I am sure you are all a little sore in places you are not used to.

Think of it this way. Everyday we use our arms to pick things up and our legs to sit down and stand up and walk etc, but it is not until we do some vigorous exercise that we start to feel those muscles.

This is the same thing. We all do a fair bit of running, so why so sore in the feet, calves, hammy, hip flexors?

Because we did something different. We made all of those muscles in our feet switch on. They usually get to do a fair bit of sleeping in our shoes. Your calves are sore because you stayed off your heels which put a lot more pressure on your calves. Having said that, you shouldn’t be too sure in the calves and if you are, you probably were on your toes too much. Remember, your heels should lightly brush the ground.

The perfect example of this is when I was away on holidays recently running on the sand, I looked back and thought I was hitting the ground too much with my heels because there were light heel prints in the sand, so I decided to run “normally” for a few strides and when I looked back, the hole my heel made was massive, so that light heel touch on the ground is ok.

Now onto running shoes, I do recommend you get some 5 fingers so you can really feel the ground when you run. this really helps to get the feel for running correctly and lightly, but I don’t recommend them for any long runs for quite a while. Can you feel how your muscles in your feet and calves are waking up? Well, we want to wake them up gradually so you don’t end up with foot or achilles problems.

My process has been this;
Nike Free 5’s for running anywhere any time. I have used them in every adventure race since my “pose” course
Nike Free 3’s to wear at all other times I would wear training shoes, so that my feet could get used to as little support as possible.
After a couple of months 5 fingers worn for a few hours a day in place of trainers. Once again so my feet could get used to having no support whilst exercising.
After another couple of months, 5 fingers for some very short runs. Big focus on technique.
Now I wear INOV8 f-lite 230’s most of the time or 5 fingers the rest of the time.
I have no problem at all running in my Nike Free 3’s or my INOV8’s and they are both some of the most minimalist running shoes around. They give next to no support.
I will still wear my Nike Free 5’s in the adventure races because they have a little bit more sole for all the bumps out there in the bush.
My next pair of shoes will be the INOV8 f-lite 195’s which have even less support.

Hope this helps, take your time, don’t just jumps straight into the thinnest shoe possible, but I do encourage you to work on your running style and ditch the runners we all pad our feet up with.
But, having said that, if you are not going to change your running style, by doing lots of research on pose running and practice until you have it pretty well down pat, then stick with your heavy running shoes that can help to protect you or you will do yourself an injury from all the heavy heel strikes.

Remember, “Pose, Fall, Pull”

or

Eyes up, shoulders back, hips forward, lean from the ankles, pull your heel up under you, don’t lift your leg out in front, 80+ strides per minute, pull your foot off the ground don’t push your foot into the ground

or simplified even further,

Eyes up, hips forward, pull the foot off the ground. Done!

I thought we could kick things off with a day of Paintball action.

Finn has secured us some admission tickets to one of Sydney’s newest Paintball fields at Appin for only $8 per person!!!!! This includes our equipment hire and lunch. Bargain!

We have to purchase an initial amount of paintballs for $25 and then we can buy any additional paintballs in bulk and split them between us.

So, who’s in? It would be ideal to have 20 people because we have 20 tickets.

Date: Saturday 15th January

Time: 9am start

Location: Appin

Website: www.ipgau.com.au

RSVP: 31st Dec 2010

I would love to see everyone there for a fun filled day of action paintball, so please RSVP ASAP so we can book it in. Remember who will be going, so if you are freaking out about getting shot, I can assure you it won’t be that bad, it is more of a fun social get together.

Thanks everyone:)

The annual Outdoor Group Training Christmas breakfast is going to be on Christmas Eve this year.

Christmas Eve will be out last training day for the year, so what better day to have our celebration!

We will have a tough 30 min workout at 6am and then have a 30ish minute breakfast afterwards.

If you would like to bring something, let me know and we can all discuss it so that we don’t double up on things.

The Evening Christmas Celebration is still up in the air at the moment, with suggestions of casual drinks at The Centennial Hotel, or dinner at Lebanon and beyond or dinner at Grotta Capri. I would love your feedback and also what day would work best for you.

I am thinking a Thursday night works best as a lot of you have things on regularly on Friday’s. So please let me know what works best, December 9th, 16th or 23rd.

Thanks guys, looking forward to the catch up and seeing what you all look like out of exercise gear!!!

The workout on the day was only 12 mins, to prove to people who had never experienced CrossFit before  how hard you can actually work in 12 mins.

My point was proved by the reactions immediately after the workout and 24 hours after the workout too. Everyone was smashed after the workout, but I caught up with a  few people 24 hours later and they were in agony. Hannah included, even though she does a hard workout 5 days per week. It all comes down to how hard you push yourself in any given workout!

The days of boring old 1on1 gym sessions are over, they are no match for the intensity you can experience with CrossFit and the motivation you get by training with a group.

I’ve posted a few photos below, but all the rest can be found by clicking here

As the only representative of the Fitta Bodies Crew, Nelius took on the tough bloke challenge.

5km’s of extreme trail running mixed in with obstacles like crawling through underground pipes filled with muddy water, a mud pit covered in barbed wire,  climbing over hundreds of old tyres, scaling over army nets etc etc etc

Not only did he take it on, he came 10th overall out of over 600 people in a time of 36 mins!!!!!

What a legend!

He said it was much tougher than he had expected and he had a blast although he was a no show at training today, something about sore legs or something soft like that…

From what he told me, it was the up and down hills in the bush that got him along with the extra 3 – 4 kg’s you are carrying when you come out of the mud pit to finish the run.

A very special thanks has to go to Darrin Penola who made the trip down there to be Nelius’s only support crew and to take with him some warm soup and bread for after the event. Darrin took loads of photos as well so you can all get a feel for the action. Thanks mate!

Here’s a few photos and all the rest are up here on our Facebook page. You don’t have to be a member of Facebook to view the photos.

To view all of the photos from the day, click here to go through to our facebook page. You don’t have to be on facebook to view the Fitta Bodies page, it is just viewed like any other webpage, you just won’t be able to interact, only view.

It was awesome fun! I want one of those courses in my backyard!

Over and under logs, climbing nets, climbing logs, crawling through muddy pipes, crawling through water undernets, monkey bars, flying foxes, climbing through tyres, over balance beams, they had the lot!

I have to admit it was a bit blokey when you have to get down in the mud, but everything else would be heaps of fun for both male and female.

I will organise another one in June, so let me  know if you are keen to give it a go. Click here to register interest.

Kirsty, Kelly and Christie will be forming a team and being joined by one of Kirsty’s friends to make up the 4.
They will be doing training walks on weekends leading up to the event in August, so if anyone is keen to join them, it would be a great way to get some more exercise into your week, you can enjoy the beautiful bushland around Sydney and help keep the girls motivated. Let me know if you would like to join them and I will hook you up.

But, let’s not forget this is a charity event and trust me, it is worth every penny you donate. Walking 100km’s through the bush is no mean feat, I did it in 2008 and I can vouch for how hard it is!

So, below is the blurb from Kirsty and Oxfam:

Hey all,

I am taking part in Oxfam TRAILWALKER Sydney 2010.

Thanks J

Thanks to everyone who turned up last night, we had a great time.

It was awesome to see everyone out of their sweaty exercise gear. You all scrub up nicely!

My apologies to everyone who left before the camera came out ;(

I think I am still digesting the lamb that was on that pizza. I think 3 sheep gave their lives for that meal.

Don’t forget, we’ll still have the traditional Christmas breakfast on the 23rd.