To Be Personal Training has been on hold since I arrived back in the UK with my family in February 2020.
We can all attest to 2020 being a peculiar year. With so many unknowns surrounding the Covid-19 virus, and numerous lockdowns, my wife and I decided that I should become a stay-at-home dad.
We have been very lucky because none of us have had Covid-19 (to our knowledge). We had also found ourselves a small cottage with a large garden in the middle of a beautiful village between Cambridge, Saffron Walden and Newmarket. When the lockdowns began, we were able to play in the garden, tend to our vegetables, grow enormous pumpkins and enjoy long country walks. In the last 18 months I've become a more patient parent, a better cook and a demon jam maker (see below, and no, you can't try any).
In the UK we are now winning the battle against Covid-19, and my family life is settled and organised, so it is time for me to get To Be Personal Training back in business!
The truth is, I've already been training clients for a few months. Despite making no effort with marketing the business (other than changing the location information on my website), I have shot up the Google rankings for search terms like 'running coaching Cambridge', 'running coach Cambridge', 'running coaching Saffron Walden' and 'running coaching Newmarket'. I hope that Google sorts itself out regarding other search terms so that I don't keep getting personal training enquiries from Christchurch, New Zealand! (Come on Google, list me higher for 'personal training Cambridge', 'personal trainer Cambridge', 'personal training Saffron Walden' and 'personal training Newmarket').
The personal training sessions that I have taken in Cambridge, Saffron Walden, Newmarket and the surrounding villages have been fantastic and I've met lots of great people who are getting fitter, faster and healthier. That said, I do miss the boot camps in Halswell and St Martins, steps sessions in the Cashmere hills, ball game warm-ups on people's driveways and the great banter from clients. The people I worked with achieved far too many great things for me to list. On the contrary, I did just enough nutty things in my time in Christchurch to make a sensible length list:
Flat out 2.4km time trials in the middle of winter, at 6am in the morning, in the pouring rain and complete darkness.
Taking personal training sessions despite feeling so ill that I could barely stand up (I did, of course, maintain a safe distance from clients whilst training them outside). When you're self-employed, if you don't work, you don't eat.
Panicking in the weeks running up to a 5km obstacle course race because I knew that half the clients who were entering the event with me were faster 5km runners.
Rounding up as many people as I could to come along to a 9.15am boot camp that a national television station wanted to film for a news article. You see, I was advertising 9.15am sessions, but nobody was attending them.
Completing the Hagley Park obstacle trail, with a car tyre, as part of a Saturday morning boot camp despite the fact that the entire park was flooded. It was very wet.
Life is too short to dwell on what has past, so I look forward with optimism. I am open for business and looking forward to delivering high-end mobile personal training, private group fitness classes and running coaching to the people of Cambridge, Saffron Walden, Newmarket and the surrounding villages. Oh, and here are some of the pumpkins we grew:
