run the world

Not only does running help combat jetlag, it’s a great way to get a fresh perspective and explore a city incognito (no fanny pack or giant map required). I love nothing more than waking up in an unfamiliar city, mapping out a route, picking a playlist and letting the city introduce itself. Here are my top five towns I think you should meet on the run.

london - run before you (pub)crawl
There are hundreds of reasons to run in London: gin, fish and chips, the Harrods Food Hall, Pimm’s and Marks and Spencer All Butter Shortbread are among my top five. I love running down Oxford Street before the shops are open; Hyde Park on a sunny day is a close second. There’s nothing like throwing on my Bridget Jones playlist, tearing down the London Bridge and hoping I bump into Colin Firth.

montreal - on y va
Before I head out on the prowl for poutine and smoked meat I like to run the streets of Montreal and develop a plan of attack. My usual route includes run-by browsing the windows at Simons, exploring the McGill University Campus and a cruise through the Old Port. If you’re looking for a view, running the trails of Mount Royal is an incredible way to uncover the beauty of this historic Canadian city.

san francisco - a san francisco treat
A morning run through the fog in San Fran is a great way to practice presence - living in the moment is easier when you literally can’t see what’s in front of you. I love to head down California Street, along the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf and then jump on the Powell-Hyde Street Car to get back to home base (not everything needs to be an uphill battle).

new york city - these streets will make you feel brand new
Before you slide into your Manolos and take a bite out of the Big Apple, run the streets of New York to get a feel for what’s to come. With over 800 acres of running playground, Central Park is really a no-brainer when it comes to mapping my NYC route. The energy of the city keeps my pace up and the bagel carts and pizza shops make for easy carbo-loading on the way back.

vancouver - there's no place like home
If I could click my heels together and end up anywhere, it would be Vancouver. Snow-capped mountains, ocean waves and miles of seawall make Vancouver my favourite place in the world to run. There is nothing (and I mean nothing) like a sunny day, some good tunes and the smell of sea salt to charge me up. If you’re looking for a life changing experience run over the Burrard Street Bridge, through Yaletown, the Olympic Village and into Granville Island. I’ll save you a seat on the patio at the Granville Island Hotel. Shameless editor’s plug: if you’re intrigued by this route you should check out the SeaWheeze Half. Just sayin’.

Writing this blog post brought new meaning to “I run because I really, really, really like to eat” for Joanna – but hey, when you have access to the world’s best cuisine how could you not develop a love affair with food. Have any favourite discoveries you’ve made on the run?

yoga and our digital world

After three days of wild and wonderful asana at the Yoga Journal Conference in San Francisco, I attended a panel called Digital Distractions and Your Practice, where a diverse group of yogis came together to talk about their digital habits. While we were waiting to begin, I shared a photo on Instagram but then sat with my phone in hand for the next hour, fighting the urge several times to slide it open and peek into my digital world.

The day before, a phone began ringing during Elena Brower’s class on Finding Grace. Its owner jumped up and immediately began apologizing but Elena responded calmly: “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s part of the world now.” And just that morning at Janet Stone’s class, we stretched our fingers (along with everything else) in what she jokingly named Textasana.

Clearly, technology is becoming a part of yoga, whether or not you agree that it should be.

tips from the experts on managing your digital life

Be mindful of your breathing as you open your inbox and practice deep breathing. Email apnea occurs when your breath shortens before you open your inbox.  - Scott Rosenberg, Grist.org Executive Editor

Don’t use your iPhone as your alarm. If you use your iPhone, you immediately go from sleeping to your digital stream of information with no time in between to wake up in the “real world.” –  Congressman Tim Ryan

Meditation > Facebook. The feeling of gratification you get through interactions on a Facebook update could also be achieved through meditation. – Kaitlin Quistgaard, Editor-in-Chief of Yoga Journal and panel moderator

Do one minute of yoga and one minute of mindfulness a day. Why? Because everyone has 60 seconds (and you will likely do more than this naturally). – Gopi Kallayil, Google

All of the panel experts agreed that digital distractions can take you out of your physical body but that embracing technology doesn’t mean it has to rule your life or that you are any less yogic for doing so. In fact, as Gopi pointed out, the very meaning of yoga is “to join”. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (etc) are all ways of connecting with others and extending our worlds out from beyond our screens. The key is to do it mindfully and to be present in your “real” world too.

