Identity Crisis

I am a martial artist, I always have been. During the brief period when I wasn’t practicing martial arts I was still a martial artist, I was just in denial. What we do for fun and what we take seriously defines us, our profession, our family and our passion. What happens when you lose that? What happens if you become injured? What Happens when you lose the ability to do what you love because of changing circumstances? You get an identity crisis and this is what Corina is dealing with right now.

Corina has been a martial artist, she actually holds more black belts than I do. We met through martial arts all those years ago, but she is no longer a martial artist. Corina became a triathlete, she was converted and brought to the dark side, her identity switched and she found something that she loved. After she competed at the World Championships she was burned out from all of the training and we moved to America. 

Once in America Corina became a runner, not serious, but serious enough. She loved it, the smile on her face after a successful run was infectious. Corina still swam, she loves open-water swimming but she would still describe herself as a runner. Then the injury… like a black cloud it took not only her ability to run but also her identity. Was she an injured runner? Was she a swimmer?

When a new client comes in we ask them what they do. This may seem like a smile question if you have an answer but if, like Corina, you are unsure this question hits you quite deeply. Funnily enough the question of what you do is also asked by clients. Yes I have done triathlon, I have even ran a half marathon, I practiced yoga for a few years, I have done many sports but since the age of 7 I have done martial arts. Explaining that the martial art that I do is the art of drawing the Japanese sword is often too much information but clients like to know that I can relate to their activity.

Corina still cannot truly answer the question of what she does… until her injury heals she is a swimmer, I know that she loves swimming, but unless she can run and then decides to be a swimmer she will have an identity crisis.

Alan

Success is a team game

One of my strengths is that I surround myself, and my business, with people who are smarter than me. I know my areas of expertise and where my limits are, the same should apply to your health and fitness.

The Wolf Studio is surrounded by smart people, we are advised by a business strategist, we have an excellent attorney and our referral network is vast. We are experts in the field of exercise, bodywork and tape but when we are taken outside of this arena we rely on experts in other fields. You are probably and expert in something… it maybe IT, managing people, looking after children, constructing houses or any other thing that would be completely outside of my comfort zone. I know a little about all of those things and I know enough to know that I don’t know enough…

In the exercise industry there is a proliferation of information and misinformation from the media. Many clients think that just because it is in Men’s Health or Muscle and Fitness it is gospel, what is even more worrying is when exercise professionals think the same. I liken this to an investment manager using a tabloid to assess the stock market. Reading these publications does not make you an expert! If you want to know how to get the most out of your training, recover from an injury or have reduced stress levels then it helps if you contact an expert and that is where we fit in! Chances are we don’t have your expertise and you don’t have ours!

We like to refer out to other professionals. This may seem counterintuitive when building a business but if we reach an impasse with a client then the best thing that we can do is refer out to someone that can help them rather than just say that it may take longer. Sometimes we can help a client by referring them to a counsellor, or an acupuncturist, or a chiropractor. We have a very wide range of other therapists that we trust with our clients.

If you want to be successful in your march towards health and fitness then taking advice from people like us at The Wolf Studio will help you achieve you goals faster and with less pain… you don’t know what you don’t know until it is too late.

Let us be part of your team on your journey towards success.

I don’t like gyms… outside of the gym thinking.

Yes we hear that all the time, and yes for the most part we agree. Big box commercial gyms are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they are right for some people. We love working with clients who’s goals are set firmly outside of the gym.

If your goal is to deadlift 700lbs then we are probably not the right facility for you. If you are an Olympic cyclist and in the course of your explosive training you get up to deadlifting 700lbs then welcome to The Wolf Studio.

There are not many serious runners who do all of their training on a treadmill, treadmills will make up some of their training but only a small percentage. Cyclists will use the indoor trainer for some workouts but this is seen as a necessary evil rather than their exclusive training tool.

Gyms are useful to help you become fitter, faster, stronger and more injury resistant, that is why we set up The Wolf Studio. By combining exercise, bodywork and taping we can help clients at all levels achieve their goals.

Training for the sake of training is inherently dissatisfying and we find that those clients who come in with these goals actually have a deeper goal that they think will be achieved by just doing some work in the gym. A client who’s goal is to squat their bodyweight may actually think that if they can do this then their friends won’t laugh at their sparrow legs, a lady who wants to do do circuit training every day may actually have the goal of impressing her mother in law by losing that baby weight faster. If you can focus on a goal outside of the gym then you will find that your gym training is easier and more profitable. 

Most of our clients are made to think hard about their goals and when you drill down we always find that their goals reside outside of the gym, whether it is a performance goal or just wanting to feel more confident in their own skin.

Train to live rather than live to train!

How to look after your balls

We have been using exercise balls for a lot of years now. During that time we have seen some sights and heard some great stories of what people have done to their balls (and what you shouldn’t do!). So, here is the top 3 tips on how to look after your balls:

1. Buy a burstproof exercise ball. You can get balls at some amazing prices these days. But many of the cheaper balls are not burst proof. That means if they get punctured they will pop like a balloon, rather than deflate slowly like a car tyre. If you are on top of a ball at the time this is not something you want to happen, so invest in a good quality ball. The most common reasons we have seen that people puncture their balls is rolling over a drawing pin on the floor or a cat or dog deciding to play with the ball. A bursting ball may persuade your pet not to do it again, but I still wouldn’t recommend it!
   
2. Get the right size for you. OK, this one is more how to look after yourself than the ball, but it is still important. Using a ball that is much too small or large for you can make exercises very difficult to do and can put your body into strange positions, leading to injury. The right size ball for you is when you sit on it (and it is inflated correctly) your thighs should be horizontal or slightly above. Getting the right size of ball will make your exercise more enjoyable, so you’ll do more of it!
   
3. Keep it at the right inflation. Most commonly we see balls that are under-inflated. The balls are more soft and deform more when you sit on them. This makes them easier to use, so you don’t get nearly as much benefit from the exercise you are doing. If you are going to do the exercise you may as well get the most benefit from it, right? We have also seen the opposite problem, over-inflation, most dramatically seen by the fire crew who decided to attach a ball to the high-pressure air hose and see what happens. By all accounts the ball got as large as the fire engine before it burst!

Public Speaking… turning a weakness into a strength

When I was in university I had to give a 5min presentation to my peers and the faculty. This 5min presentation was a minuscule part of the final grade but cost me many, many sleepless nights. We students were given many lectures on presentation technique, how to structure an effective presentation and (this is in the days before Powerpoint) how to use overhead projectors and acetates. I practiced that presentation so much that nearly 20 years later I think Corina can still recite most of it. During the presentation I was a bumbling, stuttering, stammering mess and the content was annihilated by the faculty…

Right now I consider myself a professional pubic speaker in addition to my skills with body coaching, massage and taping. I know that I can hold the attention of a group of people I barely know and enthuse them on subjects that they previously thought boring and mundane. I have lectured in front of many hostile audiences and converted most of them, I have made them laugh and I have challenged and changed many long held beliefs. I have been asked to do an hour lecture on a specific topic with only a few minutes notice and totally wowed the audience. 

