Happy Wednesday All!

It’s been a crazy insane weekend, I’m just catching my breath now, and unfortunately have come down with a bit of a cold (likely because I spent most of Saturday evening walking around outside without a coat on – I so refuse to accept winter).

There is SO MUCH to tell you, but I’ll keep focused on the topic for today, and that’s my recap of the LES MILLS QUARTERLY WORKSHOP!!

*cue fanfare*

This past Saturday, I spent about 10 hours at the gym going through each of the 8 Les Mills classes with about 75 other instructors and our National Trainers. The way it works is that each quarter we get a “new release” of each program. This means new music, new choreography and new innovations/developments to the program that make it better, more challenging and more cutting edge each and every time. They’ve got this huge massive team of professionals (think everyone from sports medicine doctors to physiotherapists to personal trainers to choreographers to music industry experts) that work on putting together the BEST class ever for each discipline each release.

Once the team has each discipline absolutely PERFECT, the Program Directors (the people in charge of the discipline) and a team of super-star international instructors film the class in Auckland, New Zealand in front of a 700 person class, package it up, write out the choreography and education notes and then the releases are distributed around the world to 77 countries, until they end up at the doorstep of each international instructor.

Let me tell you, when that lovely yellow DHL envelope shows up at my door, it’s like Christmas came early. Every single time.

Most of the time, we’re on our own to watch our DVD’s, read our choreography notes and dream wistfully of one day making the pilgrimage to Auckland, New Zealand to participate in a filming class for ourselves. But usually once (sometimes if we’re lucky twice) a year, we are lucky enough to have “Quarterly Workshops” where our Canadian National Trainer team gets altogether at one of the clubs and will TEACH US the new releases so that we can actually participate in them for the first time like a member would.

The National Trainers are those super-star instructors that you may one day see on the actual DVD’s themselves. They are beyond amazing, incredible instructors and just people in general. I always feel like they are total celebrities when I see them, even after getting to know several of them quite well over the years that I’ve been around!!

So ANYWAYS, Saturday we held a Quarterly Workshop at one of my home clubs!! I volunteered to help out with set-up and so spent most of Friday night assembling 75 BodyPump bars with 8.5kg per bar. We were all so excited about the workshop the following day that we didn’t even really notice how many sets of weights we had picked up and moved from point A to point B.

Needless to say, I got my workout in that night.

I was SO beyond pumped on Saturday morning; I was up and at the club by 7am (yea, try to get me out of bed for work before 6:45am? Forget it. I seem to morph into this chipper “early morning person” when there’s something exciting going on though….)

In one of my previous posts, I posted a picture of me on stage during BodyAttack at one of the previous Quarterly Workshops. That was a total dream come true, and a total stroke of good luck. Last year they started a new trend where at the opening ceremonies, they would pick an instructors name out of the hat for each discipline, and that lucky instructor would get to shadow the presenting team on stage for one track! I got picked for BodyAttack last year and was in sweaty plyometric heaven. It. Was. Awesome.

This year I was busy helping out with a couple of tasks, and barely even heard my name being called. But sure enough, I got picked AGAIN for BodyAttack.

Can you believe it?! I swear I should have gone out and bought a lottery ticket that day.

In the spirit of sharing the love, I asked them to draw someone else’s name so that another instructor could experience the same sweaty, plyometric heaven that I did last year. Who’s name did they pick??

My very good friend Kathy’s!!!!!!!

Sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways doesn’t it???

So after having a big screaming hug/dance with Kathy, it was straight into the BodyPump master class.

The new BodyPump release was INCREDIBLE. Lots of new innovations, killer music and intensity and that made my upper body in particular cry for mercy. Look out for the Bicep track. We don’t use a bar. That’s all I’m sayin’. 😉

From BodyPump, we went right into BodyStep since we had the steps out already. I mentioned in my Spotlight on BodyStep post that BodyStep has taken a huge step in the “more athletic” direction recently. It’s always been a tough class, but more “tough with a smile” kind of intensity.

There ain’t no smiling anymore.

The new BodyStep release totally destroyed us all. It was INSANE. Burpees, Mountain Climbers, two foot jumps over-top of the bench, scissor jumps on and off the bench, weight work thrown into the mix……we finished the class in a sweaty, disheveled heap wondering what the hell just happened.

I would have LOVED to be a fly on the wall in the room when the team put this release together. They must have had a good laugh “this is going to DESTROY everyone”…*insert Dr. Evil laugh*.  

Usually at workshops like this, there’s one program that is kind of the “show stopper” for the day that everyone is buzzing about in the changerooms and while they’re eating lunch (I know, we’re nerds, we really can’t help it). This time it was BodyStep for sure.

So while still licking my wounds from BodyStep, I realized that RPM was coming up fast and furious, and I had better move my (sore) bum and get into the cycling studio if I wanted to get a bike.

I’ll be totally honest and say that as I walked past the main studio, my heart hurt to walk away from BodyCombat. Sadly they have to run the RPM classes at the same time as a non-cycling class because there just wouldn’t be enough time to stack them one after the other in a day.

I love RPM, but I definitely feel more at home in the main studio then I do in the cycling studio, and it was hard to leave!

We had a great ride (minus some stereo issues, honestly, sometimes I feel like taking a baseball bat to the stereo and then looking around with wide, innocent eyes saying “what?”). Our super-star presenters pushed through two entire tracks with no music and no microphone. Oh, and of course they were the big mountain-climbing tracks as well.

Go figure.

By the time we were done, I was ready to collapse off the bike after having done Pump, Step and now RPM back-to-back-to-back. I knew that BodyAttack was coming up, and had been waiting for it all day.

After BodyStep, I had had a quick conversation with the National Trainer who trained me in Attack and Step many years ago (his name is Fred). I had said “Fred, I think that this BodyStep is even harder than BodyAttack”.

Fred grinned at me and said (in the way that only he can):

“Wait until you see BodyAttack.”

God help me.

I’ll pick up here tomorrow – this is getting to be a long post, but before you go, tell me how YOUR weekend was?! What did you get up to?! How did your workouts go?!

Happy Wednesday!

Hi There!

Sorry for the long hiatus, this week has been insanely busy! My parents are away on vacation in Hawaii (I know right…whatever happened to taking your kids on vacation with you?), and so I’ve been running the roost in terms of taking care of my cat Blake and my 16 year old brother Andrew.