A great example of technology enabling connection came from panelist Sally Kempton. She holds meditation teleconferences where people dial in from all over the country, just to hold the same space over the phone line together, in silence.

Not checking my phone forced me to be present that day and at the end of the hour I didn’t feel as if I needed to hide it - after all, I had the world-changing possibility of connection with anyone in the world in my hand! That sounds pretty tweetable to me.

Where do you draw the line between your practice and the digital world?

Friends are more important than money.

Even before I started working for lululemon I was inspired by this quote. To me, it serves as a gentle reminder of one of my goals.

My personal BHAG (big hairy audacious goal): I will book a trip with my best friends once a year.

In May, nine of my friends strategically coordinated our vacation days so we could spend a long weekend in California together. I can now check off my big, hairy, audacious goal for 2010.

We flew from Chicago, Chapel Hill, New York City, Denver and Indianapolis to gather in San Francisco and explore the beautiful city.

We experienced the most amazing food, culture and scenery followed by a sensory-overloaded visit to Napa Valley.

The weekend was capped off with a visit to lululemon athletica Union Square, where my friend Madeline recently transferred from the lululemon Boulder store in Colorado.

Reuniting with Madeline!

I had such a blast helping my friends find their favourite items.

My friends wanted to see what a day in the life of a lululemon athletica assistant store manager is like (that’s my job! But in Denver, Colorado at the Park Meadows store).

Two of my runner/marathoner friends Mia and Katie, were so inspired by Union Square’s Run Club that they plan to visit the Bucktown and Halsted lululemon athletica stores back in Chicago to form connections there!

No matter the cost, no matter the constraint, it is my goal to visit with these lovely ladies each year.

I tackled my goal and we had a blast in San Francisco. Where should we travel to next year?

Last week, while visiting the lovely city of San Francisco, I joined the lululemon Grant Ave. store on their Thursday night run. Not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about dropping in, seeing as I'm a new runner [read my blog on the No Excuses Run Club], but the Grant Ave. run club info said "all levels welcome" so I decided to check it out.

5:55 p.m: people started gathering inside and outside the store.

The first few people I talked to were all first-timers to this run club, too. This is Lucy from the UK, who first heard about lululemon in Peru while trekking through the Andes with llamas.

This run was the first time Lucy took her new Run:Speed shorts out for a spin. Lucy, if you're reading this - what was the verdict?

Our group split into two: a 5km and a 10km group. The route for both was handed out on a piece of paper. Very helpful for newcomers in unfamiliar territory!

Our run started off by running (uphill!) through Chinatown.

We ran along the Embarcadero and under the Bay Bridge. It was a beautiful sunny evening and I was so happy to be outside!

We looped back through downtown. I was dazzled by tall buildings - a little different than the seawall I'd gotten used to running on in Vancouver.

The run ended back at the store where we stretched it out.

Fresh fruit and electrolytes were waiting for us.

Me stretching next to Matt, who ran the 10 km route. I had actually already stretched and eaten lots of fruit at this point but wanted an action shot.

Ciara's an educator at Grant Ave. and was also documentating the run club for the Grant Ave. run club Facebook group.

Meet Clay and Jessica, run club leaders and planners!

It was Canada Day and I was understandably drawn to Kim. Yup, she's a fellow Canadian but currently lives in the U.S. This was a great way to spend Canada Day, eh Kim?

Paige is training for the Chicago marathon. This is her on the final stretch of the 10 km. What the photo doesn't show is after she got back to lululemon, she kept running! Her training schedule called for more than 10 km that night. Go Paige go!