So what changed me from the stuttering, stammering idiot reading from his notes to an award winning lecturer and presenter?

The quote from Sun Tzu’s Art of War that summarizes my approach is this “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”

I tell a lot of jokes. During my presentations, I use funny pictures in my Powerpoint presentations and make jokes about my height and receding hairline. I know that if I can make my audience laugh they will be more relaxed. I know this because the body cannot produce stress hormones while you are laughing. Some audiences think that I just like telling jokes, this is true, but there is also a very deliberate tactic involved here. Often my jokes are planned and scripted sometimes off the cuff, I know that I can deliver a line and I know that is a learned skill. I have written presentations for other people and the jokes often fall flat, but when I deliver the line it brings the house down. I pride myself on being fun and informative. 

I know my subject. I lecture and present on subjects that I find interesting and that I am passionate about. I try to know far too much about the subject I am talking about, I deliberately over-prepare. There is no such think as overkill is my motto when I am preparing a presentation. I have an extensive library, I use the internet and I have over 10 years of experience and learning in the field of exercise, bodywork and taping to draw upon. Experience is a wonderful thing and I have learned from many years of lecturing that I operate best when I am over-prepared.

I made mistakes and learned from them. When I look back at some of the public speaking and lectures that I have given I cringe… I can think of a few people who I owe a debt of gratitude to for believing in me and allowing me to grow and develop as a presenter, in particular Mr Todd my Judo Sensei who first taught me how to teach when I was only 14 years old and Maggie Brooks-Carter of The Scottish Massage School who believed that a short cocky fitness guy could teach her courses! Sure I made mistakes, tons of them, but I like to think that through reflective practice I have learned from what I did wrong and what I did right. I spoke to my students and asked their opinion and took criticism without taking it too personally, it still hurts a little though and that is part of how we grow. I continue to make mistakes and learn from them.

I don’t read my notes. My notes during a presentation are on the screen if I am using Powerpoint. Like most people I am a visual learner and as anyone who has attended one of my lectures will attest I use a lot of pictures, cartoons and photographs during my presentations. I know that I am slightly dyslexic and that if I have to read a script word for word I am in trouble. If I cannot have Powerpoint during my lecture/presentation then I will have a single sheet of paper with some pictures on it to remind me of the next topic, weird but effective. 

I learn from every source I can and I never stop learning. Yes I have read the books on public speaking, why would I not learn from experts in that field. I have listened to audiobooks, podcasts, webinars, you name it… I didn’t get good by accident. I went through a period when I was very formulaic about the way that I did my presentations but I have now developed my own style. Every time I listen to or see another public speaker I learn, I watch how the audience responds to their style, their tone, their dress, I learn from it all. I have attended courses and lectures across the globe I have seen presenters hold an audience in the palm of their hand just standing on a stage and talking passionately and I have seen acclaimed speakers fall flat while using some of the most elaborate presentations I have ever seen, I learned from it all.

I prepare. Simple right? I think I spend 5-6 hours in preparation for every hour I present. Counter-intuitively I can spend longer on a shorter presentation when I want to get a specific message across. For a recent 8 min presentation I spent at least 6 hours perfecting what I was going to say, this is without using Powerpoint. If I was going to use Powerpoint then the time consumed would have more than doubled. I thought about my audience, how to make them accepting of my message and how best to deliver my key points. 

I practice. Yep, sometimes I practice aloud, sometimes in my head, the less I know about the audience or the subject the more I practice. I will practice delivering my key jokes, and my back-up jokes. I practice answering the questions I expect the audience to ask, the questions I have deliberately orientated the presentation towards. I practice dealing with conflicting points of view and I practice dealing with interruptions such as mobile phones and IT failures. I go through many “what if?” scenarios in my mind and prepare for positive and negative possibilities.

I pay attention to detail. I had a lecturer at university who instead of using a traditional pointer used a Swiss Army knife to point to things on a slide, I don’t remember what he lectured about but I remember the knife… I know that I have my foibles when I lecture, but I am always smart and I will always be consistent. I try to minimize distractions, I think about my background and I empty my pockets and my hands as much as possible when I lecture. I will deliberately use British or Scottish words in my presentation because I know that these wee turns of phrase will be noticed and commented upon.

I know what works for me. After many years of lecturing and presenting professionally I know what works best for me. Some of this may seem weird and a little OCD but I am self-aware and my method is as unique as I am. I perform best when I have Corina as my assistant, she removes any worries I have about nutrition and she can deal with any administration that needs to be addressed. I am best when I use Powerpoint, I can use visual jokes and explain complicated or abstract ideas using visual aids. I like to arrive early, very early, I would rather be 2 hours early than 2 mins early. On the way to the lecture or presentation I like to relax by listening to Motley Crue, particularly ‘On with the Show”...I like to settle my nerves by being alone for 5-10 mins before the presentation and I like to practice laughing before I go on stage… I am unique, I know my own quirks and I know what works best for me and for my audience! 

I am confident. By nature I am an introvert, I am happiest in the company of just a few close friends, I am uncomfortable in many social situations and I am a completely different person when I go on stage. I liken it to having an alter-ego, I joke that when I lecture that I channel my inner Gene Simmons (I actually channel his on-stage persona the Demon). If you don’t believe in yourself or what you are saying then why should anyone else? Yes, there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and I believe that it is knowledge that is the main differentiator. I am knowledgeable, I am self-aware and I am a great public speaker.

Those are my own tips and how I managed the transition from stuttering idiot to confident public speaker. Not all of my tips are suitable for everyone, the Motley Crue thing in particular… I would encourage everyone who is worried about public speaking to start small and enjoy the process.

If you struggle with public speaking and would like some advice on how to improve your skill set please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Alan

I am Alan Lunn I am a Body Coach and I am co-owner of The Wolf Studio in Solana Beach, CA. If you know an organization or group that would like a dynamic presenter to deliver a fun and informative presentation on a health and wellness subject please see the contact information below.

Alan and Corina Lunn are available to teach on a wide range of fitness and bodywork subjects running workshops that have both theoretical and practical components. If you run an educational establishment anywhere in the USA and would like to have a guest speaker please contact The Wolf Studio for details on how to book Alan and Corina.

Knowing what you want

Goals are a funny thing. We all have them, but we don’t all know it. It can be quite a challenge to put your real goals into words so you actually understand what you are striving for, and others do too. It is something we have to work with every day in the studio and if we don’t take that step of pinpointing the root goal with our clients they won’t achieve it. On a personal note this is something I have had to face for myself recently.