It’s a toss up who is more in need, honestly. I’m pretty sure if left to his own devices, Blake would find a way to get himself fed and watered. Andrew? Not so sure….;)

With my parents being gone for over a week, I got a really good taste of what it will be like to run my own house. I like to think that I share in a lot of the responsibilities around my house already, but when it really is just you and you alone, you realize how much you start to take for granted things like taking out the garbage, going grocery shopping, planning meals, re-filling the toilet paper, picking up the mail…all of that stuff takes time! And this week, it certainly took time away from triathlon training.

My last “triathlon workout” was a killer run last Friday night. Pay attention folks, I won’t often describe one of my workouts as a “success” (I tend to pick apart things even when on the whole it was pretty decent), but this one was a good one.

Let me set the stage a bit for you by giving you the context for this run. It’s Friday night. I get home from work around 5 with the idea of ordering pizza for my brother and his gaggle of high school friends that have moved in and totally over-populated our house. I’ve always said that when I have kids one day, they won’t even know what fast food is. I’ll make all of their meals, teach them about nutrition and make sure that they grow up eating a nutritious, balanced diet.

Isn’t it funny how fast all of that goes to hell when you just need to get the little buggers fed so you can get on to the next thing you have to do?

So anyways, Andrew informs me “Yo, we need the pizza here by 6, we gotta get to a movie and will DEFINITLEY need to leave by 6:15”. (That was my best Andrew impression). He then disappeared down the stairs again into the abyss that is our basement into the group of rowdy 16 year olds.

Looking at my watch, I quickly deciphered that we were going to have a problem. I needed to get a 40 minute run in, and it was already 5:10. Pizza takes about 40 minutes to arrive…so if there was any hope of me getting back in time to answer the door for the pizza guy, I needed to move it. After placing the order, I got changed in lightning speed and entered the fray to deliver a very important message to Andrew in the basement.

Answer the doorbell when it rings, or die.

With that settled, I finally got out the door and on my way.

Tell me if you relate, but I can tell within the first 20 steps or so how my run is going to go. I’m either fighting it, or I’m rocking it.  I could tell even sooner on Friday night. Within 5 or 6 strides I knew that for whatever reason, I just “had it”.  

I was listening to my iPod. I can’t quite bring myself to let go of it just yet, but I’m working on it. During this run, I forced myself to listen to an entire song and not switch it before the song was over. I have a bit of “Song ADD” and usually get bored of them pretty quickly. Usually I just skip ahead to the next song halfway through and carry on. The whole purpose of making myself listen to the entire song was for about 4 seconds: the 4 second gap in between songs on my iPod. Usually as each song ends (if I even make it to that point), I immediately skip ahead, like I’m in a panic to get something else in my ears before that silence takes over. On Friday I approached it a bit differently, and just let that 4 seconds linger.

Would you think I’m crazy if I told you I actually started looking forward to the 4 second gap in between songs? The girl who wrote a Haiku about not being able to run without her iPod…who woulda though!  

Anyways, I still have a long way to go on the whole learning to run without music front, but I’m taking Friday night as a huge victory. Maybe I’ll do a few minutes entirely without it the next time.

Towards the end of my run, I started to get conscious of time, and the impending arrival of the pizza delivery guy. For some reason, I got it in my head that I had to beat that pizza delivery guy to my house, or something TERRIBLE was going to happen. I so did not trust Andrew to hear that door down in the basement. My watch said 5:55 and I had a feeling the pizza would arrive at 6:00. I had a little over a kilometer to go. So I did what any serious, Half Ironman athlete on a regimented training plan would have done.

I sprinted the last kilometer as fast as I could so that I could try to beat the pizza delivery guy back to my house.

When I finally got to my house, I was gasping for air, heart beating out of my chest, and had an acute pain in my stomach that I attributed to the fact that in all of the chaos before my run, I hadn’t had a chance to eat anything, and hadn’t since lunch!

I burst up the stairs and into my house, only to find Matt had arrived on the scene and was running the show, doling out pizza, plates and drinks to the ever-growing group of 16 year olds in the kitchen. My love for him had never been stronger.

I hadn’t beaten the pizza guy. But he had.

With one crisis out of the way, I turned my attention to the second crisis, which was my stomach moaning in protest that I hadn’t fed it since noon and had just ran 6.5km. I literally started devouring the pizza while I was still breathing hard from my run. I then felt totally sick for about an hour, and then life carried on. The pizza guy had forgotten our Chicken Bites, so I ended up getting to meet the nice young man that I had raced to my house when he came back to drop those off about half an hour later anyways. A worthy opponent indeed.

Lessons learned:

1) Always eat a small snack before heading out on a run

2) Never eat pizza within 2 minutes of finishing a run… and perhaps the most important of all…

3) Never try to race your pizza delivery guy to your house. The car will always win. Always.

All in all – a solid Friday night run and I’m giving it a huge thumbs up in the ‘ol training log.

It’s going to be an exciting week here on Going The Distance! I’ve got a huge event coming up at the gym on Saturday to tell you all about, I’m going to be kicking off a brand new mini-series and I’m attending my first 6am RPM class tomorrow morning!!

Tell me before you go, what’s in-store for you this week? Any exciting workouts or plans for this weekend?!

Have a terrific Wednesday afternoon!

Sorry about my temporary loss of sanity with that last post. Did I seriously write a Haiku about not being allowed to wear my iPod?! I need professional help.

Today’s post is all about goals. And in particular….

BHAGs

No, I didn’t just smash my hand down on my keyboard to come up with a jumble of letters (although sometimes I feel like doing that when I just can’t find the right words). Those 5 letters really mean something!

I’ve mentioned BHAGs before on my My Story page, but never really got into what the heck they are in too much detail. BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goals. These aren’t goals like planning to read 2 books this month, or vowing to cut it out with the chocolate after every meal dinner.

These are goals that scare the crap out of you, make your stomach feel a bit queasy, get your heart beating faster and get other people to raise their eyebrows. I like to think of BHAGs as a “transformational” goal. Rather then simply being the goal to “do something”, I kind of see BHAGs as the goal to “become something”.

The Half Ironman is definitely a BHAG for me. The goal, yes, is to finish the race (preferably in one piece). But more then that, the goal is to become someone who finishes what they start.