All in all, running through the streets of San Francisco with the lululemon run club was a great way to explore the city, meet some new people, and sweat once a day. To the Grant Ave. run club and all the fellow runners I talked to - thanks for sharing your amazing city with me! I'll be back.

If you're travelling this summer and there's a lululemon near by, make sure to check out when and what their weekly events are.

find a lululemon run club or yoga class

1. Check our store locator at lululemon.com/stores to find the store info, and then choose either "community events" or click on the calendar to see what's going on.
OR
2. Find the lululemon store on Facebook by searching and ask the community there.
OR
3. You can always call or email the store to ask for the most up-to-date information (find the contact info on the store locator).

Name: Jennifer
BHAG: To shave an hour off my 11-hour-and-22-minute finish time for the North Face Endurance Challenge Championship in San Francisco this December 5.

Jennifer's an ambassador at lululemon Cow Hollow in San Francisco and owner of http://www.basictrainingsf.com/.

what is a bhag?

A BHAG (pronounced "bee-hag") is a big, hairy, audacious goal!

why share your bhag?

The more you share your goals, the more likely it is you will achieve them. For the month of June we will be sharing a BHAG every day on lululemon.com. Want to share your BHAG with the world? Send your high-res photo to blogs@lululemon.com and we'll publish a few of our favourites here on the lululemon blog.

Andrea and Elizabeth doing dancer's pose.

Proudly driven down from Portland to San Francisco by Andrea Hehr and Elizabeth Brotz, we present the lululemon love van! “It was a reminder of what I'm here to do. The company that we work for continuously amazes me and it was a sweet journey with a dear friend. We covered every discussion under the sun,” said Andrea.

Speaking of sun, you can do sun salutations on the roof of this van with its unique yoga platform.

Other awesome features
- Bio-diesel eco-friendly design
- Microwave
- Sink and fridge
- 40" plasma
- Wi-fi
- Killer sound system

Our sweet wheels are ready to hit up all the yoga classes!

Welcome to the inside of our lululemon van!

Our lovely manifesto.

Wrapped in our manifesto, this van brought upon sudden awe and dropped jaws from onlookers and drivers along the freeway. “You could see the wheels start to spin…them asking themselves…when was the last time I did one thing a day that scared me?” Andrea.

After working for lululemon, we become immune to the boldness of our manifesto because it really becomes part of our everyday life.

Northern California should watch for us as we explore the region in our lululemon love bus - we'll be hitting up all the coolest events and riding in style. Get ready to be inspired.

Climb on up and join us for a sun salutation soon!

If dancers are sighted in an unusual public space, moving seamlessly, you may have stumbled across a site-specific dance project. Innovative choreographers are ditching the stage and going public by choreographing movement in and around public spaces. With the current credit crunch, creating movement in public space is a win win situation as more people are exposed to dance and no one has to worry about paying for a theatre.

I am spearheading a site-specific dance project inside our store at Grant Ave in San Francisco. The show premieres June 5 and 6 and utilizes the stores' front space, window and sidewalk. I enrolled floor manager Chris Cano and local dancer Kristin Cheng to choreograph, as well as our very own educator Anna Carnes to dance. Performing also will be Cameron Growden and Mayuko Ayabe. The goal of this project is to get our feet wet as artists and for our store to move, touch and inspire the community.

Making dance in public spaces has great possibilities. The movement is made in relation to the environment, it is intimate and we get a super work out on the pavement. Not to mention curious crowds watching as we rehearse inside and outside of the store. I am seeing that there does not have to be an announced time and place for dance to be appreciated and seen.

Site-based dance is also happening in Philadelphia where choreographer Kate Watson-Wallace is creating site-based performances that re-imagine everyday spaces such as cars, living rooms and bathrooms. In fact, one of her dancers, Alexandra Holmes, is an ambassador for the lululemon Walnut Street store.

Keep your eyes peeled for random acts of dance in your neighborhood as the epidemic spreads.