Vancouver people that would like to walk or run at noon with a great group of SUGOI people! COME ON DOWN!
SUGOI
144 East 7th Ave
Wednesdays at noon!
Wednesdays @ noon!
I’ve gathered a great group of SUGOI people together to get out and exercise at noon on Wednesdays. Your choice if you want to run up front at a steady/fast pace for an hour, in the middle with a moderate pace for 30mins to one hour or come and hang out in the back of the bus and walk for 20-40 mins! Whatever you choose it will be fun! Some of the staff will be training for the 10K and the Sun Run marathon. Feel free to train with them at your pace!
We will all meet out front of SUGOI at noon on Wednesdays. 144 East 7th Ave. Our office isn’t open to the general public so we will all meet outside.
If you would like to sign up for our newsletters or sign up to regularly run with us we have a sheet to add your name/email. I’ll keep you posted on any great SUGOI deals and JANE updates!
These run/walk sessions will be documented by myself with video, pictures and I may interview one or all of you. Everything will be posted on the JANE site on Thursdays. If you would like to walk/run but don’t want to be filmed or interviewed just let me know and I’ll make sure to not interfere.
We only have a few weeks before SUGOI moves to North Burnaby so let’s have some running/walking fun in Vancouver while we still can!
I’ll be out there on Wednesday Feb 10th and I hope to see you there!
LET’S BE INCREDIBLE!
Growing in numbers but shrinking in inches! Here is some more goodness with BONDTraining at lunch in the park. Last week Adrianna and Hanna joined, welcome two more brave women to the group Kaleena and Laura! Let’s see if we can get some guys next week to join, it’s tough stuff!
mirroring
Use what you have around you to get that ultimate workout. Bring friends. Know that after all this hard work you are doing your body good! We had such a great time, worked as hard as we could but ultimately had fun. Jason is amazing, really makes the time enjoyable.
step up!
mirror me fast!
Train Smart*Play Hard*Live Well
www.bondtraining.ca
jason@bondtraining.ca
604.992.8348
I’ve been working on something for a couple weeks now. Actually I’ve been working on two things. Two TOP SECRET things.
One will be launched on Monday……
One will be premiered on Tuesday….
It’s just WAY too exciting. I can’t wait to share with all of you!!!
I got this letter from one of my most amazing best friends in the entire world. Lisa, she is so brave and incredible. I wanted to share because it really meant a lot to me, I also related to so many parts of this and hope you can see the beauty in it as I have. I couldn’t imagine my life without her.
Super Lisa with puppets
I’ve never been an athletic person. The product of two perennial Phys Ed last picks, no one ever really expected that I would be. Sports and pursuit of things sporty meant humiliation and failure so I never really tried. I spent my school years being picked last and being taunted mercilessly. It’s no wonder that after years of having volleyballs spiked at my head as a joke, I did not care for the athletic pursuits.
What difference did it make anyways? I was good at so many things. There were enough things that I excelled at with little effort that being out of shape and terrible at sports didn’t really matter to me. I could sew anything. I could do complicated math problems. I could knit a sweater in a jiffy. Sports. Pfft.
After working for Sugoi for years and building a comfortable life for myself, I impulsively decided to move to Toronto. I rented out my impulsively bought condo, packed up my life and flew off into the sunset… or rather sunrise since I was heading east.
My life in Toronto was different. It was cold. I was alone. People that I had thought I could rely on there quickly turned out to be unreliable. I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel though. I moved to change my life and I was going to do it. I moved in with a bunch of strangers. I found work. I made friends. I still felt incredibly lonely and often wondered what I was doing with my life.
One night in January 2009 I woke up. It was cold. I cranked up my electric blanket and stared at the ice that had formed inside my window. I put a movie in my laptop and hoped it would lull me to sleep.
I had been suffering from insomnia for some time. The rush of retail over the holidays is quickly replaced by the January slump. It was too cold to go anywhere. I was out of distractions. I was depressed. The reality of everything had hit me. The reality I had been avoiding by being so busy. I felt so lost. I stared out the window and thought. I drifted in and out of sleep. All of a sudden I had a thought.
I want to run.
Not run away. I just want to run.
I sat up in my bed and put the movie on pause and started researching runs in Toronto.
I searched. Spring was too early. I had never run before and would need a lot of time to train. It’s not like I used to be an athlete and needed to retrain. I had never done anything remotely like this ever. I found a lot of runs an based on locations and dates and prices I settled on the Toronto Marathon Half Marathon.
It was in October which gave me plenty of time to train. It finished at Queens Park right near my home. The price was comparable to other 5 and 10ks so it was a great deal! (Not sure how that logic worked but whatever)
I signed up online right then and there. I researched some run training plans. I found one that would take me from sedentary to 10k and then from beginner to half marathon with time to spare. This way if I had to I could take the training slowly.