This week I did some serious thinking about my training plan for next year, and (drumroll please), I’ve officially picked out my 2013 races!! The topic of BHAGs came up for this post, because in picking out my races for next year, I’ve inadvertently put yet another BHAG in my path. 2013 is going to be a wild year (unless those Mayan people were right and the world is really going to end in 4 weeks. If so, then I’m off the hook for all of this.) 😉

So here we go…in chronological order, here are the races that I’ve signed up to do between now and September 9^th 2013:

Eggnog Jog 10.8K – December 9^th 2012

I figure this one will be a good “kick in the pants” to get my running going, and get me training more consistently as we head into the winter months. Plus it will be right in the middle of holiday season, and I’m sure I’ll have some nanaimo bars to run off.

Frosty 5K – March 3^rd 2012

Matt is planning on running the “Chilly Half Marathon” (it’s March….I’m anticipating it will be a little colder then “chilly”) on the 3^rd, so I figure what better excuse to do a 5K! I actually really wish that there was a 10K run for this event, but there really aren’t very many 10Ks between December and March! I wonder why…;)

Here comes the big one. The one that makes my stomach queasy and gets my heart beating faster. My second BHAG for 2013.

Around the Bay 30K Road Race – March 24^th 2013

Funny story about this race. I was re-reading some of my old journals from 2011, and came to a full stop at one of the pages where I was writing about my new years resolutions for 2012. One of my goals for this past year was to complete the Around the Bay 30K race. It’s funny, and a little sad, how quickly we forget and just move on isn’t it? I didn’t even remember that I had ever considered this race before. But I did. I considered it seriously enough to write it down actually. And then life carried on and it just fell off the back of the barreling train that is my life; disappeared into wherever it is that forgotten dreams and dismissed goals go to.

This year, I’m coming back for it.

I’ve never run one step further then 21.1km in my entire life. Some people do training runs that are longer then the actual distance of the race they’re training for, but I’ve never done that. I’ve only ever run half marathons, and 21.1km was always (more then) enough for me. It’s kind of elating (you know, in a terrifying way) to think about breaking that barrier. Is there something beyond 21.1? What happens after that last 100 metres? Do you turn into a pumpkin? Stop breathing? Do your legs just fall off?

I guess there’s only one way to find out!

Milton Triathlon – June 2^nd 2013

My very first triathlon! This was the first one of the season and it happens to be very close to where I live, so it was a no-brainer.

Iron Motivation Muskoka 70.3 Training Camp – June 21^st 2013 

This isn’t an actual “race”, but it is a training weekend that I stumbled across in looking online for triathlons and race events for next year. It’s run by a guy and his team of triathlon coaches, and it’s basically a weekend of training out on the actual race course. I thought this would be a really important thing for me to do, and was planning on going out to Muskoka to do some biking on these wretched hills anyways, but doing it with a group should be a lot more fun!

Kingston Triathlon – August 4^th 2013

It feels a bit funny and very surreal to say that I plan to do the Kingston Triathlon next year. For two years now I’ve gone to this race and watched Matt’s brothers Neil and Scott race. Getting the opportunity to share in their successes in this race was a big part of my inspiration to want to do a triathlon in the first place. It seems only fitting to finish off my year of training with this one.

God I hope I don’t die. That harbour is ferocious.

So there you have it! Looking at the races I’ve laid out, I know that I’m on the right track, because I feel excited looking at them all. It will be a lot of hard work, but at this time next year, look at what I’ll have to show for it all. It gives me goosebumps to think about, and that’s how I know that I’ve chosen a BHAG that is important to me.

So my question for you my friends as we head into a beautiful, cool, early winter weekend is this:

What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?

 

 

Good Morning!

I’m in mourning. Today is my last day of vacation. Where does the time go, seriously?! I had a great week off full of rest and relaxation, and I’m actually a little excited to get back to my crazy life tomorrow.

Today I’m going to be hitting up an RPM class at noon, my last “day time” class for a while, and I’m hoping to get there a few minutes early and nail the bike setup. This time I’m also coming prepared with a towel and a squirt waterbottle so that I’m not fumbling with the screw-off top of mine while we’re struggling up a mountain.

Even the fictious mountains are NOT pleasant. Who ever decided that humans should bike up mountains anyways?

This weekend Matt and I spent probably a solid 4 or 5 hours in total talking about the state of the cycling industry since the ugly truth has come out about Lance Armstrong’s long history with doping and the rest of the professional bikers as well. We are totally enthralled by it. It’s like the darkest, seediest, most twisted, incestuous soap opera you’ve ever seen….

Except it’s real.

Matt’s been reading an absolutely fascinating book called “The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-Ups and Winning At All Costs” written by Tyler Hamilton, one of Lance Armstrong’s teammates on the U.S. Postal Service team. I highly recommend it!

Anyways – today’s post isn’t actually about cycling, RPM or biking up mountains. It’s about running. And in particular, a realization that I came to this weekend.

I slept in on Saturday morning (slap my wrists) and missed my scheduled RPM class. Rather then get really discouraged and beat myself up, I decided instead to go out for a run.

Side Note: Pre-Ironman training Sara would never have thought to do that. I used to get very rattled when my plans went off the rails, and kind of thought that if it wasn’t how I had originally planned it, then it was doomed to be a train wreck. I’m totally loving this new-found flexibility and willingness to bend.

The first 20 or so steps of my run, I knew that it just wasn’t going to be a good one. My body felt heavy, sluggish, tired. I also picked a route that starts out up-hill, so right away I felt like I was labouring. As I struggled along, I was fumbling desperately with my iPod. I knew that my only hope of continuing to run was to find a great song that I could fill myself up with and disappear into.

Sure enough, I did come to a good song (it was the song “So Good” by B.O.B. in case you were interested!!), and then my run really began. I disappeared into the song, cranked my iPod, and ran for 45 minutes without looking back. The only moments that I really struggled, were the moments in between songs when I had to fumble around for another song to carry me through. I realized in that 45 minutes exactly how much I lean on my music and my iPod.

I’ve had this god awful, sick suspicion that’s been brewing in the back of my mind for a while, but I hadn’t officially confirmed it because the thought of it being true made me want to throw up.

Yesterday I finally faced up to it, went online and scoured the Athlete Guide for the words that I feared most. Sure enough, there they were written in Arial Bold font plain as the nose on my face.

