Posts Tagged ‘Olympics’

Who You Calling ‘Hideous’?

Saturday, August 11th, 2012

So, I’d been planning on doing a post about the way women’s appearance has played into the Olympics, then a funny little thing happened this morning. I got up at 6am, hauled on my running kit & booked it outside to do a hill session. After my sets, I came back in and took a shot of my sweaty, distressed face for Instagram. Why? Well, for one, because I run a fitness site and secondly because I’m documenting all my training in the run up to the Amsterdam Half Marathon. Within minutes, a kind lady user of Instagram had posted the following comment: ‘Holy Jesus, you’re hideous.’ And this, feeds in to the entire point I was going to make about women at the Olympics anyway, so I must thank that user for both her rudeness and her impeccable timing.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in life | 21 Comments »

Where to Hang Out During the Olympics

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

Unless you live under a rock, you know there’s a pretty big sporting event taking over East London for the next few weeks. I live in Stratford, so I’m right slap bang in the middle of it all, within spitting distance of the stadium. I’ve watched the area change so rapidly over the past year and a half, it is actually mind blowing. New shops, buildings and green areas are popping up all over the gaff. So, if any of you happen to be down East London way, I thought I’d pass on a new found hidden gem I stumbled across a couple of months back.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in life | 1 Comment »

Does My Bum Look Big in This Gold Medal?

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

Olympics mania is well and truly upon us. Try to avoid it if you wish, but it’ll be hard what with the barrage of advertising and the stressing about whether you’ll have to barricade yourself in your house for a couple of weeks/go on holiday while its on. It’s probably no secret that as a runner, I’m very excited about it all. I can’t wait to see all these world class athletes battle it out (while trying to remain not bitter about the fact that I didn’t get tickets to anything). I’m loving all the emphasis on sport and getting active because heck, as a pretty unhealthy country, that’s what we need. So I’m all excited, then all of a sudden, some dopey UK Athletics official decides to drop a clanger last week when he declared that Jessica Ennis is fat. H’excuse me?!

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in life | 8 Comments »

Nike GPS Sportswatch Launch

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

On Monday night I was lucky enough to attend the launch of the new Nike GPS Sportswatch powered by Tom Tom at the Nike Running store in Covent Garden. It just so happened that Olympic Gold medalist, the legendary Carl Lewis and 400m hurdler and British 2012 hopeful Perri Shakes Drayton were there for a little question and answer session. Lovely vibes all round, with of course, the added distraction of how ridiculously good Carl Lewis still looks. Damn him!

The two athletes shared their thoughts on training, race days, preparation, mentality and everything in between. The audience of 50 or so people was made up of Nike Plus users and everyone was really appreciative to hear the perspective and advice from the professionals.

I grabbed a few minutes with Perri after the Q & A. Considering all eyes are on her, with hopes of her nabbing a medal in 2012, this 22 year old, Brunel University student is incredibly down to earth, taking it all in her stride (there’s a pun in here somewhere about overcoming hurdles, but I’ll leave it alone). In fact, She’s not even thinking about the Olympics right now – she’s got a World Championship to get out the way this year first, so that’s where her focus lies.

We discussed the variety in her training – weights being something she doesn’t enjoy, but, she says ‘I think about my competitors. If they’re doing it, if this is what it takes, I have to do it.’ She also said when she has really hard training sessions and her legs are killing her and it hurts to even sit down, she wonders ‘why am I doing this to myself?’ – but she knows that if she doesn’t train, she’ll feel bad.

Coming off the back of running the Paris Half Marathon, it was really great to speak to someone as dedicated and focused as Perri – while I may never be on her level, she’s an inspiration to us all.

The Nike Plus GPS Sportswatch will be available in stores in April.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in life | 1 Comment »