I fell asleep and woke up the next day and was more than a little bit unnerved.
I started training on the treadmill because February in Toronto is not a good time to be outside. I got new shoes. Dug out athletlic clothes I had bought during my Sugoi days. Fortunately I had the forsight to buy running skirts and a pink run jacket! I bought the ipod chip thing with the mildly enthusiastic man who tells you how far you’ve run in your headphones.
I ran. I ran 3 to 4 times a week plus cross training and weights. I gained weight which I absolutely hated but I kept going.
I was briefly sidelined with a foot injury. I was tested for gout and rhumatoid arthritis and had my foot x rayed 10 ways to Sunday.
As soon as it was warm enough, I ran outside.
Every week, I saw improvement in my speed and distance. I saw my body adapt. 5K became easy. I got faster. My stamina grew. I started to understand my body as something that could actually do something.
Still… I hated it. I absolutely hated. I was hungry all the time. I was getting fatter. I was achey. I was waiting for the point where something clicked and I loved running. That I looked forward to runs. It never came. I dreaded it. I forced myself to do it because I refused to fail. I wasn’t going to waste the $60 entry fee. I was going to do it but I was not going to like it.
I ran. When I did I thought about everything. I thought about the life I had given up to move to Toronto. I thought about the people who had treated me poorly. The people who had hurt me. Who had treated me like garbage. I was going to show them. I was going to show everyone. I would come back from a run and just be furious with the world.
My training was going along. I wasn’t doing as well as I had hoped. Not really a surprise considering I hadn’t ever done anything remotely close to this before. I kept getting hurt. It got hot. I started making excuses. And more excuses. Why bother. I had been at it for months and I still hated every single second.
In June, I took time off to go to Tennessee with some friends. After that, the combination of parties and patios and stifling heat really sidetracked me.
In August, I had an opportunity to fly home to Vancouver. I saw family and friends. I had a great time. I saw all my old friends and I saw you and Tanya I was really impressed your tenacity and drew parallels to my own training.
I went home to Toronto and thought about my perspecitve.
I had friends and family in Vancouver who loved me and were proud of me. I had made amazing friends in Toronto who loved me because I am crazy weird and not in spite of it. I had spent so long around people who made me feel bad about who I am. It was time to leave that all behind and appreciate how awesome the people in my life now are.
I soldiered on. Things kept going wrong. On Labour Day, I fell in my backyard and ruined my knees, I developpe massive blood blisters on the bottoms of my feet. As the October 18th race day drew nearer I started to wonder if I should even bother.
What if I finished last? What if I sucked? What if what if what if??
October came and it got cold. Colder that the last 2 Octobers I’ve been here. I went down to the expo to get my bib and kit. I went to the wall to find my name and bib number. I kept hoping my name wouldn’t be there. Maybe they messed up. Maybe they didn’t get my registration (they did process the payment so…) I searched for my name and there it was. Twice. I have a common name. There was another me running the full marathon. She’s from Barrie ON. (she did really well too!)
On October 18th, my alarm went off at 5am. I lay in bed wondering if I should get up. I should. I’m having a post marathon party and I can’t do that if I don’t do it. Plus if I don’t, I’ll have to mail this stupid shoe chip back to them and it says that I need to send it in a padded enveloppe. I don’t have a padded enveloppe so I guess I have no choice.
Check the weather app. Minus one. Ugh. Force myself out of bed. Put on run skirt. Long sleeve T. Pin on number. Sweatpants. Puffy jacket. Grab pre packed bag. Leave house.
I trudge up to Bloor street and just as I get there, the eaat night bus zooms by. This is a sign. I should turn back. Walk zombie like to Yonge street and wait for northbound the bus. Other similarily dressed sporty zombies emerge. We nod to each other but don’t really converse. We’re all doing whatever it is we have to do to prepare ourselves.
The bus ride to Sheppard Ave is long. I’ve never been this far north. This is really far. I stare out the window and it starts to register that I will be running all the way back down. We go under Highway 401. I feel sick. It’s too far. I can’t do this. What was I thinking?
My iPod has somehow resynced itself. There are now only 102 completley random songs on it. I don’t remember Prince’s Little Red Corvette being on my computer EVER so why is it on my iPod now? What happened to my awesome upbeat run playlist???
The bus arrives at 7:15. I reluctantly check my bag. Bag check means the pants come off. The warm puffy jacket is gone. My pink helium jacket is amazing but I’m not sure if it’s ready for the freezing temps.
I wander around. Everyone’s wearing full tights and sweatshirts. People stare at my bare legs. I’m nervous. I hear snippets of conversation. “So, what’s your goal?” “oh, around 1:40, 1:45” I’m doomed.
