Life Insights acquired at ARENA WELLNESS
Thursday, January 05, 2017
Happy 2017, this is the very first throwback thursday of the new year. I would like to throw it back to my very first marathon, the 2016 Soweto Marathon. To say I trained for this race would really be a joke hey. In retrospect, I would have liked to train more so that I maybe could have posted a better time, but it is what it is.
A few months leading up to the Soweto Marathon the awesome folks at ARENA wellness offered to open up their doors to me as a complement to my usual running training. Even though I was not going to get paid for this, I jumped at their offer because training at the ARENA is electric. There really is no way to describe, you put in work shame. Even after a few months of workouts there, I never got used to them. They always knocked the wind out of me.
I attended classes at every opportunity I got so I can not tell in detail what went down at the ARENA. What I can tell you is that every class is an hour long, the workout consists of treadmill running and floor exercises and also the classes are killer! After my first class I felt like running a half marathon was an easier task. You can read about this class here.
I spent so much time having running conversations while I was trying to survive until the instructor told us to switch the treadmills off. I came up with theories, conclusions and also had internal arguments, all while trying to burn this fat. Allow me to share some insights that I gained while training for the 2016 Soweto Marathon
Housewives Run FAST
I used to attend the 8 AM monday class, I liked this class because I could drop my partner off at work and use the car to attend class, then drive to university. Often times I would be the only guy in the class, apart from the instructor. He is the instructor afterall so he couldn't feel out of place. I won't discuss my feelings though because most times I would be feeling nervous about the sweating I was about to do. Towards the end of the class the instructor would tell us to choose a speed between 14 16 and 18 km's per hour, I dreaded this moment because I hate sprints. I would always choose the lowest speed and struggled to maintain that for the few seconds they required us to.
But not the women of the 8AM class, the women of the 8AM class always chose the highest speed or faster. Not just for the sprints though throughout the whole class they choose the highest speed and they slay it. I peeked over to their treadmills so many times and told myself that one day I would be able to run at those speeds.
Lorna Jane Rules the North
So if you know me, you know that I am very much interested in running tights. I can have one pair of shoes, but I can never have enough tights. In my usual life, with my usual fitness circle all I see is Swoosh, but this was a new fitness circle, this was a new environment and all I could see was Lorna Jane. It was my first time being so close to it. I have heard a lot about it and how it is popular at the gyms in Johannesburg. Finally, I could see the market penetration and dominance. Lorna Jane you are loved...
Beetroot tastes good
Beetroot is that veggie that we only eat on a sunday, its part of the 7 colour's sunday lunch fiasco. We ate it so much that we don't want to see its foorprints any longer. We have had enough of beetroot so much that its now been pushed to the funeral food menu and even then we don't want it. Due to this, I rarely consume beetroot. After one particular class, I decided to live a little and buy the juice at the juice bar that contained beetroot, carrot, ginger etc etc. It was so good, I slurped it up so quickly that I regreted it and I wanted more. At that point I had driven too far to turn back.
*Mental Note* When visiting Morningside shopping centre, visit the ARENA WELLNESS juice bar, just to order my beetroot juice.
*Mental Note* When visiting Morningside shopping centre, visit the ARENA WELLNESS juice bar, just to order my beetroot juice.
CORE STRENGTH IS LIFE
I have been avoiding all core strength throughout my running life. I can't even tell you why I did that. When visiting the ARENA you can't run away from the core exercises. This is why I kept going bac because I knew that I needed core strength for the marathon. The journey towards my 6 pack had started, I failed to keep consistent because varsity got too hectic. Now my 6 pack lies beneath my dad bod.
FITNESS IS A COMMUNITY
All along I thought that community aspect of exercising was limited and exclusive to the running community. I was wrong though, there is a community at ARENA WELLNESS as well. Everybody knows each other, everybody knows what class they are going to and who will be there and who will be the instructor. Everybody knows which treadmill is theirs, just like how gamblers know which is their luckyslot machine. A fit community where no excuses are made and we just sweat our dad bods away, isnt that the dream community?
I gained so many insights during my time at ARENA WELLNESS, I could go on forever telling you about how excited I got when the lights were dimmed and the neon lights came on. I could also tell you to bring semi frozen water because even ice melts during the workout. However there are insights which you have to derive on your own, You can do so by registering for a class on http://www.arenawellness.co.za just be prepared to Train Move Play
#RunRevolution
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