Author: Sam

This weekend is race weekend. The Achilles St Patrick’s Day 5k. Admittedly it’s not the first race of the year, but it is my first race of the year. I love racing. I love challenging myself and pushing myself to my limits, and I get very excited about race season. And yet, I sit here wondering about tomorrow morning: it’s going to be -18 degrees and if the last few days are anything to go by, pretty damn windy too. I find myself wondering how fast I’ll be in those conditions, doubting my ability to meet my own high expectations of myself, and not wanting to let my team down. read more

This important news update is brought to you by Sam and his stir fry (makes a change to the usual blogging ice cream). Today was one of the rainiest workouts in living memory and Toronto crushed the PR Day workout. I love workouts like today, where it’s that much harder than usual to get out of bed and out the door. For those who do make it out, I hope that feeling of beating the weather makes the workout that much more rewarding for you all. read more

Wisconsin Notes:

• Wednesday was another tough workout, that involved a little more running than usual. But still plenty of burpees. We were planning to call it the Sixer (6 minutes, in the 6ix), but then we decided that it weas better with a seven minute time limit so now we don’t have a name.
• Important announcements that you should actually read at the bottom of this post.
• Pseudo-inspiring words in the middle of this post that you should also actually read.

Sometimes you have this Bounce that you’ve been waiting to do for a couple of weeks that even though you took it straight from an advertising poster for a coffee shop, you think the underlying message is excellent, but then you start shouting and suddenly what you’re trying to shout just ties your tongue in knots. I’m going to say that it happens to the best of us, but I’m not 100% sure that that is true. I’ve led this Bounce before and that didn’t happen. read more

Wisconsin Notes:

• 90% of the photos I took yesterday are blurred. I’m going to upload them anyway.
• We gave the gift of burpees yesterday and it was awesome.
• Winter has come. Read more for details.

After a few false starts winter is finally here, and I don’t think that that is all bad. Winter is when we decide who we want to be. When we have the chance to forge ourselves anew. It’s easy to roll over and go back to sleep in the mornings: getting up and getting out takes determination and grit. Making that decision to say “no, I’m going to do this” even when it’s cold and dark and you’re cocooned in blankets like a human burrito takes stubbornness and courage. You have to be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and test your limits. You have to want that workout, those hugs, that big FUCK YEAH and that connection to this community more than you want to stay in bed. Layering up and defying the darkness, facing winter down, takes a special kind of madness. read more

Have you ever had a friend verbal for a November Project workout (promise you that they would be there to workout and have fun with you)? Have you ever been crazy excited to see that person, and then cruelly let down when they failed to show up? Sadly, this happened to Kelly this week. So we did the obvious thing and let her write an open letter to her absent friend. read more

I don’t know about you guys, but I had so much fun this morning! I love these workouts where everyone is moving around interacting with each other, meeting new people, making some noise and really challenging themselves. And let’s face it, anything involving Rock, Paper, Scissors is going to be good. Someone did 150 high knees out there – they are going to feel those when they try to walk up stairs tomorrow! The looks of confusion followed by realisation and appreciation on Michelle’s face when she was first hugged out of the blue was priceless. The ‘Hug Michelle’ card got plenty of use and prompted a seemingly constant game of Marco Polo. read more

We talk a lot about being accountable to each other. That’s the whole idea behind #verbals: telling someone that you’ll be there, committing to them that you’ll wake up and be there to workout with them. This is one of the biggest benefits of working out with a friend: they keep you honest. But after a couple of weeks of missing some of my own workouts because I’ve just rolled over and gone back to sleep when my alarm has gone off, I wanted to talk (read: ramble) about being accountable to yourself too. read more