“No iPods allowed”

What am I going to do? I am totally freaking out. I’ve been trying to get my head around the idea of biking for 90km and then running a half marathon with nothing except the sound of my ragged breathing in my ears, and it just seems insurmountable.

You know what’s funny? I don’t miss my music at all in the water. I actually enjoy the chance to let my mind wander a bit while I’m swimming and daydream about things. I’m not 100% sure about the bike, since I’ve never really done a “training bike ride” in my life (oh God…oh God…), but I would anticipate that my biggest struggle without music will certainly be the run.

I intended to write this post about “my game plan to learn to run without music”, but if I’m being truthful, I don’t have one yet.

So instead, I’ll share this list of 10 ideas that I’ve brainstormed for what to do while running a half marathon in silence to keep my mind occupied.

1) Solve world hunger

2) Try to recite the alphabet backwards and forwards 26 times increasing speed each time

3) Play that “animal” game by myself (where you say an animal, and then think of another animal that begins with the last letter of the previous animal)

4) Think about how much my feet hurt and how silly it is for humans to do events like this

5) Look at the spectators and make up stories about why they’re there and how they could secretly be a superhero in disguise

6) Bird Watch

7) Day dream about the absolutely enormous hamburger that I’m going to eat if I survive

8) Sing

9) Pretend that I’m Usain Bolt and repeatedly do the lightning pose as I run along

10) Draft Haiku about running

Sara’s First Triathlon Haiku

Dear Race Officials

Why oh Why Must You Forbid

iPods. That is mean.

I have completely and totally freaking lost my mind.

Happy Friday!

I love Friday’s even when I’m not working and they signify the end of my luxurious week of vacation. There’s just something about ’em. I have to admit that I haven’t gotten nearly as much done as I would have liked on my week off. I’m actually seriously concerned that I’m going to crash and burn next week after living life in the slow lane for the past little while!

What I HAVE got done this week is lots of work on Goal # 3 to get started on my Christmas shopping! I’m still way out of ideas for what to get for Matt and for my family…but I’ve got most of my friends and extended family done, or at least started!

My Visa is feeling very fit and strong after it’s week of hardcore training. It is now in need of a “rest day”. Or a “rest year”.

If only I could ride my Visa card all the way to the finish of the Half Ironman.

On the topic of training, this week I’ve taken some detours from my Training Plan, simply because I just didn’t feel like doing the workouts that I had scheduled. I know, I know.

I did get out to RPM on Monday morning, and I did get a swim in on Tuesday morning, but Wednesday I replaced my run with an extra BodyStep class, and yesterday I replaced what was supposed to be another RPM with a CXWORX class. (Stay tuned for a run down of CXWORX and what it’s all about as part of my Les Mills International Series). I do have plans to get out for a run today, and I’ll get to another RPM tomorrow morning, so all is not lost. 🙂

Today I want to give you a sneak peek into the last Les Mills program that I trained in back in January 2009. That would be the grand-daddy of all LMI programs, the one that started it all:

BODYPUMP

If you missed any of the prior posts in the LMI series, you can catch them here:

Part 1 – Les Mills International Series

Part 2 – Spotlight on BodyAttack

Part 3 – Spotlight on BodyStep 

You may recall from my first post in this series that BodyPump was the first Les Mills program to catch fire back in the early 90’s. First launched as “Pump” in the late 80’s, “BodyPump” was officially launched under it’s new name in 1990. It was trialed in Australia and New Zealand over several years before it was showcased globally in 1997. BodyPump paved the way for all of the other Les Mills programs to follow, it set the bar (literally ;)) for Group Fitness, and it’s still a total industry leader today.

So, what the heck is BodyPump anyways!?

BODYPUMP™, the original LES MILLS™ barbell class, will sculpt, tone and strengthen your entire body, fast!

Great bodies aren’t born, they are transformed, using the proven BODYPUMP™ formula: THE REP EFFECT™ a breakthrough in resistance workout training. Focusing on low weight loads and high repetition movements, you’ll burn fat, gain strength and quickly produce lean body muscle conditioning.

BODYPUMP™ is one of the world’s fastest ways to get in shape as it challenges all of your major muscle groups while you squat, press, lift and curl.

Essentially, BodyPump is a 55 minute weight-training class that focuses on low weight-high repetition training to give you long, lean muscles, and burn fat along the way. The Rep Effect is a fairly new term that they just introduced in the past year or so. They figure that we do approximately 800 repetitions in a 55 minute BodyPump class! Oh mama.

A typical BodyPump class is structured like this:

Track 1 – Warmup (a couple of reps of each move that you’ll see throughout the rest of the class)

Track 2 – Squats (just what it sounds like. Load up your bar, and squat until your legs fall off)

Track 3 – Chest (laying down on the bench top in bench press position)

Track 4 – Back (lots of dead-rows, dead-lifts and the big calorie burning Clean & Press move)

Track 5 – Triceps (extensions to the fore head, presses to the ribs, tricep push ups, tricep dips, you name it!)

Track 6 – Biceps (get your tickets to the gun show. That’s all I’m sayin’ ;))

Track 7 – Lunges (kind of a combination of lunges, squats and more recently propulsive lunges and squats to really smash your legs for the last time)

Track 8 – Shoulders (pushups, side raises, over head presses, and a bunch of variations in between)

Track 9 – Abdominals and Core Strength

Track 10 – Beg for mercy Cooldown

Each track is choreographed using different tempos, different weight loads and of course different music to keep us energized and motivated. Oh yea, and I guess the instructor should help with that too 🙂

Strength training is so important for us as we get older. Did you know that after you hit puberty, you begin to lose about 1% of your bone and muscle strength every year?

I don’t know about you, but that scares the hell out of me.

Strength training helps to combat this loss, and even reverse muscle and bone loss that has already taken place. It also goes without saying that strength training improves overall muscle strength and body mechanics. Think things like posture, balance, coordination. So in addition to looking great in your jeans, you won’t be tripping over your own two feet walking down the driveway while you’re carrying all of your groceries in in one trip.

Not that I’ve ever done that or anything….

Strength Training has also been shown to improve energy levels and improve your mood (although I think this goes for all exercise). Finally, if weight loss is your goal, strength training realy contributes to calorie-burn because your body continues to burn calories at an elevated rate even after you stop working out in order to re-build muscle fibres. That means, while you’re sitting on the couch with your feet up an hour after your strength training workout, your body is still reeping the benefits of your hard work. Everydayhealth.com calls this “physiologic homework”. I call it awesome.

