JUST ONE DAY TO GO!

My off-road half marathon is tomorrow and the nerves are starting to bubble away. I am really starting to freak out just a little.

Yesterday I got up and had one last short run to do. I was happy in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be out too long and skipped along listening to my music. 10 minutes in I tripped and landed heavily on my knees while running over a bridge....doh! I now have some pretty unattractive grazed and swollen knees. I was hobbling around yesterday, feeling sorry for myself, but some ice and rest seem to be working and I'm sure by tomorrow morning they will be better.

 But what's the luck hey! No injury for ages, then the last run before the event and I fall over.

Anyway, im excited, and nervous, and can’t wait until its over. Bring on tomorrow.

I’ll report back and let you know how I did.

HERE WE GO, INTO THE UNKNOWN....

 

 

I've been working at Les Mills for about 3 months now, and last week the higher ups felt it appropriate to throw me, along with a bunch of other Les Mills newbies, into the deep end for our initiation.

The initiation is a whole day spent learning about Les Mills history, the culture of the Les Mills tribe, and getting to know what everyone in the organization does.
It's also an opportunity for us fresh meat to get a taste of all the Les Mills classes. I had done a few of the programs before hand, and was becoming a regular ofBODYJAM and BODYPUMP - but it was hard to find time to do all of the classes.

It was agreat experience, we did RPM at the Les Mills Auckland Gym; BODYATTACK with an instructor among our group of newbies; BODYCOMBAT, BODYJAM and SH'BAM with Rachael Cohen; BODYPUMP with Susan Renata; BODYSTEP with Mark Nu'u; BODYBALANCE with Emma Barry and BODYVIVE with Susan Trainor.

I learned a lot of things that day. For one, BODYVIVE is way harder than the posters make it out to be. BODYSTEP takes a lot of coordination - and running in circles in BODYATTACK makes me tired really fast.

I think it's great that I got to do this smorgasbord of programs because it's helped me choose the ones I like and want to continue with. So for now I'll be doing BODYJAM, BODYCOMBAT and BODYPUMP. Hopefully that'll be an interesting combination.

I would love to hear from any instructors or participants who do or like this combo? Any tips? Any suggestions for not breaking my body?

Hi, I’m Sarah, soon to be ‘the speedy one’.

I recently joined the tribe at Les Mills and I’m feeling particularly out of place as I watch the fit and the buff make their way to the gym every day.

I thought I was reasonably fit, and then it occurred to me the other day that I’m living in dreamland and have actually convinced myself that I still have the same body I had 6 years ago (dream on Sarah). I was indeed fit then. I was running, cycling, doing triathlons, you name it......I gave it a go. This is no longer the case I'm ashamed to say.

What happened?

Well, I think I just got out of the habit, and maybe got just a little bit lazy. Sure, I go to the gym once or twice a week maybe, but I don’t really do much, just sit on the stepper and watch TV half the time. That’s hardly pushing myself and as a result, I've become a bit of a couch potato. I’m actually quite horrified to realise that I weigh nearly 5kg more than I used to (hopefully this will disappear over the next three months in the process).

So, I have given myself a swift, sharp kick and signed up to run a half marathon in January 2011, and to make things a bit harder…..it’s off-road (that means uneven terrain and hills I think) which I have never done.

I’ll need to build up shed-loads of stamina, strength and general energy over the next three months. I’m planning on using BODYPUMP™, BODYATTACK™ and BODYBALANCE™ to try and get me in shape, I’ll also be heading outside of the gym for some much feared runs.

Confession time……I’m away from the gym on holiday for the next two weeks, so I’ll have to do some serious catching up when I get back. Not a great start, this is going to be tough!

If anyone has some tips for me to get in shape as quickly and healthily as possible please leave me a message. In fact, please tell me if any of you have done an off-road event and have any tips or hints.

No excuses now, I’m off the couch and raring to go…BRING IT ON!

 

 Don't forget to follow us on facebook

You might expect that everyone here at Les Mills keeps fit right? I’m not just talking about our amazing super-fit instructors that you see on stage, but there’s also the rest of us like the finance, marketing, IT, merchandise and sales teams. Well, we do keep fit, we’re encouraged to, and it’s normal to see people in their gym gear at a meeting after going to the gym in their lunchtime. It’s also a great (and unusual) way to get to know everyone, sweating over a BODYPUMP^TM class or getting your groove on in BODYJAM^TM  next to other members of the team.

However, it’s easy, even for us, to fall off the fitness wagon, the gym visits per week drop, work gets extra busy or life generally takes over. A little extra push to take our health and fitness to a new level is required and one way to do this is by setting yourself a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal).

Goal setting can be scary. It’s tempting to set yourself something you know you can achieve, but a BHAG has to be something that is a real challenge. Go for it, be brave and bold with your goals.

So, the online crew at Les Mills decided that we needed to be brave and step up our fitness routines. Spurred on by the fact that winter is slowly leaving the land of the big white cloud, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the shorts and vests will soon be making their way out of the cupboard, we have each set ourselves some BHAG’s.

Over the next few months you will be able to follow Anne, Sim, Tali and Sarah as we set our BHAG’s and blog about our progress (making the goals even scarier).

Soon you will be able to follow us through Facebook so you can leave all sorts of comment to keep us motivated! Watch this space for an update on that.

We would love to hear from you, so go ahead and send us messages, especially if you think we are slacking. Or why not set yourself a BHAG and join us on the journey by posting your goals and progress.

Here we are, about to embark on our BHAGs
(left to right: Speedy Sarah, Tough Tali, Buff Anne with Slim Sim in the front)

Let the games begin!