The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
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Women compete in 5K
Sports Editor, By Don Richter
PUBLISHED: March 8, 2007
Tired of winter?
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Are you a woman tired of wearing big, bulky sweaters around all day and staying indoors?
Are you ready to get into shape and shed those extra pounds gained during the long, cold winter?
If so, Women on the Move might be a good place to begin increasing your endurance and jumpstarting your efforts at getting fit.
Women on the Move (WOM) is a local 10-week class designed for beginning walkers and runners. The once weekly meetings start 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Michigan indoor track. The track is at Hoover and State streets, behind Yost Arena in Ann Arbor.
Cost to participate in the program is $60. The fee includes weekly workouts with experienced coaches, presentations on a variety of health and fitness topics, such as nutrition, strength training, motivation and self-defense. Participants will also be provided with a weekly training plan and e-mail newsletter.
The weekly meetings are approximately an hour and 15 minutes long and include a presentation and a 25 to 45 minute workout. The weekly training plan also includes two additional workouts, that participants are expected to do on their own, that vary in length from 20 to 45 minutes.
"The mission of this program is to help women of all fitness levels reach their goal of completing the 25th annual For Women Only 5K Run/Walk May 20," said Wanda Gunderson, co-coach for Women on the Move. "Setting and accomplishing the goal of finishing a 5K run/walk can be very empowering and that sense of accomplishment carries over into other areas of life."
A 5K equals 3.1 miles.
Helping Gunderson coach this year's group is Sharon Powell.
"We share the same philosophy as the women who started the WOM program," said Gunderson. "Being fit has brought such joy into our lives that we want to share that feeling with others by helping them reach their fitness goals.
"Sharon and I both became certified personal trainers as a second career in our lives because we enjoy helping people."
WOM, entering its sixth year, was started by a group of women, including Lisa Hesse, Eva Solomon and Carolin Dick, who participated in the annual Ann Arbor 5K run/walk said Gunderson.
"They recognized how great being fit made them feel and they wanted to share that joy with other women," she said. "Eva (Solomon) knew of a program in Pennsylvania that held weekly meetings to help women train for a 5K run and the ladies used the Pennsylvania program as the inspiration for their idea."
Gunderson said WOM could help women for a myriad of reasons.
"It is a common theme among women to get married and have children, or start a career and then give themselves completely to family or job," she said. "Many women put their own health and well-being aside to focus on these other priorities and then find themselves at a point in their lives where it is very, very difficult to start an exercise program.
"The smaller and very achievable goal of training for and completing a 5K run is just a step on the way to reaching the bigger goal of knowing what it is like to feel fit. WOM offers women the camaraderie of working out with other women that they can relate to, so they are more likely to stick with the training program. Many new friendships have developed from WOM and the women not only continue to train together, but they also serve as a support system for each other as working women, stay-at-home moms, working moms, single women, single moms, whoever they are."
For Andrea Knab, who participated in the program for the first time last year, running a 5K seemed out of reach.
"I was not a runner when I started the WOM program last year, I had just started a walking program," she said. "I heard about it and decided I would join and make participating in the For Women Only (5K) my goal. The group atmosphere is so encouraging. Women of all fitness levels and abilities were there." Each week you could push yourself a bit more and for me this was the key."
Knab eventually participated in the 5K run/walk last year.
"I finished in my very best time," she said. "Seeing our coaches along the way was a big inspiration, along with my husband cheering me on. I have set a goal to try and run the entire race this year. We'll see what happens."
Gunderson said a future goal of WOM is to make it a year-round program.
"Rather than just one 10-week program to train for the For Women Only 5K, we would like to add two or three more goal 5K events with the 10-week training leading up to the walk/runs to encourage women to continue their fitness programs year-round," she said.
WOM has grown steadily in its six years of existence.
"The first year there were only 25 women who participated," Gunderson said. "Last year, there were 85. We hope to keep growing in numbers and in events offered."
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