BodyPump was the last program that I certified in. I’ll confess right now to you that I am a “cardio junkie”. I love sweaty, go-go-go, plyometric, screaming cardio workouts that make you want to cry while you’re doing them. Switching over to teach a weight-training program was a little hard for me at first. I kind of felt like I was just standing there. I very quickly discovered however that you can still get that “I want to cry”, pouring sweat, over-the-top, go-go-go kind of workout from weight training. Boy, did I ever discover that quick.

I adore BodyPump now, and I owe all of my strengh gains to this program! You will never find me in the weight room, or lifting free weights on my own. Ever. I just find it hard to stick with, for me, I need the group atmosphere, the pounding music and the challenge set out for me. I teach BodyPump twice a week, and have noticed enormous improvements in my strength and body composition since I picked up the program back in 2009. I foresee BodyPump playing a big role in triathlon training as well.

If you’ve never done a BodyPump class, you’re missing out BIG TIME. If you do nothing else, please, I beg of you, stop what you’re doing right now, call me right now and I’ll make sure you get what you need to get out to one. Check out the sizzler for our upcoming release, but be careful…BodyPump fever is highly contagious!!!

Hello Friends!

I’m extra pumped this week because…..I’M ON VACATION!!! WAHOO!!!! I’m not going anywhere or really doing much of anything in particular this week, but I had some extra vacation days banked and our company policy is “use ’em or lose ’em”, so use ’em I shall.

I’m so used to going at mach speed all the time that I sometimes find it very weird and unsettling to just slow down. Yesterday I spent most of the day lounging around and it was so unnerving. I think I’ve gotten so used to mach speed that it’s not even really “mach speed” anymore. It’s just my speed 🙂

That being said, I don’t plan to spend much time lounging around this week! I have huge hopes this week for my triathlon training, I’m hoping to make some good progress on my November training goal of doing two RPM classes a week and get a couple of extra swims and runs in as well.

After going to bed at 9:45pm…(moment to appreciate THAT please; I don’t think I’ve gone to bed before 10pm since I was 5!!), I was ready to rock and roll this morning for RPM class at 9:30am.

My timing is kind of terrible with this whole thing, I should really have done a “Spotlight on RPM” post to give you a better idea of what the class is all about! Here’s the quick description from the Les Mills website:

RPM™ is the indoor cycling workout where you ride to the rhythm of powerful music. Take on the terrain with your inspiring team coach who leads the pack through hills, flats, mountain peaks, time trials, and interval training. Discover your athlete within – sweat and burn to reach your endorphin high.

Think sweating from your kneecaps. Yea.

My mom came along with me for class this morning, and we were running late. Anyone who’s ever driven in a car with me when I’m running late for something…..I truly truly apologize. I’m a bit of a stress basket looney tune. Anyways, after a bit of mild stress, we made it to class, and sprinted across the parking lot to get in and on the bike in time.

I should have known I was in trouble when I was gasping for air at the doors to the gym.

So some joker decided it would be hilarious to put the cycling studio in this gym at the top of this enormous, steep set of stairs that make your legs weep before you’ve even gotten onto the bike (and don’t even get me started on walking down the stairs AFTER your done), so up the stairs we went, and got there just as the instructor was introducing herself.

Phew.

My first observation is that I seriously, seriously need a lesson in how to set up my bike. I know that the saddle should be at about your hip height when your standing at the floor, but I have zero clue where the handle bars should be in relation to your torso, how far away, how high…I’m really just guessing. I find it very uncomfortable to have the handlebars too low so that when you lean forward all of your body weight is basically over your upper body. I think I had kind of messed up my seat position too because it was tilted forward slightly so that it was almost tipping me forward out of the saddle!!

What a comedy of errors.

We got started on RPM Release # 56. This is the “new music” or the new choreography that is released every quarter in all Les Mills International programs. I had heard that RPM 56 was a killer release, and I had actually done the class at the Can Fit Pro conference back in the summer with Glen Ostergaard (the RPM program director from New Zealand) and our Canadian National Trainer for RPM Rene, but truth be told, my body was kind of numb at Can Fit, and I don’t think I fully experienced the workout the way it was intended!

I was sweating through the warmup. And I don’t mean a delicate trickle of sweat. I mean pouring off of your nose sweat.

Seriously, what is with the abundance of sweating!??!?

The first two tracks in an RPM class are warm up tracks to get your “base resistance” on the bike, get your legs spinning and to get on the beat. Or in my case, your working somewhere close to your max, gasping for air and sweating like you’ve just worked out in a sauna. After Track 2, the hammer goes down, and it doesn’t let up until the end of the class.

Track 3 is a hill climb, so you’re up and out of the saddle lots. My observation from my first “training RPM” class is that when I’m standing up, I’m able to take quite a lot of resistance, stay on the tempo and kind of “suck it up” even though it’s hard work. Seated climbs? Forget it. I won’t lie, it is a little bit frustrating that after doing approximately 1,000,000 squats and lunges every week for the last 6 years, my legs still feel shaky and weak on the bike when I’m seated. I know, I know, different muscle groups…..but still. You think that all of that leg work is good for something?!

Anyways, just as I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with myself, we ran full speed into the Interval Training Track. And then my brain turned off and I stopped feeling anything.

Good on ya for picking this song for the Interval track Glen. Holy crap.

Music is so powerful. Honestly. There is no way on earth I would have been able to push so hard in that track without this insane song. Our instructor was absolutely fabulous as well. Anyone who can keep their composure enough to talk through exercise like this is just a super human to me. She was also really good at getting her head up, looking at what was happening in her class and speaking directly to her participants, connecting with them, telling them what they needed to do to make it through. At one point, she locked eyes with me as if I was the only person in the room, and said “turn that dial up, you can do more”.

From one instructor to another – mad respect girl. You freakin’ killed it.

So we finished the interval track completely smashed and then went through a couple more hill/mountain climb  and racing tracks, and just like that it was over.

Remember those damn stairs that I told you about? Yea. Not so fun walking down them after a workout like that.

I think #1 lesson that I learned from my first RPM class of training is to BRING A TOWEL!!! Wowza…I didn’t think it was possible for a human to sweat as much as I did in a 60 minute class!! I could probably also use a better water bottle, one without a screw-off top would be nice. I’ll be interested to track my improvements over the coming month with getting out to at least 2 classes a week.

