On her most recent 5k training run, Kadie threw down a time of 25:38. Not only was this a personal best time, Kadie was also taken aback by the fact she posted this time on a run that she felt she was running at a really easy, almost leisurely pace.

As you’ll discover in the video below, Kadie is finding she’s able to maintain a 5 min/km pace with relative ease now. The great news is that come race day when the adrenaline and the competitive juices start flowing, she’ll be capable of going even faster!

Suffice to say, her training at LIVE360° is starting to pay off with a significant increase in exercise capacity!

Let’s all wish Kadie well as she plunges into her final 2 1/2 weeks of preparation: the road ahead may be steep… but that’s why she’s been training hills!

Since then, Kadie has been hard at work training her butt off. Much of Kadie’s focus at LIVE360° involves adding a number of our pretty challenging conditioning classes to her already solid aerobic running routine.

By incorporating these more intense conditioning classes, we’re pushing Kadie to better tolerate the onset of metabolic acidosis and fight through fatigue. By training this way, we expect to see Kadie throw down a much better performance as she’ll be better able to tolerate running at near maximal aerobic capacity for much longer in her upcoming race!

In this week’s update, Kadie goes through one of LIVE360°’s kettlebell classes and discovers, much like Conan, what it’s like to push through her boundaries!

The worst thing I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that. – Arnold Schwartzenneger

A self-professed Arnold Schwartzenegger junkie, London, Ontario’s Kadie Ward is a woman who lives every day of her life according to the principle: go big or go home.

And much like her bodybuilding-champion-turned-movie-star-turned-Governor-of-California idol, Kadie really chafes at the idea of being told she can’t do something.

This past spring, Kadie decided it was time to knock another item off her bucket list: competing at the Arnold Sports Festival. Only she didn’t just set the goal of competing, she decided her goal was going to be to finish in the top 5% of the Arnold Sports Festival 5k taking place March 4th, 2012.

Only one small problem: Kadie hates running and had zero experience with racing or preparing for a running race of any kind!

But like anyone who dares to dream big, Kadie didn’t let that small detail stop her.

So over the course of the summer, Kadie diligently set about working herself into running shape with the help of a few experienced running friends. And by the time her first 5k race rolled around in August, Kadie went out and threw down the blistering time of: 40:32… a time that would have seen her finish 405th out of 434 runners in the 2011 Arnold 5k race.

Needless to say, not exactly the kind of result that would predict huge success in her quest to finish in the top 5% of a race merely a few months later.

In fact, at this point most of us would have packed up our bags and called it a day. And who would have blamed us for quitting? Cutting a 5k run time in half in only 6 months… highly doubtful!

But Kadie didn’t quit. If anything, this result simply drove her to redouble her training efforts and continue chipping away at her goal.

In the months that have followed that first race, Kadie has managed to shave over 13 minutes off her time and is now consistently running her 5k’s in around 27 minutes.

Although dropping her time by 13 minutes is a huge achievement in such a short period of time, Kadie still wants more. And recently, she’s realizing that her progress has plateaued… which has led to her enlisting the help of the training staff at LIVE360°.

Over the next 5 weeks, Kadie will be adding some of LIVE360°’s toughest, most effective conditioning classes to her training regimen.  By incorporating just the right amount of anaerobic work to her already impressive cardiovascular base, Kadie is hoping to be able to power through those last few gruelling minutes and crush her previous personal best.

We’ll be journalling Kadie’s progress over the next few weeks so do continue to check back regularly. Kadie’s road to the Arnold’s will be tough, but with her dedication and the training expertise of the LIVE360° team, there’s no telling what Kadie will be able to accomplish!

Although we were blown away by the progress made by a number of our participants (we had participants drop over 10 lbs of fat in 8 lbs, others gained up to 7 lbs of lean mass and still others dropped > 5% body fat during the challenge), Greg’s transformation was jaw-dropping.

In only 8-weeks time, Greg lost 17 lbs of fat while gaining 8 lbs of lean mass! As you can see in his pictures below, the change is remarkable! [Sad face and all]

Old Greg… New Greg!

To hear Greg tell it:

I had tried the large gyms in town and could never motivate myself to get the results I wanted. I reached a point where I realized that I could not do any meaningful physical changes on my own. Since those days my son was born and I wanted to be able to keep up with him. Live 360 helped motivate me to work out in a way that was more effective than doing it on my own. On top of that, the nutritional information that I was given helped me navigate through the conflicting information that there is out there on how one should diet. Over the eight weeks I lost 17 pounds of body fat and gained 8 pounds of lean muscle – results that I owe to the helpful and knowledgable staff at Live 360.

We couldn’t be more proud of Greg and all the rest of our inspiring 360° of Transformation participants. The time and effort these individuals put into realizing their goals was truly remarkable and serves as an awesome reminder of what each one of us can potentially achieve!

And a reminder to all those inspired by a transformation like Greg’s, there is still time to join  the January 2012 group. Enroll the next time you are in the club at the front desk or sign up online here:360° of Transformation.

The fact that these individuals took a chance, stepped out of their comfort zone and decided to change course (we’ve posted some of the most compelling stories on our Facebook Fanpage), totally inspired us and we figured: why not do the same thing ourselves?

So we asked ourselves what we valued most about LIVE360° and developed a new website that we feel will allow us to better showcase all the awesome features LIVE360° offers!

We’re hoping to make this new website more interactive than the previous one, with an easier to navigate blog, tons of great videos and maybe even a few special surprises! Of course, we encourage each and everyone of you to comment/like/share anything we post that strikes your fancy.

But that’s not the only thing that we’ll be transforming: we also have updated our schedules (which you can download on the schedule page) with new classes and a few new faces as well.

The third and possibly most exciting aspects of our transformation is that our building will be undergoing some remodelling!

That’s right, over the next couple of days we’ll be opening up the fitness and personal training studios, which we think is going to infuse the space with a delightful energy and really brighten up the room.

As you can tell, we’re pretty excited with all the changes we’re bringing you and we’re looking forward to a stellar 2012!