The COVID-19 pandemic has made me realize how important physical and mental health is and how important and hard it is to maintain good health during times and situations like this, which will eventually benefit us during the pandemic times. At the same time, staying at home and lying in bed during the lockdown instilled in me unnecessary laziness and really messed up my daily sechdual. CAS was a platform that helped me get out of my comfort zone and start working on my fitness, so I decided to go out running and cycling every weekend and gradually increase the difficulty. Aside from our weekly sessions, I trained on my own to increase my endurance and performance whenever I could free up my sechdual to maintain my physical and mental health had made a mindset to achieve this goal of running 5km in a maximum of 35min continuously, with minimal breaks. I didn’t stop running and continued to run until my effort showed results to run for more than 5km in 35 minutes or less.
LO 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
This experience motivated me to take steps toward my fitness goals and achieve the level of fitness I used to have when the school was open and I used to play sports on a regular basis. It also helped me identify certain fitness weaknesses, but now that I am aware of them, I can plan and act on my weaknesses, such as deteriorating endurance, and turn them into my strengths over time. Everyone should be aware of their health and fitness-related strengths and weaknesses so that they can work on them and improve their fitness.
LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
Moving from a very physical lifestyle to sudden stoppage and limited physical activity, daily runs were difficult for me because I didn’t have much physical activity to do during the lockdown and afterward, and my body wasn’t trained to do high-intensity physical activity, so I had to start slowly and take frequent breaks. I attempted to overcome this challenge by forcing myself to run every day. However, after a week or two, my body had adjusted and I was able to complete the designated activities much more easily. The other challenge was to keep the motivation going. There were several occasions when I did not want to go on a run, but it took a lot of convincing.
LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
This experience required commitment in order to achieve my goal of 5km in 35min or less, which would not have been possible if I had taken frequent breaks as I had to daily push myself to cover longer distances each day slowly in order to achieve this end goal. As commitment was the key to achieving this goal, overcoming all of those body aches, demotivation, laziness, and, most importantly, the negative mentality of being unable to achieve this goal. Perseverance and self-motivation kept me going, and in the end, we were able to meet the objectives we set for ourselves. It resulted in a good example of self-improvement and healthy choices for a better future and present.
