As I write this there will be many of you putting your (tired? sore? hopefully not blistered!) feet up and congratulating yourself on completing the first half marathon of the year. For some of you this was your first half marathon ever! Congratulations to all of you. We enjoyed perfect conditions for the 10th anniversary of Burlington’s Chilly Half Marathon and once again we saw an astounding increase in the number of walkers participating – almost 200!!! Yes, we are becoming a force to be recognized. Thankfully the organizers of the Chilly Half have been pioneers in Ontario. This was one of the first events to have an early start for walkers and to support us with a walking division and express instructions for people at the walking start to walk –that means one foot on the ground at all times. Medals are awarded to top three walkers female and male. Check out everyone’s fantastic results on the results page of our website.

Best wishes to those of you training for the spring events. We know we’ll have WoW Power Walkers at Around the Bay Road Race, Tough Ass Half Marathon, New York City MORE Marathon, Big Sur International Marathon and Power Walk, Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, Cleveland Marathon, Mississauga and Ottawa Marathons. GO!

Classes, Classes, Classes! Throughout the winter we’ve been training hard in Oakville, Port Credit, and High Park. As coaches, we continue to be thrilled with the incredible challenges people set and achieve. The spring will see our expansion to Burlington, Newmarket, and North Toronto. In Oakville, we will be introducing a new course called WOW! Fitness Walking for anyBODY. This course is designed for people that have been a long time out of a regular exercise program. It will be taught by Karin-Lynn Cumming. Read, and be inspired, by Karin-Lynn’s success story on our website.

Don’t forget Lee’s WoW Workshop on April 15. Come out for 2 hours of fun and education. We’ll cover strength training and stability exercises that will improve your walking form by balancing and strengthening your stabilizing and propulsive muscles. Get lots of ideas that you can use at home (or maybe even at work!). This will be two hours of energy and transformation. Click here to see the classes we have coming up!

Walk, Talk and Eat : : Get a workout on your choppers as well as your legs! Yes, the ever popular Coffee and Muffin Walk is scheduled for April 2 in High Park. We’ll meet at the Park near the Grenadier Park Café. Look for us set up at a table. Or, sniff out our muffins. Time: 7am. Routes: 5k, 8k, 14k, and 26k. Look on our website closer to the date for directions

Do you have the latest in WoW fashion? Check out our periwinkle CoolMax™ shirts with our famous WoW Pocket…big enough for cell phone and WoW hankie! Check our website for pricing and ordering.

WoW Tip :: Strengthen opposing muscles

Some of the easiest muscles to neglect during training are those found on our inner thigh. These include the sartorius, gracilis, and the adductors. When our training walks get long, the stabilizers on the outside of the leg get stressed. This is why many walkers (and runners) experience trouble with the iliotibial tract (IT band). By strengthening muscles of the inner thigh, we can recruit that strength to help in the stabilizing action. The exercise shown below will not only strengthen the inner thigh, it will stretch the muscles of the outer thigh including the tensor fascia latae that leads into the IT band.

Using resistance tubing, attach one end to a very heavy object or a banister of a stair case. Turn with your right side and leg to the banister. Hook that ankle through the resistance tubing. Keep your hand for stability on the banister. Stand tall. Inhale. As you exhale pull the leg hooked in the band across the front of your body as far as it will go. Use a band with a suitable resistance that you can cross the leg in front and to the left of your body. Inhale to return to starting position. Continue until fatigue, somewhere between 8 and 12 repetitions. Repeat with the opposite leg.

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