14 Day Hotel Quarantine- Advice? Experiences?

Training
1

Hi everyone!

After being stuck overseas for a little over a year I’m looking at returning to Aus in late April, which unfortunately will involve the dreaded 2 week hotel quarantine. I will be bringing my indoor setup in anticipation of an upcoming event, and while I’m sorted from a training perspective I’d love to hear from others so I feel a little more prepared and hopefully make the most of my time. (or at least not go insane :stuck_out_tongue:)
So I’d love to know- what did your days look like? What were your biggest challenges? Anything you wish you brought along, or were happy you did? I’d also be interested to hear from the multisporters in particular with regards to how it affected your run/swim.

2

I’ll fly out from Japan to Germany to meet my family, and I’ll be spending about 25 days in total in quarantine. For 14 days I’ll have access to a trainer, though. But for the duration of the trip, about three weeks, and four days of quarantine, I don’t think I’ll be able to train — at least not on the trainer. Since this is a family emergency and training is lower on my list of priorities, I just accept the inevitable decline in fitness. I’ll try to do some strength training and perhaps ask a bike shop for a loaner or so. But I don’t count on any of it.

3

I did 2 weeks in Perth last June and it was a fairly unpleasant experience. It might be different elsewhere in Aus but I imagine they are pretty much the same sort of setup.

  • If your’e on your own be prepared not to see another human for the duration. The only people we saw were nurses in full PPE on Day 2 and Day 13 to take a COVID test. When the staff leave food outside the door we were instructed to leave 30 seconds for them to get away so you don’t ever see anybody. We got the occasional glimpse of a security guard in the corridor and that was it.

  • It was a nice hotel room but it was still a prison. The windows were sealed and didn’t open in our room so you may be breathing air conditioned air for two weeks. No fresh air at all and my throat didn’t appreciate that very much. Maybe take some lozenges!

  • Get a routine and stick to it. My wife was working remotely but I wasn’t and it was hard with nothing to look forward to. I watched TV, read a book for two days and by day five I’d read the entire internet. I was bored rigid. If you can ride that’s great but think about other things you can take to fill the time.

  • The food was adequate but regularly cold by the time we got to it. If I did again I’d order in some protein bars and some other healthy food to fill the gap

They’ll be other things but those are the ones that stick in my mind. I thought it would be a fine to spend 2 weeks in a nice hotel room but a nice prison still feels like a prison. Again I don’t know whether you’ll be on your own or not - for us it was my wife and I - but you’ll either have to be comfortable in your own company or hope that you get on OK for the duration with your significant other as you can’t just walk away from any disagreements! On the bus from the airport there was a couple with 2 children who looked to be under 5 - I can’t imagine what their quarantine must have been like :scream:

4

I’m so glad I will only have to do 4 days of prison quarantine in Japan, and can spend the remaining 14 days with my family. Still, we will be on top of one another for two weeks.