Back in April I set my big goal for the year: Run a marathon. But it was better than that, I was going to run the Nike Womens Marathon in San Francisco on October 16th in 4 hours or less. As far as goals go this one looks on the surface to tick all the boxes. It was very specific, it had a definite timescale by which it was to be achieved by (October 16th), it was manageable and there was even a performance criteria attached to it. Much better than the usual “I want to be fitter” goal most people present with when they first come to speak to us.

However this goal only gives you the mechanics of the event that will take place. It doesn’t look into the emotions behind it. Without understanding the emotions that led to the goal being set you don’t know when the goal has truly been achieved or when it needs to be changed.

When I injured my foot we were forced to re-evaluate my goal. What was the important part of it? Did I want to run a marathon? Did I want to run that particular marathon? In under 4 hours? Or was it something different? It took quite a lot of guided soul-searching to figure out the answer.

For me there were several things behind the marathon goal. Firstly most of my friends run marathons all the time. I wanted to have done one so I could justify from experience that I wanted to stick to shorter races. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity of whether I was capable of living up to the challenge. I wanted something to inspire me to do more training and get me to the stage of running feeling effortless. And finally I wanted my body to look better, which is usually a side-effect when I get into more serious training.

So now that the Marathon itself is off the cards due to my stress fracture where does that leave me? I now know that running a marathon itself was not too important. I don’t feel like I have anything to prove any more. I may revisit this goal in the future but for now I am happy to let it go. I am also happy to have the pressure removed, it was taking away from the enjoyment of running and turning them into a chore. Having let the marathon goal go I now feel more inspired to go running again (yes, I’ll not do that until my foot has healed…) and it has also allowed me to remember how much I love swimming.

The goal of wanting my body to look better is still there. Maybe that means it was the central goal, all others just being window dressing. I don’t know and right now I don’t care. The swimming I am doing will help towards my body image goal but I know it won’t get me all the way there. So in the future I will need to decide whether I want to hit the gym again or add something else in.

Through this entire exercise I have found that getting to the root of my wants has enabled me to really focus on my goal and not be sad when the one I put down on paper is no longer going to be achieved as planned.

This is what we try to achieve with our clients. Nailing down what the root is of what you want means we can find ways to achieve it that are fun, fulfilling and something that makes you feel better about yourself right now.

Corina

Mummy, mummy can I have some tape?

Our new tag line on our website and business cards is “fine-tuning your body using exercise, bodywork and tape.”. Most people know about exercise and bodywork is a catch all term for our various massage services but TAPE? The question that we get asked most is what is tape? So here we go…

We use tape to reduce pain and increase range of motion. 

Traditional taping methods, that we still practice when necessary, rely on using the properties of the tape to restrict movement and prevent injury or reduce further injury. The taping methods that we prefer to use and use daily use the properties of the tape to change the way in which the connective tissue works, giving the results of reduced pain and increased range of motion.

We use two main taping methods, Functional Fascial Taping (FFT) and Kinesio Taping. The main difference between the two taping methods is the type of tape that is used, FFT uses regular athletic tape and Kinesio uses tape specially designed for the Kinesio Taping Method.

Functional Facial Taping

This method was developed by a massage therapist in Australia. It uses normal athletic tape applied in a special way to change the tension of the fascia in the body which can improve flexibility of tissue, increase range of motion and reduce pain. It is effective on a whole range of muscular and fascial injuries, as well as being able to help with nerve tension. The single most amazing thing we have found with this tape is how good it is at treating Plantar Fasciitis. Anyone who has had this foot condition knows how difficult it can be to treat. We have had such great success treating it with Functional Fascial Taping that many clients get full resolution in just a single treatment! 

Kinesio Tape

Kinesio Tape was developed in Japan to initially treat swelling or edema. The tape has special elastic properties that allow it to be applied in a variety of ways to help with swelling, bruising, muscle tightness and pain, muscle weakness, fascial tension, joint problems and scar tissue. Due to the wide variety of uses you need a qualified practitioner to apply the tape to ensure it is in the right place, in the right direction and at the right tension to give the desired effect. The original tape comes in four colors: black, blue, pink and beige. They are all the same, it is simply a matter of preference which one the client likes. The tape is stretchy, making it comfortable to wear, and waterproof enough to wear in the shower and even for surfing or swimming. More recently many new brands of tape have appeared on the market, some better than others. We like to also use Rock Tape for more athletic applications, and this has opened up a new world of colors too, including fun designs like “biohazard” and “cow”. 

The advantages of both the taping method we practice is that they can help to support an injury, reduce pain and allow you to go back to your chosen activity sooner, sometimes the same day, whilst they continue to help the healing. Because the tape is not medicated it does not mask pain. If you don’t feel the pain any more then the pain is gone. This makes the tape safe to use for everyone.

If you have an injury or an ache that is holding you back, come and speak to us to find out if taping can help you recover faster.

What does it do for you? - Corina's Marathon Blog

A week later and a grand total of 4 weeks since the first injury and my foot still hurts. I’ve had quite a few conversations with my trainer/therapist/coach/sounding board/husband Alan about how I feel about my foot, i.e. answering the question “What does it do for you?” It has caused me to do a lot of soul searching and be honest with myself.

When I first hurt my foot it was annoying, but I thought I would just take a few days off (over the 4th July weekend) and be back to normal so it was not a bad thing at all. Then the foot didn’t improve and I started to get itchy to get back to running. Plus I was getting worried about losing fitness and being set back in my marathon training.

After this, when we started to consider that it may be a stress fracture, I just wanted to know either way whether I was going to be hurt for the long haul or not. I was starting to consider whether I needed to start riding my bike again to maintain my fitness until I could start running again, or whether I should forget about running, spend more time swimming and maybe hit the gym again. I didn’t get an answer on the foot prognosis and this was extremely frustrating. Hence last week’s no-mans land post.

At the beginning of this week I still hand’t run. My foot was not hurting me any more most of the time but I was still scared to run again. Sometimes I think way too much so I needed to release all my random conflicting thoughts to someone else who might be able to make sense of them. Alan asked me that question, “What does your sore foot do for you?”. I had to answer honestly that I was a little scared of the training for my first marathon, especially now that the long runs had got longer than I had ever done before. The injury gave me an exit strategy without having to say that I was dropping out because I was scared. So in a way I am happy that I am injured because I don’t need to face those scary runs and don’t run the risk of finding out that I’m not up to the job.

Now I had figured out what I was thinking the question came “how can I make a rational decision on whether my foot is better if it’s not hurting me right now?”. Again Alan helped me get my head straight and we came up with a plan to help me make an informed decision. I would go for a short run the following day (wednesday) and see how it feels. If all is OK I go a little longer on Friday and then ramp up my mileage to hopefully hit around 10 miles by the end of the following week.

As planned I headed out for my 15 minute run the following morning. My foot started aching after about a quarter mile, but it wasn’t too bad so I carried on. During those 15 minutes I managed to find just about every ache in my body in turn, achilles, knees, hips, even my shoulders! But they all went away again. After the run I didn’t get that sharp pain that I had previously when taking my shoes off either. So far so good.

