Austin Hay: National League Diaries
How did you spend your first week in self-isolation mode? How did a National League player spend their first days since the Government’s new guidelines were introduced? We can imagine the two are not overly dissimilar.
For the coming weeks, Old Elthamians’ Austin Hay will be talking us through what it is like for him and his teammates without the carrot of playing rugby on a Saturday afternoon.
Hay is a product of the University of Bath’s excellent rugby programme, where he also combined his studies alongside his commitments with London Irish’s academy.
Please feel free to ask Austin any questions about what he has been up to or about his journey in the National Leagues, but for now, here is the forward’s first diary entry on ncarugby.com.
Hi, my name is Austin Hay and I’m currently at Old Elthamians having also played for London Irish and the University of Bath in the past.
Seeing as the National One season has been cut short and we’re currently in lockdown, I’ll run through and talk about what I have been up to this past week.
Monday
At the start of the week, I had to work. As I am a teacher at a SENCO school, I had to go in for the children. It was a pretty chilled day due to the numbers but I got a lot done.
After school, I decided to move back to my Mum and stepdad’s in Ascot as I knew the lockdown was coming so wanted to be somewhere where I can see my family and dogs as well as stay on top of my fitness by going running in the woods.
When I did get home around 4ish, I went to the gym and completed an upper body session and afterwards did a nice little 3K run. In the evening ,my friends and I did a group FaceTime and completed a pub quiz with each other, which I obviously won haha! As well using my Fitbit to make sure I’m getting my plus 10,000 steps daily, I managed 15,000 steps.
Tuesday
I decided, due to the lockdown and the safety of my family, that I shouldn’t go to work. I thought while being in lockdown and being at home, I would use this time to my advantage by sorting out my nutrition as well as coming up with a gym and fitness program that’ll help develop me for when I get back to playing and training again.
Austin Hay in action for Old Elthamians. Photo Credit: (Ian Carter)
It was great being back at home. I walked the dogs in the morning with my Mum and stepdad. In the afternoon, I did some wood chopping and did a tough 30 minutes HITT work out that I nicked of Joe Wicks but did some tailoring of it to suit my needs and then completed 30 minutes of a X-trainer!
In the evening, I relaxed with the family watching some League of their Own (highly recommended!) As well as this, I just downloaded COD [Call of Duty] Modern Warfare, so be ready to see COD pop up a lot during this weekly routine!!
Wednesday
Wednesday was a pretty relaxed day. I started the day of with a walk with the dogs and for the rest of the day, I just chilled and watched TV. Lazy day? Think again! At 5pm I thought I might do another HITT workout and that was a well needed blow out which lasted 45 minutes and afterwards, I finished with a little leg session. In the evening, I chilled again with my family with TV and a little session of COD with the fellas. It just has to be done!
Thursday
Thursday was my off day, but I made sure I was actively resting and that I didn’t overdo it with calories and macros! I yet again walked the dogs but when I got home, I just crashed in front of the TV and got through some films!
I’m quite a big Marvel fan, so had to re-watch Avengers Endgame as well and I played a little bit of COD again…nope I haven’t gotten any better!
I had a good catch up with my agent Riccardo Betti and it was good so see how he was and his family are while back home in Australia. In the evening, I got around to watching and starting the TV series Shameless so looking forward to getting into that!
Friday
Friday I went back to business and had a hard cardio and HITT session. Fitness wise, I meet up with one of my oldest and best friends, who I grew up playing and signing with at London Irish.
Matt Williams and I went back to where we first started playing together for eight years at Windsor RFC and he put me through the paces with two sets of 6 x 100m sprints on a 40 second rolling clock, then a broken bronco and to finish, 4 x 22m sprints on a 20 second rolling clock but don’t worry, we maintained our social distance!
We chilled and caught up while playing a little bit of golf. Later on in the afternoon, I completed another MyProtein HITT session which lasted 30 minutes, so plenty of exercise had been completed today! In the evening, I chilled played some more COD with my mates, had another pub quiz and finished the day off with some Friday night dinner.
I hope you all have enjoyed my weekly diary and I hope through this hectic and challenging time, yourself and family are all keeping safe and healthy.
Austin Hay