Any thoughts on how an indoor spinning class translates into biking on the road? Similar? Not so much? Ever had an AMAZING spinning instructor that was really able to connect with you?

Enjoy your Monday!!

Oh my dear sweet lord.

I’m registered. Like, actually registered.

I feel like I’m going to puke.

On Thursday, registration opened up for next year’s Muskoka Half Ironman, to be held on Sunday September 8^th 2013.

Despite the voice in my head SHRIEKING at the top of her lungs that I would certainly die, throwing herself down and beating herself against the inside of my skull….I registered.

So I guess this is really happening eh???

Anyways, I’m trying to just forget about all that, and carry on with what I intended this post to be about, and that’s the beginning of my monthly goal setting! A new month always feels like a clean slate to me; a chance to kind of “start fresh” and tackle some of those things that have totally fallen off the wagon as the previous month got old and stale.

I want to get into the habit of setting 3 goals at the beginning of each month.

The first will be a “training specific” goal. That includes everything from eating more efficiently to a specific swimming, biking, running goal, to a rest/recovery goal, anything related to the Half Ironman. I think I’m going to start referring to the Half Ironman as “the beast. That sounds much sexier than “the half Ironman”.

The second will be a “class specific” goal. This includes things like putting together a theme class in one class a week, learning my choreography on the weekends so that I have weeknights free, doing a full set of pushups on my toes, eating better post-class to help in recovery, rolling out with a foam roller after class and more.

The third I would actually like to be a personal goal. That can be anything from learning how to braid my own hair to spending more time with friends/family, to sticking to a budget.

Good luck on the budget thing – but you get the idea. Balance is important. Or so I’ve been told.

Footnote: I firmly believe in the SMART goal setting principle, and all of my monthly goals should follow this format. That means that they should all be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Lululemon has also taught me over the years to express goals using positive affirmation. Replace wishy washy words like “try”, “wish”, “maybe” with “will”, “do” and “certainly”. Oh the wisdom. Lulu is so much more then pants that make everyone’s bums look good…..

So without further ado, I bring you:

Sara’s November Goals

(please, hold your applause)

“Beast Goal”

1. I attend 2 RPM classes per week for a total of 8 classes this month and improve my overall confidence on the bike.

“Class Goal”

2. I improve my recovery after class by experimenting with different post-workout recovery meals (full of protein!). I drink 8 glasses of water per day.

“Personal Goal”

3. I complete 50% of my Christmas shopping by December 1^st!!

The reason I’ve chosen to focus on RPM and biking as my training goal for this month is because that’s the part of the triathlon that scares the crap out of me.

After just about a full month of swimming at least weekly, I’m actually feeling much more comfortable with the idea of the swim. I know swimming in a freezing, cold, sea-weedy, dark lake isn’t quite the same as swimming in a heated pool with a line on the bottom, but every time I go swimming, I feel like I’m improving, and I get a little bit more sure that I’ll be able to do a 2km swim.

I’ve run half marathons in the past (never following a 2km swim and a 90km bike, but let’s just ignore that for now), and I’ve also got a couple of races planned between now and the start of next spring to keep me running over the winter months, so I’m actually feeling a little more assured about the run as well.

I’ve been avoiding the bike like the plague. I have these god awful flashes where I see myself crash on a bike and shatter my elbows (possibly one of the least feared, but absolutely most devastating injuries that any athlete could sustain), smash my face, damage my brain…..*shudder*

Anyways, I figure in a nice safe environment is the right place to start. Maybe by the time spring rolls around I’ll be feeling a little more confident….at least that’s my hope.

As for my class goal, I’ve found that this month my body has really taken a beating with all of the teaching that I’ve been doing, and I sure haven’t been doing anything to help my recovery. Think meals comprised ENTIRELY of mini chocolate bars post-workout. Yea. Believe it.

This month, my goal is to wake the hell up start treating my body a lot better post-workout by eating better, drinking more water and even taking more time to stretch and ice when needed.

My personal goal needs no explanation. IT’S FREAKIN’ NOVEMBER!! Time to start Christmas shopping!!

My Visa just winced. Poor thing, doesn’t even know what’s about to hit it….:)

Happy November – may it be a month full of personal growth and development for all of us!!

Holy cats! Mother Nature sure woke up on the wrong side of the bed last week now didn’t she?

As I write this, Hurricane Sandy is pretty much past us, and the worst seems to be over. We didn’t get much of it where I am, but I know that the East Coast is really getting pounded right now. My thoughts are with all of you.

The past week has been a total Frankenstorm of activity for me too; I’ve been super busy at the gym with it being Release Week (Translation: The quarterly launch of new music and new choreography in all Les Mills International Programs around the world)!

Truth be told, I’ve totally over-trained my body this week and haven’t been treating it very well nutritionally either. I am so grateful that it keeps performing for me in spite of this. Times like this make me feel really guilty for hating on my body so much all the time.

In any case, if you’ve been following along with my Training Logs, you may notice that this week the only “triathlon” workout I have scheduled is for Friday, where I’ve planned to do my regular swim and a run. I made the executive decision that with it being Release Week, and the first week of new music at the gym, I needed to lay off the extra workouts and just get through to my next rest day (14 days from my last rest day…don’t judge me).

A really important part of this whole venture for me is finding a way for triathlon training to fit comfortably into my life. I’m sick of pitting new endurance challenges against my classes and watching them lose.

Every new physical challenge is going to lose to my classes. Every time. No exceptions.

So doesn’t it make more sense to find a way for the two to co-exist peacefully?

I thought so too.

Over the next year there will definitely be points where triathlon workouts just have to give way to classes for one reason or another. I think I just need to have confidence that an hour spent in the studio isn’t a “wasted” hour, and that everything I do in there still contributes to the ultimate goal.

I thought today because I don’t have an “official” post topic, I would share some of my (more amusing) experiences at my community pool!

I’ve started swimming on my lunch hours at work, it’s really the best time for me to do it because I don’t have to get up early, it gets me out of the office for a bit and it doesn’t impede my evening class schedule. Perfect!

The only problem is that the community pool right next to my office seems to be a bit “cliquey”.

And by “a bit” I mean “a lot”.

