Surviving Lockdown 2021 – Kirsty

We are celebrating how our community is using the 5 ways to well-being to get through lockdown (connect – be active – take notice – give – keep learning)

To share your story please drop us a message!

Next in this series comes from Kirsty. Always finding a way to keep her triathlon training up we are impressed by this latest effort

Here is her story:

“As a psychology lecturer, I understand the importance of getting out in the fresh air and staying active at all times, but especially during stressful times such as lockdown. I am so lucky that I can still get out to run and cycle and get that all important time to clear my head in the fresh air. Teaching from home means that I am at my desk most of the day, so getting out to escape for a while is really important to me. Unfortunately though I am a triathlete, so lockdown means that I am a swimmer out of water. Pinkston was a saviour to me during the summer and Autumn of last year, as it meant that I could open water swim safely to my hearts content and not have to worry about always taking a buddy with me or the water quality of where I was swimming (which is always a slight concern when you are swimming in water that is not regularly tested). It is such a lovely laid back place that I was actually sad when the water got too cold there and I had to return to the pool.

At this time of year, open water swimming is just not an option for me. I am a woose – as much as I love the open water, you are never going to catch me breaking ice in order to get in for a swim. Even the thought of that makes me cold. But I miss swimming, and with the pools being shut I had to find a way to keep ‘swimming’ without any water. I had seen a few videos of people using swim chords, but standing up to use them and not going through the full arm movement of the stroke. I tried this, but was not feeling the love at all. So I decided to try doing it on my swiss ball – and the result is in the video.

OK, so it is not like being in the water – I have even considered asking my hubby to spray me with a super soaker to make it feel more authentic. But I can go through the full swim motion, and even get the hips moving a bit so that I feel like I am swimming in my natural stroke rhythm just minus the leg kick. I can even do ‘sessions’ similar to those I do in the water by counting my strokes – I know roughly how many I would usually take in the water so I can break the swim down in to sets like I would normally in training. It is not perfect – I have learned the hard way not to use my hips too much as you end up underneath the ball instead of on top of it – and I miss the water. But I have learned to try and focus on what I can do just now rather than what I can’t. And hey, hopefully it wont be too long before I am back swimming at Pinkston until my hearts content. Until then I will be on my ball strapped to my living room door, counting my strokes, and thinking ‘just keep swimming, just keep swimming.'”

By Pinkston