Kona Age-Group World Champion reflects on the lessons of 2020

However, that never happened! I remember the talk of Covid and races potentially being cancelled in February. We were building up to race in Salou at the end of March. I was at the pool with a friend, James, and remember chatting to him about our racing and how we were hoping travel and the races that weren’t going to be affected. I finished my last sprint of the set to find James waiting at the end of the lane waiting to tell me he’d just received an email and the race was cancelled.

This was a massive blow. At this point we had no idea of the scale of disruption about to hit the world. I took a few days off, ate chocolate, moped about, then pulled it together and told myself this was a great opportunity to train, work on weaknesses and toughen up the mental side of the game. 

Looking back over the last eight months, I feel I've really learnt a lot about myself. Nobody is accountable to your training other than you. Yes we have coaches but you have to be the one to get yourself up and out the door. Really accepting this has made me realise just how much I want to pursue a career in the sport and feel like I’m in a better frame of mind and accountable to myself for making sure sessions are done correctly. 

It has also been nice to be able to spend more time building up my base fitness and working on the strength and conditioning side of things.

My biggest lesson over Covid has been remembering you can only control the controllables, there’s no point in getting stressed over the small things, focus on the bigger picture and just enjoy each day. 

Now the focus and training is on the 2021 season, which I am really excited for, as it looks more likely that races will go ahead. Nothing is 100% set in stone but I will definitely be back defending that Age Group World Title at Kona.