I’ve thought about this before. Because my training has been so rocky, I just want to do this in less that three hours. I know that’s not really a feat but considering that at age 31 I had never run in my entire life and out of the blue I decided to train for a half marathon I think that under three hours is a noble goal.
I make my way to the start line. I wander as far back as I can. I’m slow. There’s no point in being up at the front everyone’s going to pass me anyways.
The gun sounds and we’re off. I run slow and steady. People are passing me like I’m standing still. I check behind me and I’m not dead last!
I like the sound of everyone’s feet hitting the ground. I like the people cheering me on and high fiving me. I love running down one of the country’s major streets in the middle of the street. I’m not too cold. When I work out, I’m the human oven. I’m usually embarassed by how profusely I sweat which is probably why I never liked working out. I usually turn beet red and sweat like 15 burly men. It’s so cold that I’m not sweating or overheating. I don’t feel exhaustion and my bare legs and gangly west coast body aren’t cold.
We run. Back under the 401. Past York Mills subway. Lawrence. Eglinton. I run 7k before I stop to walk. Walking hurts. My belt pack has abraded my skin but I didn’t feel it. I’m adusting it and trying to figure out what my my fingers are poking. It’s my stomach. Maybe I am cold. I can’t feel my hands. I’m hungry (and of course I left my power bar in my checked bag) I can’t stop smiling. The Gatorade makes me nauseous but I feel like I need the sugar. At 10k I start to cry. No reason. I just feel overcome with emotion. The course veers off of Yonge and down through the Rosedale Valley. I absolutely love riding my bike down the Rosedale Valley but without traffic, it’s lonely. The crowd has thinned and I feel lonely. On Yonge, there were spectators and businesses cheering us on. Now it’s just me and the trees and I start to feel the isolation that I used to feel when training. I cry again. I’m getting tired. I’m slowing down. Somewhere between 10 and 14k, the 2:30 pace guy passes me. I’m slowing down. My original plan to walk 1k and run 1k doesn’t work. I work in shorter distances. Walk to the tree. Run to the overpass. It feels right. As right as running 21k in the freezing cold can feel.
At 14k I stop to use the restroom (OK outhouse) I wait forever. At least 7-10 minutes. In retrospect I would have held it.
Out of the Rosedale valley and along Bayview. We run past a park I recognize. My friend and I rode our bike there and ended up pushing them up this giant staircase. I smile. I think about everyone who is proud of me. I think about what my parents will say because I never even told them I was planning to do this. I think about the support I’ve received. I think about how lucky I am to have such amazing friends.
The race swings onto King Street through the distillery district and past St Lawerence Market. I get passed by the marathon leader. They started an hour later and have about 5k on me. I shake my fist. I chug along. We get closer to the downtown core. The running crowd has thinned out considerably. I’m essentially running alone down a blocked off street.
Into the downtown core, it’s amazing that there are police at every intersection stopping traffic and waving me through. I thank them. Most of them wave and tell me I’m almost there.
At 18k they’re handing out some kind of power gel goop. I genereally don’t care for that but at that momement, the chocolatey sugar goo is the greatest thing on the planet.
We turn up University Ave. Because Toronto is so stupidly flat, I can see Queens Park even though it’s at least 2k away.
I keep going. I don’t care what my time is anymore. I just want to finish, get my bag, and eat a sandwich. I want to go home, go to bed, take a sandwich. I think about sandwiches. Paninis. Delicious. People call to me. Many of them have their medals and are on their way home or to breakfast or something. “You’re almost there!” “Keep going” Bah.
I get to the base of Queens Park. It’s a giant oval roundabout in the middle of University. It’s about 1 km around the whole thing. In a perfect movie world, this would be the part where I pick up speed and triumphantly sprint to the finish line while Chariots of Fire or Eye of the Tiger plays in the background and my miraculously non sweaty hair flies behind me powered by the majestic speed of my running. No such luck. Each foot weighs a thousand pounds and I plod. There is no sprint left in me.
People keep yelling “It’s just around the corner!” which irritates me because it’s a damn oval. There are no corners. Just a long unending curve which never seems to yield a finsh line.
A medal wearing man eating a banana waves a bagel and yells “They have food! You’re so close!” I start crying. Again. He calls out an apology. I wave back and attempt a smile.
I finally cross the line. I pass the sensor. I hear the beep. 2:45:42. I walk. I stop. Someone cuts the chip off my shoe. Someone else hangs a medal around my neck. It’s heavy. I wander through the bag check and someone hands me my bag. Fortunately it’s got my race number on it because I am not able to communicate with anyone at this point. I walk up to work and get that sandwich. Everyone there is excited and happy. They don’t care if my time sucked. They make a congratulatory page on the PA. I sit and eat my sandwich. When I stand up after, everything hurts. I’m freezing. I put my sweatpants back in and hobble to the subway. When I arrive at Spadina station to find that the escalator off the platform is broken, I nearly cry (again)
I get home and call my parents. They don’t believe me. I have a party that night to celebrate the fact that I will never ever run again.
