FC7 Update - The Long Winter Goes On - 23.01.21

Just a quick update for our followers, as we endure a cold winter, made harder by being in lockdown with no end in sight. Lives come first, and the UK is motoring ahead with its ambitious vaccination program, so there are always positives if you look for them.

Christmas is over, the New Year ushered in, but there was little festive joy or new year optimism as the daily death figures from Covid-19 are announced on TV. We're regularly hitting over a 1000 deaths a day, we thought these numbers horrifying back in Spring 2020, but sadly this has become all too often the norm, an unwanted familiarity has been acquired, as we edge tentatively into 2021.

BUT there are some very small signs, that things are finally changing for the better.

The UK has embarked on a very ambitious vaccination programme and the early stages have progressed at lightning speed. Blighty is world leading currently, and long may it continue. Brexit hasn't hampered things......yet, so things are looking lighter in a very faint sense of the word, on multiple fronts.

On the FC7 angle, we're all stuck indoors, due to the brevity of the situation. A full national lockdown continues, so no chance even in the short term for us to look forward to footy returning. But positivity has to remain, and footy will come back, it's WHEN not IF. It's been a useful reset however, to take stock, and utilise the time on offer to do something. Something beneficial to yourself and others.

Fitness haha, has been the recurring theme, nearly as common as lockdowns, on this blog. So this enforced break, has given us the opportunity to get match fit. The problem with footy every week is that it's quite hard to improve in 7 days, so any improvements to our fitness, thus our overall team performances, are hard to gauge. Don't get me wrong, football is the best thing ever.....I mean EVER, but with the amount of defeats we have had to endure in 2020, it's hard to sieve out the positive moments.

We definitely improved, but one of my best personal highs was our first game back after the November lockdown, I'd done a lot to cut down my smoking and the results were hugely visible to me and the others. But I regressed after coming back, due to trying out new nicotine patches, but the 2nd game we had saw a huge improvement, for us, as a team. We were all a bit fitter and more fluid. But we all do need to do better.

This lockdown, I've been focussing on the nicotine patches, further experimenting negated a lot of my earlier progress, but I've found something that works, Niquitin ones, incredibly itchy and sore, but they stop me smoking for long periods so I just have to stick to them. No pain, no gain. I've started SlimFast now......don't judge. I'm in a peculiar situation whereby I have a lot of fat, and I want to lose it. But......I don't eat much. I've never often eaten brekkie or lunch, twinned with the odd evening drinking and takeaways, I probably put on weight very slowly over the last 15 years. In reality, my body was in a state of starvation, so any fat I was consuming, was being locked away round my belly and chest. My efforts to get fit and exercise, were reaping results, but because of my eating habits, or should I say lack of them, the gains were being minimised as my body was fighting to let go of the fat I had due to being in survival mode constantly.

Slimfast or food replacement was a quick way for me to get some routine into my diet while not drastically taking on too many calories. My metabolism was being kick started, which I believe it to be hugely important to my overall fitness story. I'll come back with an update once we start playing again....the proof is the pudding as they say, rather ironically in this scenario.

On top of my own personal journey, we've been encouraging others to hit the indoor treadmills, providing useful running programs, and dipping our toes into a bit of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).

HIIT is a relatively new exercise regime that people have been raging on about. 5-a-side footy is actually one of the best examples of HIIT, the small pitch and short bursts of speed sum up what high intensity is. Walking and steps; which we have talked about before, is useful in building up endurance, which you need as a base for football. But don't be disheartened if your regularly running and walking thousands of steps and still being out of breath after a few minutes of football.

HIIT programme is a good way of mixing your fitness routine up. It's a challenge, but don't necessarily follow the online courses to the letter.

Do what you feel comfortable with, if you're advancing over time, feel free to tailor them to your own ability.

We've been setting weekly/monthly challenges via Instagram for our members. Whether they do them or not, is up to them.

As a team we win as one, but we lose as one too.

But any improvement in just 1 players fitness will improve the team overall performance, so it's win-win.

We can do this, I'm sure of it!

Running in Winter conditions is hard,

get kitted up properly...

With the lockdown being open ended currently, all we can do as a nation is stick to rules (which still seems beyond some selfish weak people), educate ourselves on vaccination and get smart to the mis-information being spread around by keyboard warriors who like the aforementioned selfish, are just as weak. Vaccination is a simple choice in my eyes, there's a small risk with anything we do, and the question here is:

"Would you take a risk to save someone else's life?"

Let's not entertain or debate with people who mask their own weaknesses with conspiracy theories, lies, ignorance etc....call it what it is. They are killing people. These people are weak. They don't have the capacity to change, be open to other's opinions and aren't welcome at FC7. They care more of themselves, than others, as it's the easy option. The easy way out is always taken by weak people. Kind thoughts, kinds words, are not enough, your life is ultimately defined by your deeds. GET VACCINATED!

RANT OVER.

We can only look to positives, life goes on, and you can still live it to the full, just differently. Exercise has provided me with some focus, has given me something to work on. The blog has been neatened up, more pics added and it streamlined and made more professional. I've been keeping myself busy with our away and third Kit project, pricing up, looking for sponsors etc, and Brexit has put some obstacles in the way, but after the year we've had, that's no challenge at all. We can guarantee you, that we'll be looking very cool in our uniforms.

We now need to do the equivalent and get pro on the pitch.

Talk is Cheap!

Take care everyone and keep safe, it won't be long till we're kicking a pigs bladder into an onion bag again.