Vuyo Tambodala
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Part 4 of "The Women" series and slowly but surely I am getting responses from the ladies that I had set out to interview. It was through stalking runners on instagram that I got to interview this lady, she is also part of a fitness duo. Maybe I will get to interview this fitness duo before the month ends.
Q. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do for a living?
.PNG)
A. I live in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. I work an office based job ,your typical 9 - 5. I'm an accountant by profession. And I work for a company in the weather business.
Q. How do you balance your exercise regime and your professional life?
A. Typically I train 4 days on average. In the mornings before work or afternoons after work. After work I sometimes run my office surrounds and back to the office and then drive back home. I always have to make time for the lifestyle I chose no matter how busy I am even if it means waking up at 4:45 to join my running club, then I have an early night. Because of studies I prefer mornings rather than evenings though.
Q. What does your weekly fitness regime consist of?
A. Functional training, Running 3 times a week- outdoor or treadmill, high intensity interval training and weights training all done between 4 to 5 days. I also rest for 2 days in between.
Q. When and why did you start running?
A. I started running in 2008 because I wanted to lose a bit of weight to look and feel healthier by being active.
Q. What motivates you to go out there, when you do not feel like it?
A. The euphoric feeling I get after I train, as well as the weight I was before I started being active.
Q. What is the longest distance you have ran?
A. 21km, Komatsu Marathon in 2013
Q. What do you love about running?
A. I love the outdoors, the challenging hills and meeting other runners on the way and sharing a smile. It's a social sport especially when I do races I try to interact with people from all sorts of walks in life.
Q. What do you hate about running?
A. How unsafe it is , especially as a woman to go out there and run the streets with so many accidents and criminals on the streets 24/7 :-(
Q. What gives you the confidence to run in the streets?
A. I pray before I leave my house. I also pretend I'm running with someone by constantly looking behind me and yielding like I'm trying to see how far my partner is...just to confuse the enemies. Lol!
Q. How do you think running can empower women?
A. It can provide triumph by doing something they have never done before or running distances they have never done before. Unlike diet pills and quick fixes you get to experience you legs move and your body being taken to levels it has never seen before. Every running experience is different from the other it can never be the same and that alone provides some new life in ones life. Running outdoors is a confidence booster because you're exposing yourself to all sorts of criticism that's on the street. Running outdoors also kills the lazy bug / the Goliath of training because unlike the treadmill you definitively have to run/walk back the same distances you ran forward back home; you can't hit stop and it ends there.
Q. What would you like to achieve in the future in terms of running?
A. I would like to be more consistent, like running in winter. I would also like to run an ultra marathon in 2015.
Q. How do you envision the future of running?
A. Something to bring communities closer.
Q. What do you think about the lack of exercise among the youth?A. It's a health hazard because of the processed foods we eat today I feel we need to be more active people.
Q. What was your best running experience?
A. When I ran 5km in under 25 minutes
Q. What was your worst running experience?
A. When I got injured during a 15km race, I had ran alone with no mate and I was shy to express my vulnerability to pain. Something I will never be shy about.
Q. How do you push through the pain?
A. I'm a fighter and I enjoy challenges and very competitive to myself so I always tell my self it's finish or nothing. I never walk on a hill no matter how hard because once I walk it becomes unbearable and even harder.
Q. What is your favourite shoe to run in?
A. New Balance
Q. What can you not run without?
A. Lip balm it's a long distance and my phone for emergencies
Q. What advice can you give somebody who wants to start running?
A. They should start small...mix the running with walking so that they don't overwhelm themselves, as well as do shorter distances even 2km counts!
Q. Which Social media sites are you on and how can one follow you?
A. Instagram as @Ozayodakalo, twitter as @Vuyotee, Instagram fitness duo as @MalTee_BeneFIT
1 comments
I'm a novice runner and I'm enjoying it. I totally agree with what Vuyo said about how unsafe it is and I find that my male running partners don't understand my safety concerns. I guess it's because SA is a safer place for them.
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