel really weird about the situation, as I am sure we all did. When this all first started it was hard to get into some sort of routine for most of us and the team are no different; like Nikki most of us are quite happy in our own little bubble going about day to day life and then when something like this hits it is very hard to process. A tip, don’t read the news and media too much in the day, in fact if you can, try and have one day away from it entirely, you can genuinely drive yourself crazy with it. If you are like me then some of us need to start social distancing from the fridge and the biscuit tin, but these guys have much more drive and motivation than I do!
To overcome the weird feeling Nikki got up and did a savage 40 minute workout that included 150 burpees and at the end of it all she felt much better, in fact her whole perspective had changed on the situation. In her own words Nikki says; ‘I really do use exercise for my mental health – it makes me happy and I feel more like myself, ready to take on the world!’ Although it may not be for all of us, if exercise helps your mental health, try and keep it going whilst on lockdown. Look after your physical and mental health as best you can.
Before social distancing kicked in Nikki and her friend Emily went tyre dragging around Thursley Common. It is the perfect place for Nikki as it is close to home and the terrain is a mixture of sand and trail, whilst being mostly flat but a fair few hills in to challenge you too.
They managed to cover 6.4km in 2 hours and it got really tough. Both Emily and her Mum, who came along for the session, all had a go at pulling the tyres; Emily’s mum did brilliantly before handing the tyres back declaring they were crazy! The whole session felt really great, check out the picture of Nikki in action.
Nakita had a training session with the HART Team in Wales, Llangollen. She had a great week even if it was freezing cold. It was good to have something to occupy her mind as she has been thinking a lot about the stress of not being at home and able to help her family. It also meant taking another week away from training and working on the expedition and the AFA schedule.
It is that constant balance of finding enough time for work, training, fundraising events and some time for yourself too. Kudos to the team for keeping calm and carrying on.
Team WAFA
For George it is certainly different to last week with all her presentations and meetings. It has been a quiet week so far, just one meeting about setting up the social enterprise and she has also decided to go for her mountain leader qualifications which means she can take customers up mountains safely and puts her on the road to leading winter and polar expedition. Sounds phenomenal and will add another string to her already very full bow! But now back to that meeting, her and Alison met up with Rhys from ‘Social Business Wales’ to explore their ideas about setting up a social enterprise so that they can offer up some training, development and leadership opportunities to other groups of people. They have some work to do in order to write the strategy but Rhys thought it was a great idea and really liked the challenge they are undertaking along with getting schools involved, pretty sure there will be more invites in the post for them soon.
The current situation the world is in has meant a setback with fundraising but it is temporary and there will be many more exciting fundraising events planned in the future. The team is understandably very quiet, taking it all in like the rest of us. However trying to keep some sort of normality in life means that with gyms closing Alison looked in to what equipment she could get delivered to her house so that the training doesn’t take a back seat in the coming months. Exercise for the team is a great way to destress and keep mentally healthy, Alison also finds it a great way to empty her head space and sometimes helps her come up with solutions to complex problems she has been battling with. So for the foreseeable future they will be re-thinking their training routines, with only one allowance a day for exercise outside the rest will be improvisation and home gyms.
For Alison, now she is back in to her work and play lifestyle she decided to try her hand at dragging the tyres for the first time. She went for an hour around the local park and got some very strange looks and of course some people wanted to know why she was doing it. Alison told people all about the expedition and, obviously, people were really interested. It makes sense for the guys to get their logos on their training kit and maybe some business cards to give out to people so they can stay in the loop over the coming years. As for the actual tyre dragging it was pretty hard, she tells me you can feel the change in the surface and notice the smallest incline, great to practise the technique and keep fitness up.
For those of you who follow the team and myself on social media you will know that they guys have started to film a few bits and pieces, mainly to say hello and how they are coping with the lockdown along with some hints and tops to keep yourself mentally and physically healthy.
Stayed tuned for more to come but as a starter here is founder and team leader for LAFA, Nakita. (Click the picture for the video).
Stay Safe. Stay At Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives.