Championship clubs aim for 25 May training date

[hovewhite]

In the words of the song,there are more questions than awnsers.

[Sir Alec of good Stock]

Interviewed on 5Live last Saturday, Tom Cairney said that all the Fulham players had had a Zwist cycle trainer, where you can replicate racing with others on a screen, - you could see them using them in an interactive session on the club website last week - a treadmill and weights delivered at the start of the lockdown.

Tom said he'd be trying to stay fit, but expected the players would find it tough at first when they actually started playing in a game.

I'm a racing cyclist and have been training and racing on Zwift for the last couple of months and its far tougher than the real thing.
If the players are using it seriously, they won't be short of aerobic fitness or leg strength!

[Forever Fulham]

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them

[Statto]

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them

If I'm gonna read fake news, I at least want it to be the positive kind

[cottage expat]

Just rewatching the brilliant, disturbing, moving Chernobyl on Now TV, which shows how  first responders to the explosion at the nuclear plant, like firefighters were straight onto the  scene with no protection, as well as the workers at the nuclear plant who went into the reactor try to prevent the  disaster, were  dying painful deaths within months.

It also show that while there were monumental c.... ups by those responsible for designing the nuclear reactor, and those in charge on  the night, under pressure to keep the plant going at all cots, the heroism of  many Russians literally prepared to  sacrifice their lives, to avert millions dying.

Like the three volunteers, who go into the reactor after it's blown up, to  open  valves of water tanks, otherwise within 48 hours there would have been an explosion that would contaminate  half of Europe for hundreds of years. There were countless other sacrifices all along the way, that prevented the terrible disaster for Russia being  far worse, and  turning into  total world tragedy.

Also, been reading Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, about the  Great Plague of the 1660's, describing the piles of bodies in the cemeteries, with people locked up inside their houses,  with a red cross on the door, if  anyone in them was infected, with  a guard at the door.

And i thought, that our current predicament, though obviously very serious in its effects for our society, doesn't compare to those disasters.

Footballers, as said, will be in much less danger than the rest of us, who have to go out and buy food - even people on the government Protected List have had trouble  accessing supermarket  deliveries, let alone the rest of us whatever age of health condition we are in. And people in care homes are very much at risk, highlighting the  lack of resources  for  these  places over the years.
And many have had to keep working, with  people now having to return to work, on crowded tubes and busses, where it's impossible to implement the social distancing rules, but though I'm sure  there will be tragic deaths, people aren't dying en masse, as in the Great plague, say.

The govt. wouldn't send people back to work if this was likely to happen, and i personally, though in my 70's don't  feel at great risk going out, or my wife, in her 60's and a cancer survivor. There is some risk, but life is always full of risk.
The  lock down measures were mainly to  keep the NHS from being overwhelmed, which it hasn't been , though  people with  serious illnesses like cancer have been prevented from getting treatment as a consequence of dealing with the Virus's effects.

The players who will play in the prospective games  to finish the season, will have access to testing and medical backup that will make them  very safe compared to the rest of us.

And it really is important for the country's  general mental well being to try and get back to  making life as normal as possible, as well as  preventing the  consequences to our economy of further shutdown, which  could well lead to far greater suffering and loss of life than from the virus.

Football and footballers do provide an essential service to society,  by providing an escape from  the problems of life, and help people  keep going  in the face of adversity - which there always is in life, of some kind or other.

And, as  said, I think they are at less risk than the rest of us, with constant testing and monitoring. And if football doesn't  start again now, and get this season resolved in as fair a way as possible, or we might as well give up on it, and give up as a society , which we  haven't in the past even in the face of the Nazi onslaught.
We came close to being overrun, our society and values destroyed, but we fought against this, at great sacrifice, and  won - our country and its values survived.
And it will now.

Postscript to the risks of 'normal' daily life-

Knocked off my bike by a bus on a  deserted main road two days ago - it came too close, and i was suddenly blinded by the sun at the same time, and it hit me side on, and i came off.

Fortunately, I didn't go under the wheels of the bus, and  there were no vehicles  coming up behind, and i was unhurt  except for a graze on my knee.
But I could easily have been killed.

The first time  I'v been hit by a vehicle in all my years of cycling, just at the time you'd think cycling would be  safest.
Just shows how there's always some risk going out into the world - you never know when your number may be up.

Although I'm perhaps a bit more risk averse than you, an interesting and thoughtful post. Sorry to hear about your bike accident and glad you are ok.

[RaySmith]

Thanks Cottage Expat.

I was  lucky, but it did shake me up a bit.

[RaySmith]

Interviewed on 5Live last Saturday, Tom Cairney said that all the Fulham players had had a Zwist cycle trainer, where you can replicate racing with others on a screen, - you could see them using them in an interactive session on the club website last week - a treadmill and weights delivered at the start of the lockdown.

Tom said he'd be trying to stay fit, but expected the players would find it tough at first when they actually started playing in a game.

I'm a racing cyclist and have been training and racing on Zwift for the last couple of months and its far tougher than the real thing.
If the players are using it seriously, they won't be short of aerobic fitness or leg strength!

They seemed to be taking it seriously in the session they showed on the club website. A coach was giving instructions, not Scott Parker, who was taking part. There seemed to be  five of six players but it was only a brief clip, of a presumably  much longer session they looked pretty knackered at the end.

Wish i had a Zwift,  i use an old traditional basic turbo trainer  -pretty boring.

I'm an audax, and  sportive - lasy year i did the  Tour of Yorkshire, and the  World championship sportives, because they  are  fairly near me, and also have done several triathlons.

I'd entered this years Tour of Yorkshire sportive and a local  triathlon in April - both cancelled obviously.

Recently got a new mountain bike, and was really enjoying that on the nearby  trails, but  have had problems with it, and now waiting for a repair slot in the local bike  shop - they've suddenly become very busy.

Actually, at the start of the lockdown, I cycled ten miles to Halfords, where I'd bought it - it was due it's free 6 week service, and i need a problem fixed, and someone told my wife when she'd inquired on the phone- 'yes, bring it in, no problem', but when i got there they said they were only taking  NHS and essential workers' bikes!

I don't think I'll be using halfords again, but the mountain bike was a bargain for the specification it had, in the post Christmas sale.
I have a decent road bike, Focus, carbon frame, bought from Wiggle several years ago, and silll going strong.