On the 16th of July I set out on an exciting new project: 100 days of progress. The concept was simple, take a photo and write a description of something that I am doing to improve my archery every single day, and share it to the internet. A couple of weeks later I had written the first blog post about it, with a grand plan for what to put in the next three (or four or five) over the coming days that would cover the European Championships, National Tour finals, the end of season break (no archery for two weeks!), and the beginnings of a new cycle of preparation including a training event in Tokyo.
To make it even more fun, several of my GBR teammates joined in with me (check out @alexwise17, @bryonypitman, and @hustagrams) along with many others who enjoyed the content and the concept enough to try it. And between us we've had some great moments and some awesome photos, this one being my favourite:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmyab8bHpaM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
However those of you who are sharp on your maths may have noticed that 100 days ended a while ago, on the 24th of October, and that I had fallen a little way behind by that point having last posted for day 82. To my knowledge no one else has yet completed the challenge, and certainly even those who are still going have not been able to maintain consecutive days. So what happened, and what did I learn?
Firstly it turns out remembering to actually TAKE the photo during the training itself is a little tricky. Honestly, the number of times I had a kickass workout in the gym or a great shooting session at the range, but I was by myself and forgot to stage a photo or video was infuriating. The plan B photo of a session in the notebook or training log just doesn't quite have the same visual appeal, and you can only play that card so many times...
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnWwg8HHsaL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Yeah, the cows are cute but that's definitely cover for not getting any photos from the gym!
The second obstacle was more fundamental; it turns out it's actually pretty hard to demonstrably do something archery related 100 days in a row. Especially during the end of season break, travel days or some rest days (planned or otherwise), sometimes I legitimately just wanted to read, park my butt on the sofa or not have to interact with the wider world. I almost definitely still THOUGHT about archery a lot of those days, anything from idle daydreaming of future competitions to serious planning and recording of training, but again that doesn't translate into a snazzy instagram post.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoAMKSUAdmD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Unless you can piggyback on someone else's archery. That works.
Finally and ironically, on the day this project should have been scheduled to end, I got hit by a car while cycling to the gym on campus. Which really wasn't the best way to start the day. The recuperation is progressing but I wasn't able to train for a while and it's taken it's toll on me mentally as well as physically.
So now I'm letting this project lie. It's been really positive in a lot of ways; I've learned to communicate better online, it's forced me to think even more about what I'm doing in training and why, and I've really enjoyed the posts from others who've taken it on and found a new burst of motivation to help them get the most of their archery. Perhaps I will come back to it again in the future. For now though, the 100 days may be over, but the progress marches on.