Giveaway

Embrace your glory wall (A Medal Displays giveaway!)

OperationMove · March 16, 2017 · 25 Comments

I’m a big believer in glory walls. In fact I have TWO. One is my medal display, and the other is my bibs which are on a different wall. Although quick note: if you are doing this – do what I didn’t do and laminate them. When we moved, not all of them made it off the wall in one piece.

I’m such a believer in glory walls, that it’s one of our key challenges in the Learn to Run program. This is because it is easy for things not to feel important, or for them to lose their context, or for you to minimise their value if they aren’t on show. In the old house I had this rack in the kitchen, which is where I spend the most time so I when I am in the everyday routine of everything I’m being continually reminded of the things that I have done outside the ordinary. The brutally hard things, the epically out of reach things, the fun social things, the joyful things and everything in between.

On days when I’m feeling like I’m failing at most things, there is a tangible reminder of what I’m capable of. What you are capable of is about so much more than running.

See that shoelace that I used to hang it up? That’s the lace out of the shoes I wore at my ultra on the Gold Coast. And the medal rack was a gift to me from a certain special someone who is training for her second marathon. Surrounding yourself with things that have meaning, breathes life into your passion and will remind you of what’s important when you need to be reminded.

The medal rack is getting a little bit full now, which is a testament to my keenness for bling in general, as well as my running! And Medal Displays have asked me if I might need a second one now, which is pretty ace of them! They would also love to give one to a member of the Operation Move community too which is even more fantastic. They have a huge range so you can pick something that is meaningful to you.

To enter, it’s really simple!

Leave a comment with which medal display you would love and why (most creative answer as judged by our Operation Move coaches and mentors will be named the winner!)
We would also love it if you would head over to the Medal Displays facebook page, and like them over there so you get notified of some of the great promotions they have too.

Entries close on the 31st March and the winner will be notiifed by email.

Christmas Come Early: A Skins Review and Giveaway!

Zoey · December 1, 2016 · 36 Comments

Who doesn’t love new gear?

Don’t worry that question was definitely rhetorical. If there’s one thing runners like, it’s more things to run in. Skins got in touch with me recently about sharing some of their gear with the Operation Move community, which I was very excited about, but I’d never personally tried them so I asked around in our coaching groups and in our community group and got some rave reviews. Now that I have tried them, I can see why.

Top 10 Things I Love

Sizing. True to size. There’s nothing more nerve wracking than buying online (which I do a lot of living regionally) and finding that the size is way out. I used their sizing chart and was somewhere between Small and Medium, so I took their advice and sized down to a small which was a perfect fit.

Waistband. I own a few different types of compression gear and the waistband is usually way too thin to be supportive and can make me feel cut off in the middle. Plus this waistband is scooped up at the back so it gives way better coverage.

Mid-Rise. The last time I wore low rise I was about 1o years younger. These sit just above my belly button and they don’t move whether I’m running or at Crossfit.

Light. I live in Northern NSW where coming into Summer now it is going to be hot, humid and gross. It’s ok though because I get 9 months of great running weather. But summer can be a challenge with running tights. I’ve worn these here and in Fiji and I never felt I was overheating.

They don’t move. I have a few pairs of tights that I need to continually pull up until I’m sweating enough so they stay put. (True, slightly gross story). But once these are on there is no adjusting needed at all.

Compressive. For me they are the perfect amount of compression. Great for running in when my muscles are a bit sore and I can feel how supportive they are, but not so much that they are restrictive at all. When my muscles start to fatigue in the tail end of a hard run I can definitely tell the difference when I’m wearing them as opposed to anything else.

Pockets. Oh I love pockets so much. If I am taking my phone I’d bring my spibelt or flipbelt, but for keys or an ATM card, there’s a great pocket at the back where it’s not going to irritate you at all while you are running.

No sweat marks or patches. I have other compression tights which I just wouldn’t wear because you get these giant, visible sweat patches in all the wrong places which is fine if I’m at home but a lot less fine if I’m out running or at the gym.

Recovery. I’ve recently returned to running and lifting after 3 weeks off and re-entry is tough. Everything hurts. So getting instant muscle relief from the compression is pretty ace.

