In October 2011, Calla Oxley began her first of what would be two “journeys” with Innovative Fitness. She came to us shortly after the birth of her third son, wanting to get some of her fitness back, as well as get back into running. Calla made steady progress and things were moving in an upward direction until January 2012, when she sustained a stress fracture to her pelvic bone while running on vacation in Hawaii. The next 6 months would be an extremely trying time for Calla, as she was confined to crutches for the majority of this time, not long after coming off of bed rest from the better part of the last 2 months of her latest pregnancy. But Calla, being the tenacious and motivated person that she is, dedicated herself to her rehab and recovery and by late June 2012, she was chomping at the bit to get back to the gym.
With the simple goal in mind of wanting to be able to pick up her kids without injuring herself, Calla began “Journey #2” and has not looked back. The first few months after her return was focused on improving her movement quality and functional movement capabilities, and things improved by leaps and bounds VERY quickly. Already being an avid swimmer, it wasn’t long before Calla and her training coaches started throwing around the idea of getting into biking, and eventually, running and triathlon training. In December of 2012, before she embarked on another Hawaiian winter vacation, Calla and her coaches decided to set a goal for her to complete the Subaru Vancouver Sprint Distance Triathlon in July of the following year, and the Stanley Park Sprint Distance Triathlon in September. This is when Calla really kicked things into high gear! Spurred on by the commitment to her new goal, Calla dedicated herself to a 2x per week training program WHILE she was in Hawaii! This made all the difference in the world because when Calla was set to return to the gym, she hadn’t lost any momentum and was ready to kick things up another notch. Over the next 6 months (*keep in mind it was only a year earlier that she returned from her Hawaiian getaway with a stress fracture and was confined to crutches for the next half year), Calla dialed herself into a training program that, combined with her two training session per week, would set her up to complete the Subaru Vancouver Triathlon that upcoming July.
“Complete” does not even begin to describe how well Calla did in this race.
She absolutely FLEW through the course, finishing in less than one hour and thirty minutes, completely injury free, almost exactly one year to the day she returned to IF after her stress fracture recovery. She even had enough energy at the end of the race to carry her youngest son across the finish line with her (she was accompanied by her other two sons as well. Great Moment!)
But Calla’s summer of amazing accomplishments was not over yet. She kept up her training over the next two months, making time to see a swim coach and take part in a ladies ride group once a week to boot, and by the time the Stanley Park Tri rolled around, She was ready to fly once more! She battled through wind, rain, thunder, and piles of crashed out riders to cross the finish line of her second tri in, again, less than one and a half hours. These two feats of endurance, her dedication to her training program, and her “I’m Gonna Do IT!” attitude, were enough to net her ‘Ironperson of the Month’ honours for this past September.
Calla is currently laying out her goals for 2014, and is looking into doing another sprint tri, an Olympic distance tri, and possibly a half marathon and a Gran Fondo bike ride. Calla’s journey thus far is the epitome of perseverance and with her attitude and dedication there is no telling how many successful “Journeys” Calla will embark on with Innovative Fitness by her side!