But over the next 2 days it went downhill again, without doing any more exercise on it. Now on Friday my foot is aching just sitting still and I have pain on walking again. I guess I wasn’t ready for a whole 15 minutes of running.

So, I am going to take it easy for a while and let my foot heal. I don’t know how long “a while” is, so when it feels ready I’m going to try more short test runs. I don’t know whether that will be in time for me to train for and run a marathon, I’ll need to decide that when it feels good again. I am disappointed that I may not be able to follow through on a big goal that I had set myself and a little embarrassed that I’ve had to do it in public. But hopefully my struggles will be something someone reading this can identify with. We all go through this at some point.

I’m going to take a break from marathon blogging as well until I have something more to report on. I will instead channel my efforts into other topics as I see fit.

Keep on running, I’m thinking of you!

Get Real! - Randi's Blog

After reading Alan’s thoughts on the need to train smarter AND harder, and reflecting on the overwhelming prevalence of fitness marketing ploys that promise “something for nothing” (i.e., footwear, diet pills, beverages, cleanses, etc), I began to think about the dangers of the other side - programs that advocate hard work, but often promise unrealistic results - “Get absolutely ripped in 90 days, guaranteed!” or “Lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days!” 

You’ve seen the advertisements. You may have even been impressed or intrigued; and rightfully so, these claims are mind-blowing. But are unrealistic expectations setting the average client up for failure, straight from the beginning?

Now, I’m not saying these programs don’t work. Gym memberships and personal training sessions can be expensive, so “home fitness” DVDs and the like can have their place, if used properly and approached with a level head. The danger starts, however, when exercise beginners fall for photo-shopped BEFORE/AFTER shots and jump head-first into exercise programs designed way out of their range of physical capabilities. These programs make outrageous claims because they themselves ARE outrageous and designed for/by the extremely fit. Absolutely ripped in 90 days, guaranteed? It takes six to eight weeks of consistent overload to build muscle, so if you’ve been sedentary for the past couple years, or you’re new to the world of exercise, this is just not going to happen.

The REAL guarantee is this - one of two things will happen with the average “client” following these programs: he/she will struggle with the routines for a few days, but will experience debilitating soreness and muscle fatigue that forces them to taper off, and he/she will soon forget exercise altogether, OR he/she will push through the program but become frustrated, and eventually give up, when the results they see do not match those they were promised.

If you’re new to exercise, have been out of practice for a few years, or are just unsure of your current fitness level, stay away from infomercials promising huge gains (or losses) in unrealistic time frames, and come visit The Wolf Studio for an exercise program designed especially for you (not you and the rest of the masses). When you have specific, realistic goals and a specific, realistic, expertly designed program, you WILL see results. But, you will also be expected to do the work. Ambitious fitness goals are great, but remember to consider the sacrifices you are willing to make and the time you are willing to commit.

More to come,
Randi

Training smarter AND harder!

There is a big move the the US footwear market towards footwear that gives you something for nothing. This sparked a conversation I had with a footwear designer that really got me thinking about the nature of training and a spin on a subject I have been talking about for may years. Like most people in the health and fitness world I talk about exercising smarter NOT harder, I like to think that I am one of the few that actually practices this because I am one of the few that has the skill to measure and evaluate the body before prescribing either strength or endurance exercise, everyone else is just guessing… But my realization was that what I actually want is for my clients to train smarter AND harder, let me elaborate:

By taking an extensive evaluation in terms of interview, postural and biomechanical testing and, if appropriate, blood lactate testing I can help the client avoid many pitfalls. I can help my clients do exercises that are the right exercises for their body, exercises that won’t injure them, exercises that will yield results. This evaluation takes time, and has taken many years of study all around the world. My years of study and years of experience working with the widest range of clients is that doing an evaluation is not enough. To get the results that most clients want the client usually needs to be working harder, that means more hours training usually at a higher intensity, and for endurance athletes many more hours training a lower intensity (trust me this is harder for the client).

To get real results clients need to be doing something nearly every day! I spoke to a noted triathlon coach who believes that doing 20 hours of training per week for an age-group Ironman athlete is a compromise and will only give mediocre results, he expects his athletes to work in the 40 hours per week arena (these are not full-time athletes, and most have normal jobs!). The combination of us doing the blood lactate testing for these athletes and the coaches training program ensure that we are definitely working smarter. The results that this particular coach gets are amazing, it is a matter of training both smarter AND harder.

The best way to improve running form is to run, if you want to get fitter and stronger you need to train hard. If it was as easy as putting on a slimming belt or wearing special weight loss shoes or weight loss clothing then we would all be slim and fit! Buying the latest bare foot running shoes is no substitute for hard work, you still need to put the hours of training in.

Until we find a magic pill, or running shoe, that gives you more willpower then those that train hardest and make the most sacrifices will see the best results. Yes you need to train smart but that alone is not enough, you need to train smarter AND harder.

Alan

No-mans land - Corina's Marathon Blog

Well, the jury is still out on my foot. I went to see Dr Chad on Monday and unfortunately didn’t get the definite diagnosis I was hoping for. I should know better really, I know how tough it is to diagnose anything even with the multi-million dollar scanners that we don’t have.

So, biomechnically my foot is moving well. But there is more pain than there should be over the area where I have hurt it. Movement has been getting better in the last week as I have managed not to aggravate it for a whole week, but it hurts more than it should when pressing on it. I’m afraid to run, or even jump up and down in case I hurt it again. The prognosis is that if I rest it and it heals up in the next week or so it was injury to the muscles. If it doesn’t and takes longer then I probably have a stress fracture in it. So, I am left in “wait and see” mode.

I don’t know where this leaves me for the marathon. I have already missed almost a month of training so I am way behind where I should be, plus I can’t jump back in to where I left off when I have healed, I need to start slowly and build up my fitness and the pounding on my foot. That puts me even further behind, and it is all assuming I can start training again in a week or so.

It has made me evaluate why I am wanting to do this marathon. If it was in order to receive that Tiffany’s finishers medal then I can walk the course. I know I could finish the 26.2 miles if I walk it. But that’s not why I want to do a marathon. I want to prove to myself that I am up to the challenge, that I can achieve it if I work hard and put the training in. To do that I actually need to run the race, not walk it, and I need to finish close to the 4 hours I had set my sights on. That goal is looking unlikely at the moment.

I’m having to ask myself some hard questions right now. Do I hold on to the goal of running my first marathon in October, knowing that I may set myself up for a bigger disappointment in a few weeks, or even in a few months if I don’t make it? Or do I draw a line under it now and move on to whatever my next goal will be. It’s a tough choice and it is not one I can make alone as it will affect Alan as much as it will me. For now, until I make a decision on my marathon future, I am wandering around in no-mans land.

