Fitness Swellness: Introducing my Run for Women teammates

When Shoppers Drug Mart asked me to take part in the Run for Women, they asked me to round up two friends to also join me. You know the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? Well, think of this as the sisterhood of the traveling running shoes (except we each have our own shoes…or how else would we all race at the same time, haha!)

I asked two amazing girls, Anya Georgijevic and Simone Olivero, to join me and they said yes! We met up at the Running Room several weeks ago and had our gait analyzed and got set up with Brooks Running shoes for the race. You should never try anything new on race day so we needed to get our shoes in advance to make sure they’re comfortable. While we’ve been training separately (busy schedules and living in different hoods makes it hard to get together to train), we’re excited to race together this Sunday, May 31st in Oakville. Have you registered yet? Online registration closes on May 26th so don’t miss out!

Since you know a bit about my running history and why this race is important to me, I wanted to share a bit about my awesome teammates, too:

I’ve known Anya Georgijevic (that’s her on the left in the grey sweatshirt) for about three years now through the industry (and we first met in real life over dinner in Vancouver when I was out west to run the Vancouver Marathon in 2013). She’s since moved to Toronto (yay for me!)  and we now regularly hang out and go for dinner or drinks and work out together weekly at the Nike Training Club classes and we’ve also traveled together (last fall, in Chicago, she was the best support, helping keep me calm as I prepared to run the Chicago marathon). Anya’s a freelance writer (you may know her work from Flare, the Globe and Mail and Nuvo Magazine, to name just a few), and she also keeps her loyal readers up to date on fashion and beauty on her site anyageorgijevic.com.

What’s your running history?

I’m not a serious runner. I ran a Seattle 1/2 Marathon in 2012 as an excuse to travel. I prefer doing charity runs. My favourites so far have been the Vancouver Salmon 14k Run and Granville Island 10k Turkey Trot.

The race is for women’s mental health, does that hold any personal meaning for you?

Most of the women in my family have been diagnosed with a mental illness, including myself. It’s a cause that’s very close to my heart and I’m grateful for the variety of treatments offered to my generation.

Do you have any specific goals for the Run for Women race on May 31st?

To finish and stay positive.

How has running improved your well being?

Running helped me quit a decade-long smoking habit. No other exercise keeps your lungs and heart in check like running does.

Now, Simone Olivero (she’s on the right in the black hoodie) and I met at a beauty event in Toronto, but we also go to Nike Training Club classes together on Thursday mornings (the same one Anya and I go to!). She, too, is a freelance writer, and you may know her byline from publications such as Toronto Life, Glow, the Toronto Star and many online publications as well.

What’s your running “history”?

I started running out of the blue six years ago with my first race being the Island Girl 10k on Toronto Island–I heard they were giving out free makeup! A couple months later, I ran a half-marathon with very little training, which was a humbling experience. I spent the next year preparing for my next half with slightly better results, but then a surgery in 2011 gave me an excuse to pack away my shoes for a couple years.

I have always trained for my races alone but this November I decided to change things up and started running with the Parkdale Roadrunners twice a week. I also run with the Nike Running Club, which means I spend a lot of time decked out in running gear.

The race is for women’s mental health, does that hold any personal meaning for you?

I’ve lived a block away from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) for almost 15 years and have witnessed too many times the stigma surrounding mental health. Mental illness affects more people than we realize and yet many of us are still afraid to talk about it. I hope races like this will help promote continued education and awareness.

Any particular goals for this Run for Women race on the 31st?

I think there’s always a desire to beat your last race time but I honestly just want to have fun running alongside you and Anya. I’ve also never run in Oakville so I’m excited to explore. Hopefully it’s a nice and sunny day 🙂

How has running improved your well being?

Physically, I can’t believe how much running has transformed my body. My legs are leaner, I feel stronger and every so often I can spot abs in the mirror! But mostly I run for the adrenaline rush. Even when it was -30 this winter and the last thing I wanted to do was lace up, I found myself getting hooked on the incredible feeling of accomplishment I got afterwards. It also helped being in really good company—shout out to the PDRR ladies!

