When quarantine started in March I knew that I needed to develop an exercise plan in order to stay in shape during this time. The week before the government imposed quarantine started while distance learning had just begun, I set a goal for me to exercise every day.  Before COVID-19 I was trying out for the SAISA girls basketball team and throughout the year I usually train after school with a sports team.

The week before the quarantine was imposed, I went for a run every evening on a running track near to my house. I found it much easier to motivate myself to go for a run when I ran with someone else, for example, my dad or a friend. However, once the quarantine was imposed and we were not allowed to leave the house, I had to get creative with my individual home workouts. Another challenge was staying interested and motivated to exercise by myself. In order to keep my workouts interesting, I switched up the workouts that I would follow every day. I used workouts from the Nike Training Club App, ones I found on Youtube, and some that Mr. Turner shared with us.

Following an at-home workout. (Anne Heese)

After the first month of quarantine, I found another way to stay active and get some fresh air by running on the back roads by my house. I found that the lane I live on creates a loop that is almost exactly 400m, as shown in the map on the right. Usually, I run continuously ten times around the loop in order to run a 4k. I live on the top of a pretty steep hill, making the run even more challenging since I have to run up the hill every time I got around the loop. I also like to end the workout with a couple sprints up the hill for an extra challenge. After I catch my breath, I still like to do some type of strength workout targeting specific muscles, such as an ab workout. After every time I workout I try to stretch to prevent injury as well as to improve my flexibility. Then after the running track near my house opened back up, I instead ran on the dirt track instead of the back roads.

Running in my neighborhood (Anne Heese).

Even though it was challenging to find the motivation to workout on some days, I persevered, and so far I have accomplished my goal by I have exercised every day, except for the one day I allowed myself to have a rest day—my birthday.