My first week - by Randi Cantrell

It started a few weeks ago with a short e-mail forward from a friend.

“This couple came to my office and put on a seminar. They mentioned wanting an intern,” she said, “It is at least worth checking out their website!”
So I did. What I found was something worth much more than a passing glance, something strikingly different than the usual gyms, “bootcamps”, and “personal trainer” studios selling sweat and exercise to the masses.

A student at UCSD and currently studying for a personal trainer certification of my own, I’ve spent the last five or six weeks swimming in a flood of hand-written 3x5 flash cards and ambiguous charts and diagrams, reading about anatomy and exercise physiology, and attempting to magically pull a three-dimensional knowledge of the human body out of a two-dimensional explanation. To put it mildly, this wasn’t working. I could read all day long about the muscular system and which muscle was where and what it was responsible for, but that didn’t give me any understanding of how the body really works. Something was missing.

After Day One of my internship with The Wolf Studio, I knew I found that missing “something”.

Alan and Corina started me off with a full postural and biomechanical assessment so I could better understand the type of work that happens in the Studio. I’ve been working out in the big-name gym corporations since I was 11 or so, and I’ve worked with a number of different trainers over the past couple of years, but I have never experienced such a thorough assessment or received such detailed feedback. Simply put, among other things, Alan found that I have rounded shoulders (which explains a recent on-set of intermittent numbness/tingling in my right hand) and that I need to work on reactivating the muscles of my abdominal wall. I was then asked to design an exercise program for myself based on the results of my assessment. Alan wrote one as well, and the next day we compared the two. (I’m sure you can imagine how that went). Overall, I found that I need to be clear and confident about what I want out of myself and my body. “If your workouts are vague,” he said, “So are your results.” I realized that it doesn’t matter how many days I work out or how long my work outs are, if they don’t consist of the right exercises at the right intensity, and they lack a clear purpose, I’m just doing a whole lot of moving around without actually getting anywhere.

As a future personal trainer, this week came with an invaluable lesson for me. The human body is not “one size fits all” and as such, neither is its movement; every client I’ll someday encounter will come with his/her unique bodily quirks and idiosyncrasies brought on by muscle imbalances, injuries, and the like - my job will be to know how best to address, correct, and strengthen these “quirks” - how best to match the exercises that the client needs with the goals that they want to achieve. I couldn’t be more excited to keep learning.

More to come,
Randi

Ouch, my foot - Corina's Marathon Blog

I ended last week hopeful that I was healing up well and would be back on my feet (literally) in no time. I took the rest of the weekend off and went for my first run in a week and a half on Monday. My foot was aching a bit and the 5 miles felt a lot longer than they should have done, but it was OK.

The not OK came after the run when I took my shoes off. When I put my foot down I got sharp stabbing pains on every step. Not good!

I hobbled my way through the rest of the day, resting it as much as I could and still do my job. I had hoped it would be enough and after a night’s rest I would be OK again. Wrong again.

I tried running again the following morning. I could feel my foot hurting on every step and abandoned after just half a mile. Damn. When Alan got home he taped my foot for me and it felt better. That lasted all of a few hours. 

That evening we went to visit San Diego Lions AFL team at their training session. They are awesome. The sport is so dynamic and fantastic to watch. And the players, who were all of different standards, ages and fitness levels, were all working hard throughout the session. It was great to see.

At one point I ran across the pitch to help one of the players with some stretching. Half way across I felt my foot give way. The sharp pains were back and this time they didn’t go away.

Since then I have not managed to recover. The pain is there all the time. It is slightly better in shoes than barefoot, but walking is about the limit of what I can do.

I have an appointment on Monday with Dr Chad Wells, who is a chiropractor specializing in lower limb and running injuries. Hopefully he will be able to work his magic on me and I’ll be back to training in time to still be on track for the Marathon. Dr Chad will be working from our studio soon too, so we are very excited.

For now I am doing more resting and I’ll let you know how I am healing up next week. The long runs are already looking really daunting, having taken 2 weeks off, so I really hope that I will be back running soon before they get downright scary.

Not your usual weight lifting…

Over the last few weeks I have been talking to a lot of clients about the strength of their pelvic floors. The pelvic floor muscles are those that form the base of the pelvis and those muscles that are responsible for continence, sexual function and which keep your insides from dropping down through your pelvis.

I am most interested in the pelvic floor muscles for a few reasons. Firstly many clients suffer from some sort of incontinence at some time, whether it is peeing a little when they laugh or sneeze. Secondly the muscles of the pelvic floor are associated with the muscles of the deep abdominal wall and therefore are involved in core stability. Lastly nearly everyone would like to improve their sexual function. 

Breathing is always the first part of getting both the pelvic floor and the deep abdominal wall to function correctly. When you breathe out you should naturally contract your deep abdominal wall and pelvic floor, most people have this in reverse which is why they pee when they sneeze… we can reeducate this quite easily.

So how do you know that you are doing the exercises correctly? The old advice was to stop the flow of urine when peeing, this is ok once but more than that is a quick way to develop bad habits and urinary tract problems.

We use two devices within the studio to help ladies with their pelvic floor issues. The first is a pelvic floor educator that will help make sure that you are activating the right muscles, the second is weighted cones. Weighted cones are egg shaped cones containing weights that are held in place while you perform daily activity. You must contract the pelvic floor muscles to hold the cones in place and these are particularly useful for those ladies who have had multiple pregnancies.

Over the years we have successfully worked with numerous ladies overcome pelvic floor issues. Let us know if your would like to have a chat about incorporating some pelvic floor exercises into your current exercise regime.

Alan

Your body knows best! - Corina's Marathon Blog

I had my blog topic for this week all picked out. That was probably a mistake because nothing went according to plan after that.

At the end of last week I had the opportunity to pick up a tennis racquet and hit a few balls with my friend and Alan’s photo-buddy Ken. By hit a few balls I mean spend an hour on the court in the blazing sun and progress from missing every ball altogether to being able to hit most of them over the net. Making then go where I want will need to be reserved for next time… Not bad going considering I haven’t picked up a racquet in 23 years (and that makes me sound way older than I am!).

Anyway, later that day my foot started to ache and then hurt. One of the bones in it was sitting out of place. We got it mobilized but now it was a bit too mobile. It would be fine one minute, the next I’d get a sharp pain when walking. No problem, I had a long weekend to let it settle down. And in a way it was great timing because my little injury meant I could enjoy the 4th of July festivities without having to tire myself out with running.

By Wednesday I thought it was better, just a dull ache. So time to go and run again. I got dressed and headed out the door. Except I decided to help Alan load the car and carried a big box down the steps from our apartment. I made it most of the way down before I tripped and went sprawling, taking the skin off both knees. Guess my body decided I wasn’t ready to start running again.

I tried again on Thursday but got less than a mile in before having to admit that my tumble set off my aches again, it wasn’t just sore knees.

