What I learned about running whilst running 1,000 times around a garden

My family and I have recently moved to north Italy. To limit the spread of Coronavirus we needed to quarantine on arrival. We’ve moved here to be nearer the mountains and trails in the Alps but for the first two weeks here we were limited to the perimeter of the garden. In the grand scheme of things two weeks isn’t that long, but whilst stuck in it time felt endless.

The experience is applicable to other — more normal times — where work, life or the universe conspires against your running. I’m sharing some of my lessons learnt about what to do when you can’t run with the freedom you’d normally have.

Focus on what you can control
When everything around you is spiralling it’s important to grab hold of something. This will be different for every runner. Personally I used it to focus very deliberately on technique. The garden had a certain rhythm to it that allowed me to intuitively check in on my cadence, stride length and posture. It didn’t make up for everything that I felt I was missing out on but it allowed me to work on an area I always need to improve.

Keep running
It’s very easy to fall out of a habit when that habit’s challenged. Over time you’ll have developed a prompt and reward system that allows you to get out running. It may be that you head out just before breakfast and have a quiet coffee when you return, or it’s an evening thing where you can switch off from the world for a while. Whatever it was, that pattern probably no longer works. For me the prompt was the littlest of our two going down for his afternoon nap and the reward was the headspace. Find something that’ll help you get your trainers on and some endorphins circulating.

Reframe goals
When you’re stuck running circles in a garden, trudging on a treadmill, or lacking time for yourself it’s very difficult to hold on to longer term goals. Now might be the time to stop thinking about the future personal best, or new distance, and focus instead on cumulative goals, or streak goals. The aim is to develop a goal, or series of goals, that’ll keep getting you out the door each morning.

Accept that fitness will reduce
If you’re running less your fitness is going to reduce. The good news is that, especially if your time of reduced running is relatively short, your fitness won’t have dropped as much as you fear. The other piece of good news, if you’ve been training at reasonably high volumes before the reduction, is the rest will give your body a chance to recuperate and recover from cumulative fatigue. Treat the reduction as a springboard to bounce up from.

Don’t try and make up for it elsewhere
I’ve seen a number of runners, when confronted with the challenge of reducing their running, trying to compensate in other ways. They’ll double down on strength and conditioning or they’ll jump into a crash diet. These are likely to do a lot of damage. Your body and mind aren’t going to thank you if you pivot into an entirely new food or exercise regime and you’re going to be increasing your injury risk.

Careful with your training balance
Talking of injury. The bad news of having your running time, or distance, reduced is that your training balance is going to be off kilter. Whether you’re measuring it using acute chronic workload, training stress load or the good old-fashioned 10% heuristic you need to tread carefully. However much you want to get straight back out to the distances you were running before your training got reduced it’s important to ease back in to.