A Day in the Life – in Athlete Lockdown, with para-athlete Simran Kaur

Name: Simran Kaur

Studying: A-levels (Maths, Physics and Chemistry)

Sport: Athletics

As I was injured for the majority of the last 2 seasons, I have not been working towards any major competitions for 2020. But in 2021 the Junior World Para Athletics Championships are taking place so my training is mainly to qualify for that, however given the circumstances it has been difficult to do so.

7:00 – wake up and have breakfast 

8:30 – start my school work As well as all my training, I am a first year A level student studying Maths, Physics and Chemistry. I am having to teach myself the rest of the content for my first year from home which as you can imagine is quite difficult. My teachers are sending me work through which I have to compete by a deadline.

10.30 I take a break from working I do some form of conditioning (eg a core workout). My athletics coach and strength and conditioning coach have given me sessions to do when and if I can, as finding the time and space is difficult due to the guidelines from the government.

12:30 – lunch

14:00 – start school work again The hardest thing is learning something I’ve never learnt before from home out of a textbook with only written instructions from my teacher! But, like my coaches, my teachers are easy to contact if and when I get stuck.

16:00 – finish school work

17:00 – cardio or technical session either in my garden or at my local park. Doing the training on my own is harder than I thought it was going to be! I had thought that as athletics is a very individual sport, training by myself would be okay but I was wrong! You don’t realise how having someone there training with you and pushing you along, like my training partner and I do for each other, helps you get through a session!

Luckily for me, my coaches are very easy to contact. My athletics coach and I call every week to chat about my training and nutrition and I can email my strength and conditioning coach if I need to ask him any questions about my training.

18:30 – dinner

19:30 – free time (mostly watching Netflix!)

22:00 – Bed

I think there are positives and negatives to being in lockdown. Obviously the negatives are not being able to go to the track or the gym and not seeing friends and family at all, and not forgetting the school work I’m having to do. However, the positives are that I’m learning new practical skills like cooking, and lockdown is testing my organisation skills to the max!  As well as this I’m spending time with my family a lot more than I usually do, I’ve also been in contact with my family from overseas that I haven’t spoken to for a very long time. But the biggest positive of staying at home is preventing the spread of the virus and in doing so reducing the pressure on the NHS!