I thought the general rule of thumb was that as you get older; you get more respectful, more kind, more accepting….

So what the heck happened to these people that I swim with?!!?

My mom came with me for my very first lunch time swim because she had the day off work herself. Right away we noticed that the only people there other than us were about 15 older men, and one or two older women that all seemed to know each other very well. They even seemed to know the lifeguards very well!

I walked in (like a bit of an idiot) in my flowery Old Navy bathing suit and got started on my swim and we left pretty much without incident.

Well, if I’m being totally honest, this crabby, bitter old lifeguard said “Bye now! Thank you for coming!” to my mom on the way out and only gave me a disdainful look as I walked by. But that’s neither here nor there.

The second week was more interesting. I was flying solo, and the pool was jam packed. I was swimming into people right left and centre in the medium speed lane, touching old people in places that I should really never be touching them, and had people all over me too.

As Neil reminded me this weekend, that will be good practice for the Ironman!

Anyways, because I was all over people in the medium speed lane and the fast speed lane was basically empty except for 2 swimmers, I decided to hop on over and give it a whirl over there.

You would have thought that I had just bludgeoned someone to death in front of the lifeguard. After only 2 lengths, this nasty woman (the same one that didn’t acknowledge me the first week, hereafter referred to as “Nasty Lifegurd” or “NL” for short) blew her whistle (yes, blew her whistle) at me, and told me to get back in the medium lane.

So into the gong show I went again, and proceeded to touch old people inappropriately for the rest of my swim.

On the way out of the water, I stopped to grab my towel and dry off. As I was crouching down to put my goggles in my bag, I suddenly hear one of the men from the pool talking to NL, about me. He says “Thanks for policing the lanes. I hate when people do that.” You could have picked my jaw up off of the disgusting, scummy pool deck. NL then replied “Yes, some people just need to be told.”

What.The.Hell.

Okay pool-goers, somebody please chime in, did I totally break a cardinal rule here?? I only did 2 lengths in the fast lane, but I was never lapped by anybody there? I thought that things were fine and dandy?

ANYWAYS….

Fast Forward to Week 3. I forgot my towel and had to use toilet paper to dry myself off. It was not enjoyable.

I once again came out on deck to get in the water, and NL was standing at her usual post. I kid you not; the woman takes one look at me, throws her head back and makes a noise of exasperation that sounds something like,

“Tchkahhh.”

?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!!?!???!??!?!!

By this point, I’m more amused then anything…I’m almost looking forward to this Friday’s swim just to see what NL has up her sleeve!

So tell me…anybody who swims regularly…am I totally breaking pool etiquette by crashing this party?! What do you do if you are a little too quick for the medium speed lane, but not quite fast enough for the fast lane?!

Enjoy your Tuesday! We’re 2/5 of the way to the weekend again!

It’s Friday!!!

Okay, sorry.

But it is Friday!

I’ve got a crazy weekend planned. Matt’s mom is in town tonight, so we’re going to head downtown and visit with her, as well as Matt’s brother Neil and girlfriend Jessica, and then tomorrow night Neil, Jess, Matt and I are going to Halloween Haunt at Canada’s Wonderland for some ghoulish fun.

Side Note: Haunted houses scare the bajesus out of me. This might be interesting.

On Sunday, my Dad is finally going to be getting his birthday present from me (his birthday was in January…don’t even ask)…and we are going to do a two hour lesson in a commercial jet flight simulator!

Oh yea, and in between all of that stuff, I’m teaching 4 classes and attending an assessment taping as well. Eeks. 

I’ll report more on all of the weekend happenings on Monday, but for now, it’s time for the third post in my Les Mills International Series!

Les Mills International Series Part 3: Spotlight on BodyStep

If you missed the first two posts in the series, catch the first introductory post here and Spotlight on BodyAttack here.

Today I want to introduce you to the very FIRST Les Mills program that I got certified to teach back in 2007. Allow me to introduce you to BodyStep!

You know, it’s kind of funny how things work out sometimes. It was January of 2007, and I knew that I wanted to become an instructor. But at that time, BodyAttack had taken over my soul become so important to me that I could only imagine teaching that program. I attended BodyStep regularly, and absolutely loved the program, but never really thought about the possibility of me one day teaching it.

When I first approached someone about going for BodyAttack training (remember that at this time, I was a chubby 18 year old that was quiet as a mouse and still wanted to be invisible), I was told “No”.

BodyAttack was fairly new at that time, and it just wasn’t good practice to send a brand new instructor (who was really still a child) who had never taught fitness in their life before for training. I didn’t understand this at the time, but I am now very grateful to that person for saying “No” to me at that time. They set me up for success when I did finally get the “Yes” in 2008.

It was this fateful turn of events that led me to BodyStep! Truth be told, they were a little bit reluctant to put me through BodyStep instructor training as well (for the same reasons as Attack). I was put on a waiting list for training, and was told that most likely I would have to wait a bit, work on my fitness level and try to get into the next training weekend (about 6 months down the line).

I was majorly bummed.

As the training weekend drew closer, I had given up completely on the idea of getting in. I made plans for that weekend to distract myself and get my mind off of it, and resigned myself that I would work hard and prove myself for the next round.

24 hours before training was scheduled to begin, I got a phone call. Someone had broken their foot, and I was in.

And that’s where it all began!

BodyStep will always be “my baby” and have a special place in my heart. It was the first fitness class I ever taught, the program that developed me from this invisible, shy, quiet little mouse into who I am today. I owe so much to BodyStep. Too much to put into words on a screen.

But enough about me. Let me tell you what this awesome program is all about!

BODYSTEP™ is the energizing step workout that makes you feel liberated and alive. Using a height-adjustable step and simple movements on, over and around the step you get huge motivation from sing-a-long music and approachable instructors. Cardio blocks push fat burning systems into high gear followed by muscle conditioning tracks that shape and tone your body. Like all the LES MILLS™ programs, a new BODYSTEP™ class is released every three months with new music and choreography.

(Source: www.lesmills.com)

BodyStep is essentially a “step class”.

But this ain’t yo mama’s step class from the 80’s.

BodyStep is totally badass. It’s a very athletic class that uses a combination of cardio, endurance and strength based moves and choreography on and around the height adjustable bench. All of the moves are choreographed to awesome music (as all of the Les Mills programs are).

