It’s the big one – the greatest sporting occasion on the planet, the ultimate crucible where sport legend is made and dreams are fulfilled – and I was there in Rio De Janeiro, watching it all begin!!! I was gutted to have missed out on London 2012 (my home city, d’oh!), so this was my first in-person Olympic Opening Ceremony. Initially, after getting off the phone with my adidas family who’d asked whether I was keen to join in, I had a mini-breakdown with excitement and curled up into a little Swedish meatball! Fast-forward to the night of the ceremony and it became clear that this was to be the greatest adventure my blog had yet taken me on! This post is a unique perspective on what I saw on that opening night, and what I think it all means…
I’m super excited to announce that I’ve partnered with bPay to help promote a fitness-friendly way of paying for sustenance whilst you’re training! To demonstrate what I mean, I went for a little run around the stunning London 2012 Olympic Park, fed and watered myself along the way – but purposely left my wallet and cards at home! I wanted to be involved in this project because I think it solves a genuine problem I’ve encountered in the pursuit of a healthy, active lifestyle; minimising clutter when I’m training – I simply wore my bPay wristband and hit the road! Click MORE to get my photos from the campus, discover my picturesque [if slightly overcast] running route, and see what I got up to before and after 😀 ! (more…)
Last weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to meet, interview, train and swim with four elite Team Speedo athletes; Michael Jamieson & James Guy (both pictured above, with me in the blue suit), plus Jazz Carlin and Siobhan O’Connor. It was part of a collaboration with Speedo to promote their #GetSpeedoFit campaign, which is all about inspiring people to swim more in pursuit of their full body workouts and healthy lifestyle; that’s something I fundamentally agree with, and I found the insights from these athletes to be absolutely fascinating. Click MORE to read my interviews along with a brief ‘Benefits of Swimming’, and to see some of our fun/goofy photos from the day at the London Olympic Aquatics Centre! (more…)
To continue my recent run-of-form around meeting Olympic Gold Medallists, I was extremely excited to grab a breakfast with Victoria Pendleton last week. For any of you who’ve recently been living under a soundproof rock for the past decade, she’s the talismanic British cyclist who won Gold in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 for her exploits in Sprint and Keirin respectively, along with 12 further shiny 24-carat discs from various other international championships! She is a decorated athlete in every sense, and I got the chance to pick her brains at the Macmillan Cycletta (to whom she is an Ambassador) press event hosted at London’s Rosewood Hotel; we chomped away on organic porridge & slurped healthy juices, whilst blissfully winding down in the Unlisted ‘Recovery Zone’. Also in attendance was Victoria’s upcoming ‘Breast Cancer Care Triathlon’ mock-nemesis, the other key ambassador for the Triathlon, Mel C of Spice Girls fame, who was just so charming in person! Click MORE to read our group interview with Victoria for a window into the mind of an elite Olympic mega-champion, and great all-round woman! 🙂 Faya x
Very recently, I completed the 2014 Sport Relief Swimathon 1.5 kilometre front crawl in the Zaha Hadid-designed Olympic aquatic centre! Having never learned to swim the crawl prior to December 2013 (and considered myself a bit of a swimming novice), I’m left with a ridiculously satisfying sense of achievement, like some sort of Viking conqueror! Swimming on such an infamous ‘stage’ to face my challenge was a powerful experience and I would totally recommend anyone who’s considering taking part in a charity fitness event to sign up for it next year; you’ll be (more…)
During my recent blog trip to Morocco, I forced myself to wake up early everyday and go for a refreshing, active morning swim in the Kasbah Tamadot’s gorgeous pool. Given that I’m now less than one week away from jumping into the vast Olympic Aquatic Centre to swim for Sainsbury’s Sport Relief, I’m taking all the last-minute tips on board that I can; to that end, whilst in Morocco, I went to work with these Speedo Biofuse Power Paddles (which look like vast dolphin-flippers worn on your hands) to help maximise the energy and drive that I generate from my shoulders and arms. I learned ALOT!…
As I build towards the Sport Relief games, yesterday I attended a ‘Swimathon Masterclass’ led by swimming legends Karen Pickering (4 x World Championship Gold Medallist) and Duncan Goodhew(Olympic Gold Medallist). For those who’ve been following my ‘Sport Relief posts‘, you’ll know that I’ve been splashing away in the pool since October learning to swim the front crawl to raise money & awareness for the fabulous Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Swimathon on March the 23rd 2014 at the epic Olympic aquatic centre!
Demonstrating my nascent and highly amateur swimming skills to two world-class, decorated athletes was massively daunting, but fortunately Karen and Duncan were so approachable, sympathetic and very generous with their sage advice – and luckily, quite patient too! I got to sponge up some fascinating tips on how to improve my technique from perhaps the best-qualified teachers in the sport. One of my favourite vignettes from the class came just before we jumped into the pool for the first time, when Duncan pointed out if we’d been lying next to the pool on a sun-kissed holiday, we would certainly be appreciating it’s glorious opalescent colours, the elegant reflections on the water, the mesmeric way it creates beautiful rippling; “just think about that for a second before jumping into the pool, and appreciate it“. That really struck a chord with me; in an active life, the ‘London’ pace tends to rush us through without affording us time to just stop, breathe it in, appreciate what’s there, and then enjoy it more fully. Click to see more of their pearls of wisdom…
