I know it is hard to be positive about MCO 3.0 as it gets extended again, till 28th June 2021. As it is the third lockdown in Malaysia, it is the most difficult we have experienced. There is anger, rage, helplessness, depression, even confusion and fear. It is easy to think about these negatives, but as an athlete, I am trained to concentrate on the positives and what is in our control. I am working at this.
MCO 3.0 has locked us off our horses. We are not allowed to ride for leisure, except to have the horses exercised. At the Royal Selangor Polo Club, the club took the decision that members would not be allowed to ride, and only grooms living on the club’s grounds would be allowed to look after the horses.
It is a good decision – other clubs have had positive cases, but so far, the Royal Selangor Polo Club has had none.
For the horses, this lockdown is another break. I’d like to say a mid-season break, but we haven’t had a season yet! It is hard to say we have had any real season since the first lockdown over a year ago.
It is not a total holiday – the horses will still be exercised, so technically they are still in work.
No grooms or members are allowed to enter the club. All the grooms caring for the horses have to stay on the premises. Members can visit their horses, but they cannot ride them. They must apply for a visit pass to see their horses. A limit of 10 passes are given out per day, controlled by the club.
Even Zack’s Tack is not open, though we still service on-line orders.
We cannot change or control MCO 3.0 – it is not ours to change. Because I cannot change it, I do not stress about it. Rather than stressing, I got on with the details.
First, we had to organise a work schedule for the live-in staff. Horses would go out for exercise once a day, either in the morning or afternoon. The session that they are not worked, they get walked or have paddock time.
Once the work schedule was organised, it was a question of what we would do with our own time. The administrative staff have work that continues. For the instructors, it is a time to rest and recuperate, but also to stay physically active.
Mentally, we have to look at the positives, whatever they may be. If you think only of the negatives, it easily leads to stress, fear and depression. Many businesses and stables have gone south, especially this MCO 3.0. All equine sports have been equally affected.
As I get older, I know there is no substitute for fitness. It takes so much longer to get fit if you let it all go. It is actually much easier to work on maintaining a decent level of fitness than to try to get fit from being completely out of shape.
I was determined to find the positives in this enforced lockdown and working out was one that helps me to stay sane. It was important to keep this positive state of mind constant too.
Usually, I am at the stables first thing every morning. On Mondays, my day off, I would either cycle or run, for a change of physical activity from riding, and a chance to work on my aerobic fitness.
MCO 3.0 gives me time at home that I never had. I have the luxury of aerobic work every day. In the first part of MCO 3.0 when we were not allowed to ride horses but were still allowed various forms of exercise, I cycled. Then cycling was curtailed as the lockdown was tightened, and my iron horse was paddocked.
I had no choice but to run more, if I still wanted to have aerobic workouts.
I was once a decent runner, a national level runner both track and cross country, when I was in school. I kept up the running through my racing years and as a national athlete competing in South East Asian and Asian Games. Over the years, accumulated injuries had made it quite difficult to run on consecutive days. I carry some metal in my right foot from a jumping injury. And in a bad cycle of running less, I put on quite a lot of weight and ran even less.
In the last year, I have lost about 20 kg through watching what I eat and more or less maintaining a keto+ diet. Losing that weight has made it much easier on my running legs.
Last week, for the first time in about 15 years, I was able to run four times in 8 days. I’m doing between 5 and 8 km each time, something that I am quite pleased about.
My running times have come down. Without even realising it, I had started running the same routes, and timing myself, charting each run on my Huawei P30 and comparing speeds and times. I worked on improving performance.
I realised that even when I was allowed to cycle, I had started to chart performance and even started to raise the difficulty level by raising the seat so that the angle of my body to the handlebar was more acute.
The competitor in me did what competitors do – we gauge performance and look for improvement. Almost unconsciously, I set myself some goals. In this case, with no competition, they were only performance goals and not outcome goals.
Most successful competitors are usually motivated by improving performance and not just by outcome goals such as winning a gold medal. Outcome goals are not necessarily within your power to achieve – for example, you could run your fastest time ever, a personal best. It does not necessarily mean you will win that gold medal, if you were running against a Usain Bolt.
Therefore, we set ourselves performance goals, and with incremental improvement, we trust that our outcome goals will follow.
If outcome goals were your only motivation in your riding, such as winning a medal or riding at the Olympics, you might not be motivated to ride daily. You might ride only when you needed to, such as for qualification to the Olympics. That might lead to long breaks, something that is actually at odds with the outcome goal. And as I said earlier, coming back from rock bottom gets more and more difficult, especially the older you get.
So, it’s mainly aerobic fitness that I am working on. This MCO 3.0 is like an extended preseason.
I still can’t run every day, so I alternate with some bodyweight exercises such as push ups, sit-ups, crunches, planking, and light weight exercises with dumbbells.
My body has changed. When I lost all that weight, I found I could fit my Italian show jumping competition boots again. I had not been able to do that for many years as I could not zip them up. My son, Zaine had used them for a while but he outgrew them. I was delighted when I found I fit my lovely Fabbri boots again. They are 23 years old, but still in great condition. That’s what great brands give you – great quality and longevity.
Zack’s Tack is working with Fabbri and if anyone wants amazing Italian riding boots, please get in touch with us to find out what is available.
Now, with all the running, my quads and hamstrings have grown. While my BMI has remained constant, I have actually put on a little muscle. I’m actually really happy about that, because despite a protein diet, I find it difficult nowadays to build muscle.
As my running times have improved a little, I set myself a target on Sunday for one of my routes. I was quite hopeful of achieving the target I had set, albeit a soft target and one with no qualification consequences.
I didn’t make it. I missed by 37 seconds.
It was my preparation that let me down. As riders (and instructors) we say, “Prepare, prepare, prepare.” If you are not prepared, be prepared to fail. And that’s what I did. I failed to prepare, and therefore failed.
Nowadays, I run listening to music. I hadn’t charged my ear buds, and shortly into my run, they started sending out distress messages and soon ran out of juice completely. It distracted me from the run, and I even changed from my planned route to drop them at home rather than run with non-functioning ear buds.
The distraction was enough that I took my focus off the splits and didn’t go fast enough. I missed my target.
Preparation – Preparation – Preparation
I should have known. There is no excuse for not being prepared.
The outcome is that I have not yet achieved my performance goal. Fortunately for me, my performance goal is still there to be achieved. There is no time pressure. I won’t miss out on the Olympics if I don’t achieve it. If I am prepared, and remain focused, I bet I will achieve it, before this MCO 3.o is over.
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