I get my corrected time from the website. 2:43:57 (minus the time I spent waiting for the outhouse) They offer some statistics. “91% of people finished ahead of you!!” “83% of women were faster” “only 4% of men were slower than you!” They have a map. You were here when the winner finished. Here’s where you were when the average person finished. Yeah. Way back there. Way to be slow. I’m consumed by numbers in my day to day life. Of course these numbers are going to get to me. Suddenly everything I’d accomplished just simply wasn’t enough.
It gets me down a bit (OK a lot) I mean, I worked with athletes. I know what a good half marathon time is. 2:43:57? Come on. The fact that even thinking about moving hurts probably isn’t helping my morale any.
The amount of support and congrats that I get overwhelm me though. Maybe 90% of participants were better at the half marathon than me, but I still did it. I hadn’t ever run before January and I did it. I made a choice to leave my house that day and I accomplished something awesome. I doesn’t matter how many people did it faster.
I ran a half marathon. Period. I ran a half marathon having never run in my life 8 months before. I ran a half marathon wearing a skirt and a big stupid grin. (and a shirt, obviously)
Before I got tired. Before I got sore. Before I let the statistics get me down… before all of that let me tell you what happened.
When I crossed the line and saw my unadjusted time. 2:45:42. The first thought to cross my mind?
It wasn’t “Thank goodness I’m done” or “get this chip off my shoe” it wasn’t “where’s my medal” or even “get me a damn bagel!”
The first thing that crossed my mind was “I’m doing it under 2:30 next year”
Yes next year.
I hope you know, I decided to run the half because I was angry at my life but I was able to run the half because you inspired me because you are awesome. Also because I saw that all of my sugoi friends still believe in me and love me.
I was hurt so badly by everything that happened and I didn’t know where my life was going. The fact that you and Tanya and the Sugoi gang still believed in me and were still proud of me made me feel like a person again.
Thank you for being incredible!
Love,
Lisa
There is nothing better than getting in a good workout with friends. It really is a special bond that is shared. Speaking of bond…..
superfriends!
Adriana & Hanna joined me for a workout with Jason at BONDTraining. We used the elements around us at a park by SUGOI and worked out!
Let me tell you, it was one heck of an hour of exercise. There was various grunts, groans and slight whimpers….in a good way. We did sprints, upper body workouts, core strength exercises, you name it!
crunches
more crunches
and more crunches
Follow Jason at www.twitter.com/BONDtraining
Here is what you look like when you miss workouts over the Christmas holidays and continue to miss workouts in January.
blah!
this step was painful!
Hanna and I ran, she encouraged me the whole way. We talked about so many things. She really is amazing. This support is exactly what I needed to get out of this funk, to remember how much fun I have when I am working out, how I feel like I’ve accomplished so much, and to have fun. Like chasing ducks wearing Firewall tights.
DUCKS!
Sometimes we get caught up in one area of our life and lose that balance, how do we stay on track and maintain an overall wellbeing. I can see myself starting to veer off the track, I was just not able to pull myself back up on the rails.
Thank you Hanna, for being you!
Super Hanna
…….
I’ve got GREAT news!
As a thanks to all of you, JANE supporters receive 5% off our standard pricing for your next custom order if it’s placed prior to March 1st 2010.
If you’re on the fence about getting your team order in – be it your tri club, run club, bike team, or any group – now is the time to place your orders!
Minimum requirements need to be met (for more info visit http://CUSTOM.SUGOI.com) and standard timelines will be stay the same – Show us your own design or if you require artwork assistance let us know and we will show you what we have to offer.
How you ask? Easy…
All you have to do to receive the discount is contact CustomGear@SUGOI.com and mention JANE sent ya to receive discount!
Send me pictures of your team in SUGOI Custom gear, and I’ll post them up here… (send them to IncredibleJane@SUGOI.com).
Glotman-Simpson at the Yaletown Crit in SUGOI Custom (2009)
gear and the elements
We had a great team meeting at SUGOI and talked a lot about consumer feedback.
I think it’s so important to get your opinion on our gear to not only hear your stories about racing, training and going out for those fun runs/rides but also to help us improve on our designs and what we offer.
- What is your favorite SUGOI item and why?
- What could you absolutely not be able to train comfortably without?
- How can we improve on an item from your own personal experience?
I am really interested in what you have to say, you are all out there in the elements, you are showing so much perseverance in winter training, it’s truly inspiring. Tell me your story!
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