And there you have it, my two awesome teammates for the Oakville Run for Women 10k (follow them on Instagram (@anyageo and @simoneolivero) as we ramp up for the race this Sunday! We can’t wait for the 31st—see you there! Oh, you haven’t registered yet? Hurry, registration closes Tuesday, May 26th!

Leave a Comment May 25, 2015

Fitness Swellness: How to make running a habit

I’m so excited this year to be partnering with the Shoppers Drug Mart Run for Women, a fun race that takes place in a few cities across the country. The theme of the race is such an important one: “It’s up to us!” It’s all about how it is up to all of us to encourage, support and communicate with each other to make sure we are taken care of. The run’s goal is to support women’s mental health programs in the race cities. Women are three times more likely to suffer from depression than men.

I personally feel strongly about the cause, and love that it’s a running event. Research has shown that running can be as effective as medication at helping to deal with anxiety and depression; in fact, I wrote a feature for Flare magazine a few years ago about that topic, about how training for a half-marathon helped pull me out of a rough time in my life.

With the Run for Women dates fast approaching, and you’re keen to participate (I hear it’s a super fun race, you can walk if you prefer, and there’s a choice of 5k or 10k, plus there’s a total fun sisterhood vibe, too!), you might be wanting to get a bit of regular training in before the run. (And even if you can’t take part in the Run for Women, developing a running habit is good for your heart health and, as mentioned, stress relief and mental wellbeing!) Well, here are a few ways I make sure to run at least three times a week:

Find a running buddy or join a run group. I mostly train with my friend Shawna now, but for many years, I would join the Running Room for their group runs. You can also check social media for running crews in your neighbourhood. Although there is something to be said for running alone (you can decompress and zone out, for example), I think when you’re starting out running, and trying to make it a regular habit, ensuring you’re meeting up with someone will help keep you accountable.

Reward yourself. Make sure to treat yourself throughout your training and when you complete a race. After a month of training, get that cute running top you’ve been coveting. After completing your race, book a treatment at your favourite spa.

Develop cues to get you to run. For example, I work from home, so I’ll put on my running gear in the morning if I plan to run later that day. There’ve been times I’ve been tempted to skip a workout, but I’ve just felt too guilty to change out of the running gear without having run. For you, you might find that having an alert in your calendar (or on your running watch) remind you that it’s time to go for a run will work, or that changing into your gear as soon as you get home and heading straight back out to run is the best way to ensure you don’t get pulled away into doing something else instead of fitting in your workout.

Register for a race. I’m fairly disciplined with my training now, but I know I’d slack off if I didn’t have a race I’d paid registration for in my calendar. Not training and going to do a race could cause you to injure yourself, not to mention make the run pretty brutal to endure. Train regularly and you won’t be completely out of breath and in pain as you work your way through the course! Need a race? May I suggest the Run for Women?

I’ll be participating in the Run for Women in Oakville on May 31st. That’s just six weeks away! There are 12 races around the country that you can take part in, some are this month. I hope you’ll consider taking part in one of the races — even better, gather your daughters, sisters, friends and make a gal pal day out of it (that’s what I’m doing!). Oh, there’s also a 1K race for girls under 12 if you’ve got some young runners amongst your group! What could be a more positive and impactful way to spend a beautiful morning than with women important to you in the name of women’s mental health?

Hope to see you at the finish line in Oakville or to hear about your day at other Run for Women races on social media (I’m @healthandswellness on Instagram and @healthswellness on Twitter, and I’ll be sharing updates on my training and from the race day!)!

Any questions? Ask away (running or Run for Women-related) and I’ll do my best to answer them)!

Leave a Comment April 20, 2015

Healthy Swellness: Music is good for you

Listening and playing music is a boost to your mental and physical well-being, says a new review of 400 research papers, by increasing the levels of an antibody that plays a key role in immunity, and by lowering levels of cortisol (the stress hormone).

Feeling slightly less guilty about the concerts I splurged on this summer (The Package Tour — that’s NKOTB, 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men — Beyonce and Justin Timberlake & Jay Z). I’ll consider it all part of my healthy lifestyle 🙂

(How’s JT’s new album btw? Have yet to pick it up.)

Leave a Comment March 29, 2013