Lockdown motivation from runner Samantha Harrison

The current Corona Virus pandemic is make daily life arduous at best, many of us are house bound and getting fed up.  With sports clubs and gyms closed getting a physically workout can be hard, and motivation to do it, even harder.  We’ve been reaching out to some athletes on PledgeSports to see how their coping and asking them to give advice and motivate readers.

Samantha Harrison is a real life running inspiration, she has a rare and highly inspiring story for anyone looking to take up a sport.  24 year old Samantha from Nottinghamshire only took up running in 2018 and within her first year and had already won a load of 10k and half marathons!

Samantha only started taking running seriously in September 2018 when she entered her first race, the Nottingham Robin Hood half marathon, she had little experience in running nor preparation for the race but ended up doing really well, and so decided to joined a local running club.  Fast forward one year and Samantha is now an elite level athlete who wants to qualify for the British Athletics Team in 2020!

We already interview Samantha back in 2019, here’s a follow up to see how she’s coping during the pandemic and what advice she has for readers and her followers:

How is the corona virus lockdown affecting you and your training? 

With the lockdown, my training has slightly adjusted to correspond with the government rules. But it hasn’t changed a huge amount if anything I’m doing more, as I have the time for the add in a lot more training and more time into it. So I’m managing to still get out for my daily run, also able to still double run on the days required to as I have a treadmill at home. So I’m still doing my double run days. I’m doing lots of home workouts such as circuit training, yoga, drill sessions and strength and conditioning. All the extra sessions I’m doing are great as they’re what I struggle to fit in the most due to being at work. So it’s great to have time to do them all and already starting to notice a difference!

Have many races you entered been cancelled?

There has been quite a few races cancelled or postponed already this year.
The world half marathon championship
The vitality 10k
Night of the 10,000 pbs
Ipswich 5k
Birmingham 10k
And a few more added to that list.

So yes, very disappointing but there’s nothing we can do about it. At least we can more time to train and prepare for these events for when they do commence.

Staying fit during the Corona Virus pandemic

What do you do to cure the boredom during the current lockdown period?!

Home workouts,
Run,
Yoga,
Walk,
Read,
Get creative with baking or cooking!
Get jobs done around the house that you might not have had time to do before.

What do you put your running success down to?  And don’t be modest!

Dedication
Sacrifice
Discipline
Resilience

It’s not easy to stay motivated in times like this, any tips out there for people trying to keep fit?

Take this as your opportunity to do something different instead of sitting at home feeling bored or fed up. Take a challenge as we might never get this opportunity to ever again.
You might find something new about yourself, or take up a hobby that you really enjoy and continue to do when this is all over.
I took a challenge with running and decided to start running after difficult times and now running is my life.
It doesn’t have to be exercise, it could be doing something creative at home or outdoors.

Stay safe and fit everyone!

Got a story to tell?   Get in touch – [email protected], or visit www.pledgesports.org and we’ll share your story.

For all the latest sports news follow PledgeSports on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.