Swimming! Biking! Running! Mountain Biking! Travel! Bucket Lists! Enter the COVID-19 pandemic…
Obviously, this blog has slowed down a lot over the past few years, and the pandemic is not the only cause. I’m getting older and while there are plenty of athletes who keep on trucking through middle age and even into their golden years as seniors, the act of ageing has not ever made physical activity easier. In short, I’m not as active and since this blog is mostly about active living, there haven’t been posts.
While doom-scrolling Twitter, I still see running and triathlon posts from accounts I follow, and as you might guess, there are athletes who have been able to actually thrive during the pandemic, but most of us have had to struggle with the impacts on our structures and schedules – the boundaries between our work, family and personal lives have been blurred practically beyond recognition. Not to mention dealing with what amounts to a straight-up assault on our mental health.
I did come across this letter to a column in Outside magazine, and I saw many response tweets indicating it resonated with a lot of people.
Outside magazine does cater to athletes and adrenaline junkies, so it’s nice to see this endorsement of the ‘mellower’ side of the outdoors. We’ve all had a lot to cope with during the pandemic and its associated consequences (e.g. isolation), and while maintaining our physical health is important, our mental health has taken the bigger beating during this time. While exercise and the outdoors have a lot to contribute to mental health and wellness, the fact that anxiety and depression (or just about any other mental illness) will impede your ability to ‘Get Out There’ or ‘Just Do It’.
I did manage to participate in a socially distanced triathlon in August of 2020, but otherwise, I’m less active and fit than I was pre-pandemic. No races, no gyms, and while we have a good amount of fitness equipment at home (including stuff for Shark Boy’s gymnastics), I had depression sapping my will and motivation to exercise, and the duties of being a remote learning teacher’s assistant draining my energy too.
When the kids were younger, they needed constant parental presence, but they took naps and fit into our Chariot jogging stroller/bike trailer (see the archives for some of those adventures). With them now being older yet not having access to friends or structured activities, we found ourselves having to be active as a family in ways that were either better suited to shorter legs, or to preferences of boys who have always had their own ideas…
One form of exercise I’ve been getting more of instead of say, running or cycling is basketball. Ever since the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship Shark Boy has been obsessed, and I guess I’m the person in the house best suited to give him a challenge.
I was never very good at basketball, and I’m still not, but playing almost daily has certainly improved what little skill I had. The general wellness mantra is to ‘Move Your Body’ and the one-on-one (or two-on-one with the Lightning Kid) have often been my only significant movement during many lockdown (or general pandemic) days.
We certainly did what many families did and made simple walks around the neighbourhood or bike rides into our semi-regular exercise regimen. You can only walk around your neighbourhood so many times without purpose, though.
Enter Geocaching. If you’ve never heard of it, everywhere you go, a secret subculture has hidden small treasure chests (I mean, really small, some smaller than your pinky), just about anywhere you can think. They are usually accessible on foot, with some leg work involved. They are listed on the web, and with the right co-ordinates and some hints, you can find them. Of course, a smartphone and the app make it much easier. You can record your achievement in finding them in a small logbook that is stored inside, or again, simply use the app. It’s free, though access to the bulk of the caches out there (especially some that are more challenging) requires a subscription. To keep giving us something to do and keep exploring, I paid that subscription fee (currently $8.29CAD/month).
Want to see us in action? Did I mention the Lightning Kid now has a YouTube channel? See the video below and go ahead and like and subscribe!
It gave us an excuse to get out and about, and whenever we’re in a new area or neighbourhood with some extra time to spare, I can count on the Lightning Kid to help me look for these little treasures. Sometimes people put little dollar store toys in them for kids. I have to start paying it forward by restocking the ones I find. I might even create one of my own.
What kinds of new ‘mellow’ hobbies have you started thanks to the pandemic?