Getting them on (or off). I’m sure there’s a YouTube series in the slapstick hilarity of getting your running tights on. I have some which fit but are so hard to get on that I could nearly dislocate a shoulder getting the job done, especially if I’m a wee bit sweaty. Not so here. Save all that energy for the workout.

Out in the field

If there’s one thing I know how to do it’s give my running gear an absolute hammering. Here’s what I got up to.

Crossfit. Total of 50 Power Cleans and 50 Burpees. Way too many burpees.

Run in Fiji. It was so hot. Husband probably not super keen on the selfie situation, but he’s a trooper!

Finally back home and recovered from a bit of a nasty cold I caught while on holiday. Something incredibly unfair about that scenario. But I got back out there and it was so lovely to be out running again. After doing nothing for the better part of two weeks, this was my second run back and I was a bit sore from running the day before. Shock to the system I think! But this run was faster and I got a lot of support from the compression with feeling a bit of muscle soreness.

Second session back at Crossfit. Only way I was getting through that workout with current level of muscle soreness was compression.

The Christmas Part

Skins have generously offered to give one person a pair of A400 WOMEN’S COMPRESSION 3/4 TIGHTS. These tights are available in black or in the gold design you see pictured in this post and are valued at $179.99.

What Skins have to say about these tights!

“Look good, feel good and train even better! Our SKINS A400 Women’s ¾ Tights have been designed with performance and comfort in mind so you can train harder and recover faster and look great while you’re at it.

Our A400 Women’s ¾ Tights include the new ADAPTIVE Technology to keep you cool when it’s hot and feeling warm when it’s cold. The new lower rise sits securely on your hips and the wider, shaped waistband with an easily accessible pocket lets you focus on your workout in maximum comfort.

Don’t forget our Dynamic Gradient Compression which helps deliver more oxygen to your active muscles. What’s that mean to you? It means you can train harder for longer and reduce the chance of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

For extra muscle support our Memory MX fabric has been added to various key areas including your ITB, TFL and knee to ensure maximum compression without restriction. This allows you to perfect your downward dog or run that little bit further while reducing the risk of injury.

And if that’s not enough we’ve added 360-degree reflectivity so you can go for a run at night without thinking twice.”

How to Enter

To enter, comment below with what your favourite workout is and why. The winner will be picked by the Operation Move coaches based on most interesting answer!

Entries will close on the 11th December at 11:59pm and winners will be notified by email.

We also have a gift for everyone!
Skins are also giving everyone in the community 20% off Skins full-priced products from the 1st to 20th December using the code OPMOVE-SKINS20 so you don’t have to win a competition, you can grab a great deal now.

Run for Kate {and win a half marathon entry in the Melbourne Running Festival}

Zoey · August 14, 2015 · 6 Comments

In case you haven’t seen me about the place, I’m Kate and I’m the Business Manager at Operation Move.

I don’t do things by halves. Evident perhaps by the twin daughters. And making the Gold Coast Marathon with less than 3 minutes to cut off time. And so when I injured myself playing ‪#‎deathball‬, I have done a phenomenal job of it. Minimum 12 weeks before I can run long distance again.

Which sort of put a spanner in the works of running the Melbourne Marathon Half Marathon. Huge spanner. And when I was talking about that hugely annoying spanner with Zoey, we came up with the idea of offering up the entry for someone else to run. Because we always get our distance, one way or another.

We are so excited to be fielding a pretty fantastic team for the Melbourne Running Festival. We have people signed up for the full marathon, half marathon, 10km and 5km and it’s always a big event for us to meet up with all the people we talk to in the Community Group all the time!

For anyone thinking about signing up, don’t hesitate! It’s a great course, you’ll get to meet the #opmoverunners crew and I hear there is an excellent carb loading dinner planned for the night before.

Do you want to #runforkate or ‪#‎runforwawa‬ (in case you’re an Instagram fan)?

You can!

You get my entry into the Melbourne Marathon Half Marathon. AND – you get a personalised training plan from Zoey so you’re fully prepared for the half marathon. AND you get access to our OpMove Runners private running group for the duration of your training.

How do you enter? It’s too easy. Just comment underneath this post why you’d like to #runforkate and we’ll draw a winner. And make sure you can be in Melbourne on the date of the run! (Sunday, 18th October, 2015). Entries close 23rd August at 8:00pm.