by Eve Muirhead
On Wednesday 11th March, in Vancouver, I threw my last stone of the 2019/20 curling season.
Myself and the rest of Team Muirhead including support staff were out in Canada prepping for the World Championships to begin on Saturday 14th. Unfortunately due to Covid the event was suddenly cancelled last minute and we were on a flight home back to Scotland and in lockdown.
2 years ago I decided I would convert my garage into a gym. It’s as if I knew all this was going to happen!!
With a full range of equipment, I was set for “training in lockdown”.
” I take every day at a time and enjoy the challenge that these strange circumstances have brought!”
I work closely with my strength and conditioning coach Harry Booker and every week we sat down, along with head of support services, Dave Leith on a zoom call and planned out the week ahead, working in 4 week blocks.
Each training block was clearly planned and we set targets and goals. This is very important to me and my progress.
3 x per week I would do strength and 3x per week conditioning. My garage became my second home!
Lots of videos back and forth for feedback on lifts made it easy for pointers to improve each session.
Recently we got the sad news the Grand Slam of curling series will be cancelled this coming season in Canada. Usually this is a big part of our competition schedule so it’s going to look a little different this season.
With some great European events we’ve decided to try and play as many of these as possible with what travel restrictions allow. It will be strange not travelling to Canada as the majority of our competition usually takes place there!
The 10th September is penciled in as our first competition in Finland followed by Switzerland and then Latvia.
All these events will be building blocks for the first major, the European championships in November.
British Curling has worked incredibly hard to re open the National curling academy in Stirling and with many strict protocols in place we are back training on ice as of the 3rd August which is great. Slowly things are feeling a little more like normal.
I take every day at a time and enjoy the challenge that these strange circumstances have brought!