So, for the rest of the week I am going to ignore my training plan and putting my faith in the wisdom of my body to tell me when it is ready to start again. Should I listen to it as well when it’s telling me to put my feet up and eat ice cream?

Want to lose weight? Are you sure?

Have you ever tried to get into the bathroom before a weight loss class? Many clients admit to deliberately going to the bathroom just before their weigh-in, they jump up and down after they have lost a half pound, knowing that they are dehydrated or have taken a laxative.

Weight is not what people want to lose, they want to change shape. If you could hit your target weight but you looked the same would you be happy? Losing body fat is the key, if you can do this at the same time as putting on some muscle and toning up all the better. But that may mean that your weight does not change, would you be happy if your jeans fitted better, you lost the muffin-top but weighed the same?

We measure body composition using a little black box that is attached to a couple of pads on your hands and a couple of pads on your foot. The machine is programed with a lot of data, weight, height, gender, exercise level, even ethnicity and then it gives us a wide range of data about what you are composed of. Our machine gives us data on body fat%, hydration, BMI, basal metabolic rate and a whole bunch of other things. We measure how much fat you actually have to lose! 

Our machine is much more accurate than the body fat scales and the hand-to-hand measurements that many facilities use. When I was an instructor in the Fire Department I carried out many hundreds of tests using skin-fold-calipers, I took the body fat of the fire-fighters for their entry tests and for their 3monthly fitness tests, so I can say that I have some experience and skill level. What I have found is that using our machine gives us much better results than the skin-fold-caliper because of the variables that we can program into the machine, plus the hydration measurement is incredibly useful.

After only a few minutes we can tell you much how much body fat you have and what you need to lose. We can then design an exercise program to get you to where you need to be. We will tell you about your hydration status and if you could benefit from drinking more water.

For a short while we are offering body composition analysis for $20 (usually $49). The test is painless, does not require any clothing removal other than a sock and shoe. No appointment necessary just pop by when we are open!

Run... Yawn... Run - Corina's Marathon Blog

Back into another recovery week. That means I am now 2 months into my training. This week I have entered a phase of my training I have come to know as “sleepy time”. This happens every time I train hard and consistently and usually lasts about 4 weeks. In the past it has happened much earlier in my training plan, but maybe I haven’t been training consistently enough until now for it to kick in.

Basically during my “sleepy time” I get very tired. I want to sleep all the time and given a spare half hour I’ll happily take a nap rather than do anything else. For once I spend more time thinking about sleeping than about food, and that’s saying something. Alan knows that when I get that look in my eyes it is best just to send me into a quiet room for half an hour and I’ll come back functioning better after a bit of shut-eye.

After a few weeks I get used to the new level of training and then I’m fine and can operate happily on normal sleep levels. During all this my body feels fine. I’m not achy, I don’t come down with any injuries, I just want to sleep all the time.

It is especially annoying when I come down with this during a recovery week. Because my runs are shorter I think that I should be feeling better. Instead my body almost relishes the chance to slow down and I tend to feel more tired than usual until late in recovery week. I’ve done this long enough that I know that is how my body reacts, so I just need to look after it and wait for the next phase to kick in. When it does I’ll feel stronger, faster, run better and manage to stay awake all day.

But until then … good night!

The best things in life aren’t things; All the fun of the fair

Yesterday we went to the San Diego County Fair with our friends. When Corina and I first came over to the States it was one of our first exposures to Americana, a year on it was still pretty overwhelming. 

When we go out with Ken and Connie the boys are allowed to play with their cameras, explore our shared passion for photography and we all had a great time. We started off our fair experience by heading straight for the photography exhibition. There were some amazing shots on display, some unusual shots and some that may be described as an acquired taste… The best thing about wandering round a photography display with an accomplished photographer is getting a different perspective, and that is what photography is all about, how you view the world. I got lots of inspiration from the exhibition and I now know some really cool places I want (need) to photograph. 

Fair food is interesting… the latest big thing was chocolate covered bacon… a balanced meal? Well it is carbohydrate, protein and fat… maybe not… 

When we talk about training with our clients we often say that in exercise there is a holy trinity; the right exercise, the right diet and the right rest/recovery. I didn’t see many athletic bodies at the fair, but it would have been a great place for them to blow off some steam. Recovery takes many forms, physical rest, massage, hot/cold but our brains also need recovery. Time with friends and family is crucial to anyone’s success both in business and in exercise. 

You can improve your happiness so much more by adding experiences to your life rather than experiencing life through reality TV or on an iPad...

Alan

I think I’m getting old! - Corina's Marathon Blog

After my distractions of last week I thought I was back on schedule, then there was another little distraction … Judo! Alan has been practicing martial arts at a dojo in Poway and was asked by his Sensei to teach a one-off Judo class to the other students. Alan has been practicing Judo since he was 7 and has been teaching since the age of 16. We actually met at the University Judo club many years ago, so Judo is something special to both of us. Alan asked me to assist him in the class, as I had done for many years. I haven’t practiced Judo for about 5 years but I was glad to see that my body still remembered how to do it. The class went really well and I spent much of it being thrown by many of the students. 

That was all great. It was later that day that the realization that I was no longer 18 kicked in. I was aching all over, both arms were covered in bruises, my shoulders felt as if they had been pulled out of their sockets and I had a pulled muscle in my leg that hurt whenever I lifted it up, even for putting on shoes and driving the car. Alan was a little worse for wear too (his bruises were slightly more impressive than mine!).

Come Monday I had big plans, swimming, followed by tennis, then a long run. None of that happened. I woke up, drove Alan to work, emailed my tennis partner to say I was taking a sickie, then I went back to bed for another 2 hours.

My body was coming back together by Tuesday and I was ready to run again properly by Wednesday. My week ended up completely jumbled as usual but I managed to get the important runs done. It was all worth it for having that special Judo experience again.

Finally I’m Swimming!

Yeah I know that a few weeks ago I said that I had entered the Sharkfest event in San Francisco and that I would be posting regular blogs, the truth is that I haven’t been into the water… until now…

On Sunday morning at 6am I finally went swimming in La Jolla Cove with Corina. I haven’t been swimming in the ocean for a few years and it was a bit of a shock. A couple of years ago I had a bad experience swimming while on vacation and I nearly drowned, I haven't really been in the ocean since. I am an ok swimmer, not fast but not too slow, I have good technique but at Napoleonic 5’4’’ I will never be too fast (actually Napoleon was an unnaturally tall 5’6’’). I have swam in lakes in the cold and wet summer of England and that was the last time I did any real distance swimming outdoors.