Some typical moves that you’ll see in just about every BodyStep class include:

• Power Knee Lifts
• Jump Squats
• Lunges (static & propulsive)
• Basic Jogs (up and down)
• Burpees
• Pushups
• Mountain Climbers
• Across The Top’s (exactly what they sound like – jumping across the top of the bench) 😉
• Jumping Jacks
• Speed work on the bench

Plus lots of fancier named moves like the “Jump Knee Repeater” or the “Moonwalk” that I won’t bog you down too much with! 😉

What makes BodyStep a little bit different then BodyAttack (although they share a similar intensity and penchant for hard work and sweat), is that BodyStep is really meant to be FUN!

Don’t get me wrong, Attack is tons of fun too, but BodyStep has baked it right into their mission statement and their program formula.

70% Athletic + 30% Flava = BodyStep

That means that while you’re busting your butt doing all of those hardcore moves on and around the step, there are lots of fun little bit of flare thrown in that encourage participants to just relax a bit, not take themselves too too seriously, and have a great time while they workout.

That being said, in the last year or so, BodyStep has taken a huge step forward to becoming a much much more athletic program! We now have the option to teach our BodyStep classes in the traditional 70/30 format, OR to up the ante and teach the class in the Athletic format, which basically replaces some of the more “fun” tracks with even more gritty, hard working, “jump squat until you want to puke” tracks.

Fun!? I think so!?

Don’t let me convince you though, take a look for yourself!

If you’re dying to get out to BodyStep, let me know and I’ll hook you up with some free class passes!! Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!!

I’ve gone back and forth on this post all week.  

My struggle is one between wanting to put forward my best face to the world all the time, and be “inspirational” and wanting to be real and put forward the face that I actually have on at any given moment in time, even if it happens to be a really ugly one.

I went the ugly route. Please forgive me.

 

I got my 25 minute bike ride done on Monday night, but was fighting against it the entire time. From minute 2, I was already thinking about when I was going to get off the bike. I was pouring sweat before I hit minute 5. For not the first time, I was reminded coldly and viciously that “I am not an athlete”. The voice in my head swallowed me up whole. She won on Monday night. I left the gym with my head down, my shoulders slumped, feeling completely and totally defeated.

The voice was thrilled.  

Also on Monday night (after my workout and class), I said the words out loud for one of the first times in public. I haven’t really said the words out loud yet to anybody except Matt and a couple of my very close friends. As the words came out of my mouth; “I want to do the Muskoka Half Ironman next year”, it was like I heard them for the first time myself. I saw myself the way other people must see me, and all of the wheels just came off.

As the words hung there in the air like a lazy fog, this overwhelming panic washed over me. What the hell am I thinking? I don’t have the time to dedicate to this, why do I even want to do this to myself anyways? It was like the next year of my life unfolded in front of my eyes, but only the awful parts. The debilitating injuries, the long stressful days, imaginary accidents where somebody hits me with a car while I’m out on the bike, the tears, the negative impact on my relationships because I just don’t have the time for anyone except the gym.

Have you ever seen a cat push away from something that they really don’t want to be close to? When they stiffen out their arms and push away and retract their neck so their head is as far away from whatever it is (usually the poor unassuming human who just wants to cuddle with them for 2 minutes) as it can be?

I felt like the cat. On the outside I was smiling, but on the inside I was stiff-armed, retracted neck, pushing as far away from the whole idea as I could possibly get.

I took some time to just calm down and think yesterday and got my head back on somewhat straight. Okay, maybe Matt helped a bit too.

Now I’m a much happier cat.

 

My little crisis of confidence led me to delve into a topic that I’ve been interested in for a long time. It’s called Grit.

The role of “Grit” started to come into play around 2007 when four researchers named Angela Duckworth, Christopher Peterson, Michael Matthews and Dennis Kelly teamed up to put together a study named:

Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals

It was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 92 in 2007.

Here is the full article, but I’ll also give you the Coles Notes version, along with my (very simplistic) take on it for those of you who never actually read the book back in English class. You know who you are.

 Grit Article

So the article starts with a quote from William James (1907). It goes like this:

Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental resources. . .men the world over possess amounts of resource, which only exceptional individuals push to their extremes of use. (William James, 1907, pp. 322–323)

Here’s what I take from that:

1) In general, we as a population only really operate at about 50% of our mental/physical capacity, and we do a pretty decent job with that 50%.

2) It takes an exceptional person to push themselves to 100% capacity and achieve that “extra” that is within every one of us.

But hey, I’m just paraphrasing. How’d I do Billy?

More than 100 years before this work was done in 2007, another scientist named Galton concluded from his research that “ability alone did not bring about success in any field”. Let me repeat that for good measure: ability alone did not bring about success in any field. Amen. He also concluded that “high achievers were triply blessed by ability, combined with zeal and capacity for hard labour”.

In an attempt to learn more about the specific characteristics that make up “Grit” and predict success in pursuing long term goals, Duckworth and her boys (sorry, moment to laugh at my own joke….I thought that was pretty funny) put together what they called “The Grit Scale” which is a self-administered questionnaire asking participants to rank themselves on a scale of 1-5 on a variety of questions designed to unearth your inner “grit” or determination.

They put together several studies designed to measure the level of grit in each respondent in combination with the likelihood of them achieving a given long term goal.

In a study designed to measure the level of grit compared to the respondent’s achievement of a post-secondary education, they found that of all of the respondents for whom this was an important long term goal, those who had achieved the highest levels of education were also the highest in grit scores (all other socio/economic biases removed of course).  

However, the same study found that of those respondents in post-secondary institutions, the ones who scored highest in Grit also had the highest GPA’s and SAT scores.

Another study using the Grit Scale looked at the Scale as a predictor for completion of the rigorous summer training program at the United States Military Academy. You guessed it; the scale was an excellent predictor of those who would complete the program, and those that would drop out, all other biases eliminated.

Cool huh? Wouldn’t you love to take that questionnaire?

You’re in luck. After some digging, I found it online for free. Enjoy.

 Grit Scale

 My Grit Score was 4.5/5. My Ambition Score was 5/5.

I may not be a “good” biker, a “good” swimmer, or a “good” runner. But maybe I’m not as up the creek without a paddle as I thought I was. Galton said it best!

So my question of the day for you is…..how gritty are you!?

I think this whole topic is super interesting, I hope you do too!

Have a great Wednesday!!