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Exercise & fitness, Fitness for Models

Victoria Barr : Sprinting for Life

Born 14 April 1982 in Gateshead, Victoria Barr is an athlete who represented Great Britain at the 2008 & 2009 Summer Olympics in the 4x400m women's relay. In 2010, Victoria won a bronze medal representing Great Britain at the 2010 European Championships in the 4x400m relay. The team completed the final in a time of 3:24.32. She is supposed to represent Great Britain in 2012 Olympics to be held in London.  

She agreed to do an  interview especially for Women Fitness, as she gets ready for the competition to be held next year.


Experts from her Interview, a first with a Fitness Site:

 

Q Congratulations Victoria’ for all your sports achievements. We would like you to elaborate on the long journey of reaching the pinnacle of such success?  

My career has been a very short one to date. I always enjoyed athletics and particularly 100m/200m and as a Junior I represented Great Britain in the European Youth Olympics at the age of 17, where I won a silver medal. I then went to university and studying became more of a priority. For 7 years track and field was pushed to the sideline, I enjoyed university and my early twenties were about partying and studying, the life of a student. When I turned 26, I decided to give track another shot and had the help of a local coach who was committed to helping me train and progress 6 days a week. The whole process was very quick, I had never competed over the 400m before and suddenly I won a bronze at the Nationals and was off to Osaka Japan for the 2007 World Championships. This was the stepping stone to my career and it gave me the desire and motivation to be the best I can be. I’m still on the long journey to achieving all I can both on and off the track and since I began in 2007 I have competed at the Beijing Olympics and won 3 major World medals. My dreams and aspiration now lie with next year and London 2012, to compete on a World stage in front of a home crowd would be amazing!!! 

Q What lifestyle routine in terms of diet & exercise do  you follow to stay healthy and fit? What kind of diet regime do you follow to stay free from stress and pressure of work?
 

My diet is vitally important if I am to maximise training and aid my recovery between sessions. I need to fuel my body with the right balance of food, not only that but I need to make sure I intake enough calories to maintain a healthy and effective weight. Exercise comes hand in hand with my diet. Before during and after training my diet needs to match what I am trying to achieve, to do this I plan and organise my week accordingly. Both my training and diet are organised together, routine is crucial and once you establish a one that works for you, the changes will be noticed. A healthy diet and planned exercise regime can help to eliminate the days stress and pressure from work or life in general. If your body feels good then you will ultimately feel 100 times better. My diet regime is not strict and it can be flexible to how I am feeling, I would tend to have my 3 main meals, along with my smoothies, and energy snacks in between. However, I am allowed what I call “a cheat meal” when I feel its necessary, so something I enjoy but may not be the healthiest. I would usually do this once every 2 weeks.

Having a diet and exercise regime that works for you personally is crucial! The best way to do this is to plan, organise and be flexible with it.

 

Q. Most of the women complains unavailability of time to take personal care with regards to diet and exercise. We would like you to comment on how you balances between work, business and family to stay at your best. We understand that it’s tough for everyone but the reason that keeps you going on and on.

I used to always think there wasn't enough hours in the day to get things done, until I started to prioritise and plan ahead. Now my diet and fitness regime are the easiest to work with. I have a great coach who plans my 6 days a week programme and I organise my nutrition. I'm lucky that I no longer have to work full time since WorldPay began to sponsor me and help my journey towards London 2012. I would say the hardest thing is fitting in time for family as I live in London and they are in Newcastle but again its all about getting the balance right. My time doing social aspects and seeing friends has been sacrificed but track and field and succeeding is my dream and major goal. My belief that I can achieve keeps me going and I feel goals are important for all of us to have.
 

Q Victoria, you must be training from a young age. All through the exiting journey as a athlete you must have aimed to be at your best, who has been your role model and why?

I have always loved sport from a very young age, I come from a sporty family so it was inevitable. I remember always wanting to be on every single sports team at school and would even give up my lunch break to play basketball on an all boys team...my competitiveness has always been there.


My interest in track and field came more apparent in my late teens when I joined my first ever local athletics club. I feel I have different role models at each stage of my life my mum, friends and coaches have all played a major part in making me the determined and focused person I am today. When I think of icons who I look up to particularly with my event, it definitely has to be an Australian 400m athlete Cathy Freeman. I can remember clearly watching the 2000 Sydney Olympics and seeing how professionally she dealt with the pressure. The 400m women’s Olympic final, Cathy dressed in a full lycra suit head to toe. The gun went and I watched an amazing race, she crossed the finish line to win the gold. I remember her sitting on the floor with what looked like complete relief on her face, she had dealt with the pressure of the whole country's hopes resting on her shoulders and succeeded!! Such a humble athlete.



Q Women Fitness health portal was launched in the year 2000 to create a place where women from all over the world could gain knowledge as to, how to take care of themselves with regard to optimum nutrition, exercise, beauty care, through different phases of their lives in a healthy way or while they are suffering from an ailment. All through these years we have tried to maintain the standard and serve women in the best of our capacity, we would love to have motivational input from Victoria for the company/site.

The journey to succeeding and achieving all you wish to is never an easy one. There are always going to be challenges and obstacles along the way as I experienced this year when I had a rib injury. I was devastated and ended up missing the World Championships in Daegu. However, you have to be mentally strong and stay focused. I have come back more determined and motivated than ever, I eliminated all the negative aspects and built on what I believe are the positives areas in my life in achieving my goals. I'm very lucky to have such a supportive family and group of friends around me. I have a great sponsor WorldPay who have continued to support me financially and maintain that belief in me even after a miserable 2011 season. 

 

Thanks a tons for your time & all the best. May God Bless you with success & happiness.

Our very special thanks to Nikki Kelly-Ayling of World Celebrity Management for this interview with Victoria Barr , European Champion 2010 Bronze medalist  in the 4x400m relay. London 2012 Olympics aspirant.

- WF Team

Dated 05 October 2011

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