Yesterday I spent the whole day feeling all kinds of emotions from madness and total unfairness to motivation and excitement. In the end, it depends on how you choose to react, how you choose to accept the situation and how you choose to spend given time.
What am I talking about? Obviously, about almost the whole orienteering season 2020 being cancelled. As by the 2nd of April the only competition, which is still planned to be held and where I can take part in, is JWOC (WOC is postponed, but I anyway didn’t plan to take part in). 2020 is my last juniors year, so you can imagine, how I keep my fingers crossed and believe JWOC will happen in any month, but please, just happen. WUOC in Russia, EOC in Estonia, all World Cup rounds are cancelled, and no-one of us has been prepared for it. Now we got a chance to understand how much we actually love competing, travelling, putting our maximum effort into races, making mistakes and being angry after finish, but always doing what we love - orienteering. I’ve never felt so united with all orienteers arounds the world as now, when we can’t unite physically at all - just because I see them all really suffering and being sad about the situation, when something uncontrollable doesn’t let them do what they have been doing their whole life - run faster than others through marshes, cliffs, fields and hills.
I have always been tired of competing so much and, ironically, «planning 2020 tried to reduce races to only obligate and major events and movings around to only needed and logic». I got what I had fought for more than I wanted, now please give me the competitions back, hah! That all made me understand, how much we actually need competitions as a feedback of our progress, as a reward for winter trainings we have been so patient to repeat every day. I have also understood for myself, that if someone told me there won’t be any competitions in my life anymore, I wouldn’t be able to run constantly on that level. Yes, most likely I would continue living orienteering lifestyle and taking part in all splendid European o-weeks, travelling with friends to different training camps and escaping Russian winter for Spanish summer, but it would be an amateur level. When I put so much effort, time, mental strength and just everything in sport as I do now, when I prioritise sport as №1 in my every day life and next n years goals list, I want a result. I want to be the best in my professional sphere, I want to be rewarded for passion and patience, to take back as much as I put into, if it makes sense. That was an opening for me, even if it sounds familiar and not new at all for you. Still at the same time I do orienteering, because I always enjoy it. And furthermore, I am convinced you can’t be successful in our sport, if you don’t enjoy it to the fullest. But turns out that only joy is not enough after some point, when you choose to make all your life dependent on sport. When every day your time-management, what you wear, what you eat, whom you meet or, more likely, don’t meet, when you wake up and go to sleep instead of partying - all small and big decisions are adjusted to trainings, which are the most important tasks of your day.
Given that before mentioned conclusion, there comes a big question or, better said, problem of immediate drop of motivation for tough trainings, which, I am sure, many of my readers experience now, as well as the author does. I’ve never lacked motivation, but now thousand questions like «what shall I prepare for now?», «when will be the first competitions?», «shall I even go out, if the government has set strict self-isolation regime?» attack my brain. Add here already 5 preparation months of hard trainings with many hours and kilometres behind your back, and you will definitely understand my disappointment..
Now a paradox: I have rarely felt so much motivation to train as today. It took me a week to come to this state, but now I am determined to grow and have already set strict goals to achieve in this period. What helped me? First of all, admitting the situation. You can’t do anything with it, and everyone is in same conditions. You can lie on a sofa for an hour, being angry at the whole world and complaining that life is unfair. Or you can do half an hour abs workout and finish it with 30 mins yoga with friends by FaceTime, laughing, chatting and listening to music. I choose second. It is about making the best out of situation. Make it a one more competition: who will be able not to lose shape at all or even increase it? Who will have the biggest number of press cubes? Who will run the most stairs and climb Mont Blanc inside the house faster? Especially, if you are allowed to run outside - you now have at least half a year to work at your week sides and make them your strengths. If you always dreamed about running 3000m faster than 10 mins - now you have plenty of time to work for it. If you usually mistake with compass, now you have so much time to practice red line legs, that you’ll be running them with close eyes. When I realised it, I had to be stopped not to go outside for training in the night - so big is my desire to grow now, to use every day and every hour to enhance my skills and gain new ones.
Just look at it as at additional resource to become better from. As at a chance to do something you never had time for. Something you think you are not compatible with - maybe you will open your hidden talent and make it a story of your life. Just use this time for yourself, and you will come out a happier, richer inside and wiser person!