Adrenaline is a funny thing… I had waited for my first swim until Corina deemed the conditions right for me to get back into the water, Sunday was the day. I wanted to get it over with early so I found myself squeezing into my wetsuit before most people were out of bed. Yes the water was cold, I was expecting that, yes I was a wee bit nervous, I was expecting that, I wasn’t expecting to freak out every time I saw a piece of seaweed! Ever since I told people that I was going to do the Sharkfest people have been telling me about shark attacks… I didn’t think that this had gotten into my head but it obviously had…

I managed to swim as fast as Corina, but I was swimming on pure adrenaline. I would put my head down and swim for 10-20 seconds and then freak out because I saw something in the water below, get an adrenaline rush and swim faster. After a burst of sprinting I would run out of breath and then need to stop, after catching my breath I would restart, see something in the water and then freak out and then start the cycle again… My first swim only lasted about 20mins. I only went a couple of hundred meters, which is ridiculous, but at least I broke my duck.

Did I enjoy it? No. Will I do it again? Yes.

I really enjoyed lake swimming, no waves, no Alan eating wildlife, and I know that Corina loves swimming in the Cove. I will overcome my fears and I will get used to ocean swimming again.

Alan

My First Baseball Game

On Sunday I went to my first baseball game with my friend Ken Williams of KWD Photography (not so subtle plug). The question I get asked when I tell people that I went was did I enjoy it, this is swiftly followed by an apology about how bad the team is. 

To say that baseball is just not cricket is cliche, but hey we are in California! There was no polite clapping and though I found the sledging given to the opposing team to be surprisingly tame! I found the whole experience quite overwhelming, the sights, sounds and smells were like an overload to my senses. It is amazing what people will eat at these events, not sure where some of the food consumed sits on the food pyramid… smelt great though! 

My understanding of baseball comes from two very different sources, films like Major League (whatever happened to Charlie Sheen...) and Field of Dreams (build it and they will come...). The other source of my limited baseball knowledge comes from reading dozens of papers on throwing injuries. Pitchers shoulders provide millions of dollars each year to orthopedic specialists and it is a fascinating field to work in. So yes, I didn’t understand the rules, and yes I was watching the pitchers warm up to see if they were suffering for any gleno-humeral instability (sore shoulders) and yes I half expected the crowd to erupt into a rendition of “wild thing”… 

Baseball is a game much like cricket, it is full of statistics, nothing happens for ages and that is meant to be exciting, it is quite inaccessible for those not brought up in the game but at least it doesn’t last for 5 days only to end up in a tie!

Yes I enjoyed my first baseball game. I was with my friend, in the sunshine with our cameras.. what more could a man want…

Alan

Work/Life Balance in Marathon Training??? - Corina's Marathon Blog

It feels like a bit of a scam calling this a marathon blog this week. I have only managed one 4 mile fun run and won’t get any more in before the weekend. My work/life balance has been a bit out of balance this week!

There is a temptation to just cram everything in and worry about the consequences later, but I have been in this business too long, and have lectured too many clients about it to do that. Our bodies can handle only so much stress. There are lots of things that count as stress, including work, personal and emotional stress, lack of sleep, bad food, money stress and also exercise. Yes, I know, exercise can be relaxing and a great way to recover from stress but it can also take you the other way. This week I felt that I was already reaching my limits before running so I tried to be sensible.

Our business is changing. We are growing, expanding and trying out some new avenues. This has kept us very busy. It’s a positive stress, but a stress nonetheless. If my primary goal in life was to run a marathon I would need to cut back on the work stress to allow myself to focus on the running. But it’s not, the marathon is a fun goal that I am doing as a hobby. It is important but right now work has to come first.

It is a challenge we face with many clients. How do you fit everything in that you want to do? Often you can’t so it is about making choices and compromises that will give you the best overall results long term. It may mean changing your goals or accepting that you can’t have it all. Other clients tell us that exercising and getting fitter is the most important thing in their lives but they can’t fit it in. Well, if it is truly the most important thing than you can take other things out of your life to make time, but usually what they actually mean is it is important to them after making money, family commitments and socializing. That is fine, just be honest with yourself about it.

I have had to be honest with myself this week and I have questioned my decisions all the time. But I know that if I focus on work a little more right now I can look forward to reduced stress and running more in the future.

Lovin’ Runnin’ - Corina's Marathon Blog

Back into the heavy training. My week started with being super busy at work so I didn’t manage to get my Monday run it until Wednesday. That being an 11 mile run, further than I have run in several months, meant I was nervous about it until Wednesday as well. Once I did get going though it all went good. I ran strong and most importantly I enjoyed myself. To catch up on my missed runs I added another 6 miles plus strides in on Thursday. My legs felt tired but they still functioned. The strides actually felt great to do. I have a habit of my legs turning to lead and just shuffling along. In the past strides have helped me a great deal get a bit of spring in my step. It was good to be doing them again, stretching my legs out more and feel like I was gliding.

One thing that I reached for this week were my compression socks. I have the discussions often with clients whether compression works and whether it should be worn during or after training. My answer to that is that it is a completely individual choice. Personally I love wearing my compression socks after training to help my recovery. I don’t feel they give me any advantage during training so I don’t wear them. Other people feel differently and prefer to wear them during training. The best advice is to try compression at different times and see what helps you the most.

I like using socks the most as I get most of my aches from running in the calves. Again, try out different garments to see which ones work best for you. Within the different brands by personal preference is for Zoot. Their garments are made on a circular loom meaning that the compressive force is even distributed around your body and not concentrated over the seams where it doesn’t do you much good. The other company that manufactures their garments this way is CompressSport, they are just now reaching the US, I have some of their clothing and I love those too.

Keep running :-)

Recovery week, and not a moment too soon - Corina's Marathon Blog

This last week has been my recovery week, and I needed it. Every 4th week during my training schedule I take a week where I cut my mileage down to half. This allows my body to recover whilst I still maintain my fitness. It means I can train harder the other 3 weeks but still recover well, so I make progress faster and prevent burnout and injuries (except for when I bump into furniture…)

The end of last week was the end of my 3rd week of hard training. I had been feeling OK but the accumulated training hit me hard all of a sudden. The day before I had done a 10 miles run on tired legs, followed by a 1.5 mile swim and then 6 hours at the Junior League Summer Style Soiree held in Fluxx nightclub in downtown San Diego. I was “helping” Alan and Ken with the photography, which mostly involved standing around and guarding their equipment, but it felt hard work doing it in heels! 

The following morning I was exhausted. My whole body hurt and I had huge bags under my eyes. That lunchtime we did a short photoshoot to give us some tennis images to use on our advertising. I was dressed in tennis clothes with a strappy top and swinging a tennis racquet. I haven’t played tennis in 25 years so it was just as well I only need to pose with the racquet and not hit anything. The shoot went fine but that afternoon my shoulders started itching under my t-shirt. I checked them in the mirror and found I had the most humungous sunburn! By the following morning I didn’t want to put my running bra on it was so sore. I spent memorial day weekend hiding inside wearing any off-the-shoulder clothing I could find and applying aloe-vera several times a day. So much for an uneventful training week. I missed a few runs whilst my skin healed. My first run back during the recovery week was a 6 mile easy run and I was so well rested I felt like I had some rockets strapped to me! 

I have just written my training program for the next 4 week block, 3 hard weeks and a recovery week. It looks a little scary right now. Best get in some more resting...

If it is on you, then it is in you!

The type of massage cream/wax/oil we use is very important.

Over the years Corina and I have used all sorts of creams, oils, rubs, potions, liniments and waxes. Some were sweet smelling, some horrible, some warming, some cooling, some slippery and some sticky. The cream, wax or oil that we apply to the skin to increase lubrication is known as a massage medium, it can be solid like a massage powder, liquid like an oil or in-between such as a cream or wax. After a day of massage we often found that we could be sweating out the massage medium for a couple of days.

Aromatherapy is based around the fact that we absorb chemicals through our skin. This is the same principle that allows a topical analgesic to work. Neither Corina or I are aromatherapists, but we do acknowledge that what is in the massage medium we use can have a profound effect on the client.

One time a client asked me to perform his massage with a well known over the counter ‘pain relieving gel’… the gel took the skin off the ends of my fingers after about half an hour… The next time he asked me to use the gel I told him that I would only do it wearing gloves. We got the same benefit with my usual massage wax without any of the nasty side-effects of the gel.

At The Wolf Studio we use Tui Wax, and we have used it for the last six or seven years. This is an organic bees wax from New Zealand, that is lightly scented using essential oils. It is a little more expensive than other products but is an excellent natural product that naturally moisturizes and gives excellent grip for massage. We have Tui Wax to sell in the studio, rose and sports wax, the cost is only $30 for a 100g tub.

If you know an aromatherapist in the San Diego area who may be interested in renting some space in our studio get them to give us a call, we would love to offer this service to our clients.

I was born with the Clumsy gene - Corina's Marathon Blog

I seem to have a talent for finding ways of avoiding training at the beginning of the week. Last week it was the rain, this week I brought out my inner clumsy. On Sunday, my day off from training, I was wandering around out apartment and gently bumped into some furniture. I’m not sure what happened but I must have caught the corner just right and went down clutching my knee. 

By the following morning a deep bruise had developed at the top of my kneecap, it hurt to bend my leg and it was even sore having the weight of my trousers push on the bruise. Luckily I have a great therapist close at hand and he happily obliged when I asked him to tape up my knee, giving him the puppy dog eyes.

I’ve had tape on before when I have walked into objects and hurt myself. It is truly miraculous. The pain reduced immediately, I was able to bend my leg better and I could no longer feel the injury during normal activity. By the following day it had healed up enough for me to try a run, after carefully selecting an outfit that would complement the tape. Amazingly the tape gave it enough support that I could complete my 7 miles without problems (well, without problems to my knee, I did manage to get a sunburn…). 

I managed to catch up my missed run the rest of the week and completed my longest run so far, 10 miles.

Next week is recovery week where I cut back on my mileage and allow my body to recover. Hopefully I’ll be able to get through at least one week without any drama.

Corina

A Year in Review

It is a year since Corina and I boarded that plane which took us from the UK to the USA, so it seemed appropriate to write a blog post reviewing the year.

If we thought that getting the Visa to come into the USA was hard (and it was unbelievably hard) we were ill prepared for how hard things would be once we got here…

In the UK our business had grown organically over 10 years, we were accepted as experts in our field and we had an established base of wealthy influential clients. All of this gone could we survive? We thought so, but we were also aware that most businesses fail within the first year.

It took far longer to get the studio up and running than we thought. We made some poor choices, we took some bad advice and some people put their hands in our naive pockets… But we have ended up with a beautiful professional studio and most of our sanity...

Personally I have found my passion since arriving in the USA. Before I came over I was struggling to find my niche. Now I train every day with my sword, attending Iai class twice a week, I am an associate photographer (!) with KWD Photo, I have just taken up golf and signed up for a swimming event that will take me under the Golden Gate Bridge. Music has always been important to me and since coming over I have seen my favorite band Motley Crue, I have seen Ozzy Osbourne, Aerosmith and Sammy Hagar, what is not to love about the USA?

I now attend networking events in order to build our business. I call clients, Facebook, write blogs, newsletters anything to drive business towards us. This is all new and way outside of my comfort zone! I started the year as a personal trainer and massage therapist, I am now an exercise consultant and a business owner.

Now I love Starbucks coffee, I savor a good cup of Darjeeling, and I miss lamb. I have found out that I love the NFL and the UFC, and I have been surprised to find that some Americans actually have a sense of humor!

Americans love our accents. Many think that English, Scottish and Welsh are interchangeable titles… And for some reason Americans think that the Scottish and the Irish don’t get along, whereas in reality we are united by a loathing of the English!

We have been amazed at the generosity of some people we have met, and disappointed by others we thought were friends. Corina and I have made friends we know we will keep for life.

Overall this past year we have been on a roller-coaster, we have had more low points than high points. Corina and I have both shed far too many tears and lost far too much sleep worrying about the business and about money. If I had any hair left it would be grey for sure!

At the end of our first year we are still here, we know that in order for our business to be successful we will have to continue to go through growing pains, and we know that it will be all worth it.

We both love our adopted home, we gave up so much to be here, and we have found it hard. A year on there is nowhere else I would rather be.

Alan

Did Lance Armstrong take performance enhancing drugs and does it matter?

In the recent 60minutes TV show various riders, most prominently featured Tyler Hamilton, said that they saw Lance Armstrong taking banned performance enhancing products including the blood booster EPO and the steroid testosterone. 

I have a poster in the studio celebrating Lance Armstrong’s 7 Tour de France victories. Should I take it down? Should I take it down if Lance is convicted of defrauding the cycling community by taking banned substances?

Lance Armstrong has never tested positive (?). He was dominant in an era or cycling where doping was endemic, systematic and effective. Lance Armstrong has never tested positive.

Lance Armstrong came back from testicular cancer that nearly killed him, this is not in question. Lance Armstrong is the greatest cyclist of his generation, this is not in question. All of his competitors have been busted for taking performance enhancing products. Nearly all the cyclists that he had to beat to win his 7 victories in France have tested positive. He won when everyone else was dirty, if he was dirty did this just level the playing field?

Regardless of what Lance did or did not take, he is the face of modern road cycling. Lance Armstrong promoted the sport of road cycling beyond what anyone has ever done or will ever do. His story is that of true survivorship.

Does it matter? Yes, because it does tarnish his reputation. This however does not diminish his achievements in surviving cancer, winning those Tour victories, popularizing cycling, inspiring millions and setting up his charitable foundation.

Lance Armstrong is the greatest endurance athlete of his generation and maybe ever. He has inspired millions of people, helped millions of cancer sufferers an survivors, he co-wrote the greatest sports biography ever “It’s not about the bike.”, he is a true legend.

I will not take be taking down my Lance Armstrong poster.

Alan